Oldman's River: New and Collected Poems

by Sid Marty

Overview

Sid Mary is a voice to be reckoned with.

Beloved for his intimate, lyrical poetry, Marty’s depiction of selfhood, connection to place and to landscape have proven him a unique and dissenting voice in Canadian literature as well as a consistent presence in the Canadian environmental movement. These are poems, often strongly resonant of western speech, that celebrate all the vicissitudes of rural life, the loves and losses, the valleys and peaks of life on the prairies, foothills and in the mountains of Alberta and British Columbia.

This first-ever collected works, featuring forward written by Kit Dobson and Owen Percy, and interview conducted by Pamela Banting, brings together old and new poems, published and unpublished works, in a celebration of the career and artistry of a Western Canadian icon.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781774390733
Publisher:	NeWest Publishers, Limited
Publication date:	05/15/2023
Pages:	440
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Sid Marty is a poet, author and musician based near the communities of Pincher Creek and the Crowsnest Pass. He is the author of five books of poetry and five nonfiction works. Though best known as a nonfiction author, he began his career as a poet. His first book, Headwaters (1973 ) was published to widespread national acclaim. Over the years, he has continued to publish poems in books, school texts, anthologies and magazines. The culmination of all that dedication to the “crafte so longe to lerne” is this collection of poems both published and new.

These are poems, often strongly resonant of western speech, that celebrate all the vicissitudes of rural life, the loves and losses, the valleys and peaks of life on the prairies, foothills and in the mountains of Alberta and British Columbia.

Read an Excerpt

INTRODUCTION

Owen Percy and Kit Dobson

The goal of this volume is twofold: first, to introduce new readers to the poetry of Sid Marty and, second, to collect disparate, out-of-print, or unavailable poems into a single, accessible volume. If this book succeeds in these labours, then it can be counted a success. If it can go beyond those two points, too, and demonstrate that so-called regional writing - in this case "prairie writing" and "mountain writing" - as practiced by Sid Marty at least, is much more than facile stereotypes about place or landscape - if this book can make the case (which needs to be made on an ongoing basis) in favour of a politically nuanced, thoughtful, and deeply poetic practice of environmental and social stewardship - then it will have matched the hopes of the authors of this introduction.

Reading Group Guide

INTRODUCTION

Owen Percy and Kit Dobson

The goal of this volume is twofold: first, to introduce new readers to the poetry of Sid Marty and, second, to collect disparate, out-of-print, or unavailable poems into a single, accessible volume. If this book succeeds in these labours, then it can be counted a success. If it can go beyond those two points, too, and demonstrate that so-called regional writing – in this case “prairie writing” and “mountain writing” – as practiced by Sid Marty at least, is much more than facile stereotypes about place or landscape – if this book can make the case (which needs to be made on an ongoing basis) in favour of a politically nuanced, thoughtful, and deeply poetic practice of environmental and social stewardship – then it will have matched the hopes of the authors of this introduction.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Sid Marty

“A much wider range of communicable emotion is that of Sid Marty, who may well be our finest lyric poet.”

—M. Travis Lane in “Contemporary Canadian Verse The View From Here”, University of Toronto Quarterly

“Among these mountain men poets, it is Sid Marty, so far — I gather — volumeless, whom I find the most varied and rewarding.” —George Woodcock, “Swarming of Poets”, Canadian Literature: A Quarterly of Criticism and Review

“Sharp and clean as a glacier ridge”

—William French , Globe and Mail

“…intense, beautiful, honest and moving”

—Marty Gervais, Windsor Star

“Marty’s images are plain as the worn haft of a favorite knife but they are attached to a glittering metaphysical blade.

—Stephen Hume, Edmonton Journal

From the Publisher