I became a better poet when I surrendered to beauty. - Bruce Rice
The Trouble With Beauty
Given all we have done to the lands that we live in, is it still possible to write honestly about Beauty? Written in repeated travels along Seven Bridges Road just west of Regina and in the landscape around Eastend and the Cypress Hills in southwestern Saskatchewan, these poems seek the beauty in these places on their own terms, without imposing the ego of the poet. Distinguished by its long unhurried lines and its vivid descriptions of the Saskatchewan landscape, The Trouble with Beauty is an absorbing and moving collection of poetry about the contemporary hunger for transcendence or, what the poet calls “the mysteries/God didn’t plan for.” The Trouble With Beauty received the Saskatchewan Book Award for Poetry.
Life in the Canopy
The "canopy" in the title refers to the tree-lined streets of Bruce Rice's Regina neighbourhood but through his piercing specificity we learn more about "place" in a new century. Rice's poems speak eloquently of our connection to the natural world, including the forests and landscapes we have created within our cities. With a voice that speaks unflinchingly of its sources, Life in the Canopy is an exploration of the history and bones of a modest city in the center of the continent. With a profound authority and honesty Rice examines how we live with each other and how the place we live in shapes our lives. What is a city? Is it more than its public realm; the trees, parks and lake, railways and neighbourhoods? Is it more than the slow unrolling of human experience and event? Here are insightful, moving poems that take on difficult questions. With 12 stunning colour photographs by Cherie Westmoreland, Canopy was shortlisted for Saskatchewan Book of the Year.
Dorothy McMoogle With Kumquat and Bugle
A children's story in rhyme by Bruce Rice and illustrated by Wendy Winter. In SPG Book Reviews, Jessica Bickford says, “This book is written in a fun, lilting rhyme that just begs to be read aloud; Bruce Rice has certainly caught upon what kids and their grown-ups like most from a story time book. Dorothy McMoogle plays with language in a way that will not only help young readers learn to deal with some more complex sounds, but will make it a joy for their grown-ups to read to them. It’s not just the story, but the illustrations by Wendy Winter that make Dorothy McMoogle such a delightful little romp. There are so many playful details in the illustrations that you’re likely to take as long looking at them as you do reading the words on each page.”
