first here and then far

David Zieroth

• Publisher: Harbour Publishing
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9781990776922
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Canadian Poetry
• Index: Literature

BC poet David Zieroth's creative journey, still unfolding after more than fifty years, comes into brilliant focus in this revelatory retrospective.

Gathered with meticulous care and arranged chronologically, this vital collection reflects the unique voice and ever-evolving style of Canadian poet David Zieroth over more than half a century of acclaimed work. From early meditations on his rural Prairie childhood to the moving consideration of family and history in the previously unpublished poem at the book's end, Zieroth allows imagery rooted in daily life to guide him in unexpected directions, revealing moments that illuminate the otherwise hidden confluence of mind and world.

As first here and then far shows, Zieroth's curiosity-charged poems have always possessed a translucent directness. Motion and stillness meet, whether the view is from one of his many international voyages or simply from his North Vancouver balcony, as in the evocatively titled recent book watching for life. And his language has gathered momentum over the years, becoming more streamlined as it sheds convention and takes on a new lyricism.

An essential document of a long and endlessly inventive life in words, first here and then far is a worthy testament to the energy and subtle insight of a poet who remains at the height of his powers.

Table of contents

• half title page
• title page
• copyright
• dedication
• contents
• the hunters of the deer
• Glenella, Manitoba
• 1) 120 miles north of Winnipeg
• 2) detention camp, Brandon, Manitoba
• father
• the mountains have not yet entered
• beautiful woman
• lake
• waiting at evening
• baptism
• the truck that committed suicide
• out walking
• journey: going in / getting out
• when my cows break loose
• 1956: the ambition of the eldest son
• 1956: the old Lutheran pastor
• when the stones fly up
• returning to a town
• the field
• the boat
• the birds stay with him
• born in Europe
• death of the violin
• aphasia
• David Dale
• here on the coast
• father’s work
• my mother’s wail
• a story
• how I joined humanity at last
• the exhausted past
• reasons for living
• the way past words
• the beautiful voice of the undertaker
• the man who invented the turn signal
• the owl
• my first job
• dream
• edge
• method
• what to do
• prayer for a friend
• crows do not have retirement
• the options
• how I came to be
• had I stayed on the farm
• Japanese mallow
• postcard from Italy
• how brave
• how to walk in the dark with flowers
• raised with dogs
• the fly in autumn
• sinking
• someone I know
• poem against the returning angel
• hay day canticle
• train ride
• on the occasion of visiting Auden’s grave
• dislocation
• lovemaking in Vienna
• Albrecht Dürer and me
• self-:zwsp:portrait nude
• in Hallstatt
• a moment of missing bells
• lilacs
• the bridge from day to night
• my father’s talking to me
• Waldersee church
• sleepwalking
• the photographer
• large, brown gelding
• on our walk along the Danube
• I look down into my back lane
• on the dual nature of things, I write
• the skinny man with the stiff leg
• he enters the lane lunging
• at night darkness fills the lane
• at end of day a moment
• how many of us remain unfinished
• some days I hear thoughts
• here comes a face made ugly
• a body falls out of the sky, legs up
• of course the gods have fled the lane
• “funny”
• Prešporák
• Hero and Leander in Bratislava
• zajtra
• lavender sachets
• smutný
• driving country roads in Slovakia
• my Slovak friends
• spa, Piešťany
• Devín castle
• Kamzík
• Slovaks wear their history as a heavy coat
• perhaps my father was right . . .
• acknowledgements
• publications
• about the author