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| Sinners Dance cover Art by Gord Pullar |
Sinners Dance is Canadian Darrell Epps' follow-up book of poetry (to his earlier After Hours -both published by Mosaic Press). His craft is even more honed and his imagery all the more evocative.
The experiences that the poet seems to be drawing upon are from his life in Hamilton, Ontario with its streets, politics and changes. It's like a character in the book along with his lovers and friends.
As I read these collected poems I would often say to myself, "That's a great line!" or "Wow! This connects with me so much!"
I would make that second comment to myself whenever I'd come across Epps' references in his poems that included super-hero comics, crows, work life, and his upbringing in the Church.
On a Twitter DM I enjoyed a convo with Mr. Epp about the universality of writing about one's inner life and experience. He mused:
"...the associations of poems, that comes from me thinking, 'hey do you ever notice it's as easy to think about a fictional character as a real person, to day dream about the past as to plan for the future, if i said, write a book about your day, ulysses style, what would you put in and what would you leave out (how you answer that one is called 'style')? how much of the novel of your day would be filmable 'action' and how much would all be between your ears...?"
Innovative, clever, illustrative and resonant. I'd say Darrell Epp has entered into my "Top Fave" poets list alongside Pablo Neruda, Walt Whitman and Ted Hughes.
My review of Epp's earlier poetry collection After Hours.
A more detailed review of Sinners Dance by poet Bernadette Rule
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