Wavelengths of Your Song

Eleonore Schönmaier

• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Year: 2013
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9780773588172
• Subtopic: Canadian Poetry
• Index: Literature

At night we swim / following the fence: / diverted / we enter the net / shaped like a heart / and in the heart the hook / guides us to the back A stunning unfolding of memory, Wavelengths of Your Song juxtaposes a childhood in the northern Canadian wilderness with the adventures of an international creative life. Genuine environmentalism is at the heart of this collection. Migrations of birds and humans lend their songs to the vivid writing and a tangible, sensory reality emerges from their sounds. Music by Beethoven and Rzewski, paintings by Norval Morrisseau and Kandinsky, and writing by Kafka and Celan, inspire Eleonore Schönmaier's poetry. She takes the reader on unexpected journeys skiing across frozen lakes, cycling along Dutch canals, or hiking in Malta and New Zealand. With surprising, at times breathtaking connections, she illuminates hot air ballooning, canoe camping, planting trees on Vienna rooftops, and the bathing of a black horse in the North Sea. In poems that travel extensively around the globe, in lists for living well, and in love letters, Eleonore Schönmaier takes the reader on a journey along the wavelengths of the ocean, sound, and the physics of light.

Table of contents

• COVER
• THE HUGH MACLENNAN POETRY SERIES
• COPYRIGHT
• DEDICATION
• CONTENTS
• NIGHT AFTER NIGHT SHE DREAMS
• SURVIVAL
• LOST
• –40ºC
• LIBRETTO
• WAVELENGTHS OF YOUR SONG
• DINING ON LIGHT
• ROUTES FOR FINDING COLOURS
• AURORA
• COPPER THUNDERBIRD
• BIRDS
• MALTA
• GNAWING
• TRACKS
• KNOT
• THE DOORBELL
• SIXTEEN
• A WOMAN AT FORTY-NINE SEEKS THE SHORE
• KNOWING
• BEACHCOMBING
• AS IF
• MOUTHS
• PANORAMA
• NORTH AMERICAN BALLADS
• MEN
• GEOLOGY
• GARDENING
• BLINDNESS
• MIGRATIONS
• WE’RE CYCLING
• NEW YEAR’S EVE
• POSTCARDS
• THE DANGERS INHERENT IN TRAVEL
• ISOTOPES
• SOUTH PACIFIC
• KIWI SPOTTING
• JOURNEY
• MUSIC
• THE ABANDONED WAREHOUSE
• THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS
• TANGO
• THE SHIRT
• URBAN
• EVENING
• WHILE READING EVA HOFFMAN’S ILLUMINATIONS
• CREMATORIUM
• THE PEAR TREE
• THE GRANDPARENTS’ HOUSE
• MARY
• TOO MUCH GOODNESS
• MANDEL
• SEEDS
• LORNA TALKS TO JACOB AT THE RIVER’S EDGE
• SAXIFRAGA
• THE MEANING OF
• THEBES
• WEIGHTLESS
• ANNIVERSARY
• ORIGAMI
• WHAT GETS BLOWN IN
• KANDINSKY
• THE SANDBOX
• KAFKA
• UNKNOWN TONGUES
• SYMPHONY IN E MAJOR
• UNDERTONES
• METRONOME
• FELT
• BATHING OF THE BLACK HORSE
• LEAF
• WHAT DOES THE WIND TASTE LIKE WHEN IT COMES TOO EARLY OR TOO LATE?
• APPLES
• UPSIDE-DOWN DANTE
• SWASH MARKS
• SILVER ANNIVERSARY
• SUSTAIN
• THANKSGIVING
• SOLAR PLEXUS
• FEVER
• WILD
• GLOBE
• SOMETIMES
• EINSTEIN
• TIME
• OF JUMPING FROGS
• MAREILE
• STUFF
• VANCOUVER
• DOLLHOUSED
• THE CITY FOREST
• TELEPATHY
• REMEMBERING THE CURVE OF THE EARTH
• SAFETY
• FRANKFURT, OCTOBER
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• NOTES