Poetry

While feminist writers may have transformed the thinking on women’s traditional role in domesticity, Tracy Hamon’s poetry arcs into its own territory, forged through a street-smart savvy and a composed grace. This Is Not Eden is imbued with a hunger for natural landscape and an instinctual grasp of reality that allow Hamon’s distinctive voice to belie her first book status.

“Tracy Hamon’s voice is so distinctive, lyrical and seductive, it’s hard to believe this is her first collection. These fluid musical poems are full of lush sounds and memorable images. Who else would compare the noise of a plow clearing snow from a parking lot in the middle of night to that of ardour, as the ‘tongue of a machine/presses it way/down the flat asphalt belly/licking a clear path?’ Whether in the bedroom or in the garden, passion and desire fuel Hamon’s imagination. Her poems explore the domestic and the wild — they are, by turns, playful, serious and provocative. Like the best of gifts, they stun us with their generous, unexpected pleasures.” — Judith Krause