Human BodiesHuman Bodies collects the poems of the latter half of award-winning poet and novelist Marilyn Bowering’s illustrious career. On the heels of her Governor General nominated Beach Holme title Autobiography, this collection also includes her earlier works Love As It Is, Calling All the World, Anyone Can See I Love You, Grandfather Was A Soldier and forty-five previously unpublished new poems. The first in our Canadian Classics Series, this is the perfect compendium for students of the next wave of Canadian verse.From Anyone Can See I Love You, a gloss on the glamorous yet tragic life of Marilyn Monroe, to the launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik II in Calling All the World and the battles of the Somme and Passchendaele Ridge in Grandfather Was A Soldier, this collection is an astonishing tribute to Bowering’s boundless range. Equal parts cerebral and sensual, Human Bodies is a retrospective not to be missed and a must-have for every Canadian literature curriculum. Autobiography 1997 Governor General’s Award nomination for poetry. 1997 Pat Lowther Award. "Bowering’s free-falling imagination spins through the cosmos... Every line is quotable." — The Georgia Strait "Bowering writes of love with an understanding that it is the driving force interconnecting all humans, and that the empathy we need to understand each other can open a door to that love." — Jay Ruzesky (Event Magazine) "Marilyn Bowering’s new collection, Autobiography, reaches both the intellect and the emotions with earthy, sensuous poems that illuminate the spirit... To read Bowering is to fall into the mystical hands of her words; she never betrays our trust." — Susan Musgrave (The Vancouver Sun) "This [Autobiography] is one of the best books of poetry in our time... Read it again and again." — Harold Rhenisch, The Milestones Review Love As It Is "Bowering’s writing is enough to renew one’s faith in the simple strength and beauty of well-crafted poems, or even that such writing still exists... she writes with the subtle, fluid grace of a true poet, exploring the complexities, frailties and beauty of love and passion." — Rob McLennan (Ottawa X Press) "...a brilliantly kaleidoscopic work of art." — Allan Brown (Quarry Magazine) "...finely wrought and... a powerful argument for love itself." — Sandra Nicholls (Books In Canada) Anyone Can See I Love You "Taken inside Monroe’s sensibility, the reader watches transfixed as Norma Jean, in creating the Monroe legend, also creates transcendent moments of beauty in which love shines out, as if from Eden... Anyone Can See I Love You is a powerful, edgy book which moves continually between white and dark, art and life." — Ronald Hatch, Vancouver Sun "As always, Miss Bowering’s writing is simple, spare, precise... she capture(s) Monroe’s intriguing combination of sinfulness and purity, narcissism and expansiveness." — Terry Johnson, Alberta Report "Bowering remarkably manages to speak with the voice of Marilyn Monroe... Like their subject, these are deceptively simple, evocative poems." — Mark Lowey, Calgary Herald Grandfather Was A Soldier Bowering’s poetic elegy... recalls the old experiences through the memorials and the relics and the modern landscape that now refashion the world of battles seventy years ago. In her portrayal... are blended the living and the dead in a world steeped in the supernatural, so that whoever exists there in bodily form and whoever is already changed utterly are scarcely distinguishable... Bowering(’s) meditation... is asking what humanity’s destiny is and what we are fit for." — Michael Mason, Canadian Literature "This year’s sadly shattered ritual of Remembrance gave us... Canadian writer Marilyn Bowering’s tremendous monologue, Grandfather Was A Soldier—a contemporary woman’s Flanders Field mediation on death, sex, the internal and external holocausts that blight lives—whose surging symphonic structure is dictated and inspired by the quality of the writing." — Joyce McMillan, Glasgow Herald Calling All the World The dream of space, of traveling in space, has fascinated human beings for hundreds, probably thousands, of years. In the late 1950’s, with the launching of the first man-made satellite, the dream suddenly drew within reach. Sputnik I was launched into orbit around the earth on October 4, 1957. This even, in the midst of the cold war between the Soviet Union and its allies, and the Americans and theirs, inspired not just admiration, but terror. If the Soviets had this level of powerful rocketry (enough to launch the satellite) the reasoning went, then surely their ability to attack Western targets with propelled and guided long-range ballistic missiles had been seriously underestimated. I remember standing outside late at night with my parents to watch the satellite cross the sky, with just this mixture of fearful wonder. The world’s second artificial satellite, Sputnik II, was launched on November 3rd, 1957. This time there was a living creature—a dog—Laika—on board; and this time the world watched with different feelings. Laika was an emissary, Laika carried humanity’s complex dream of discovery and adventure, of hope for something better and freedom from the burden of destructive human civilization with her. At the very least, we wanted Laika to make her journey into the unknown, and return. We know that a number of the early space voyagers, animal and human, died—the whole story has yet to be told. Perhaps it wasn’t the right way to pursue the dream—certainly the fear of being left behind in the arms race subverted the more innocent passion for discovery and knowledge. But when Laika traveled in space the passion and innocence were there in full force; and so was the dream. It was this part of the dream—the courage and desire to link what is ‘out there’ with who and what we are—that I wanted to recall. Calling all the world, — Marilyn Bowering
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