On Not Losing My Father’s Ashes in the Flood

The great Alberta flood of 2013 slides through Richard Harrison’s latest collection, its rising waters pulling his books of poetry off their shelves, washing the ink from letters kept in boxes in the basement and threatening to carry off his father’s ashes. On these waters float Harrison’s mourning for his father, who suffered a form of dementia later in life but never forgot the poems he’d memorized as a young man. Alongside these, the waters also carry Harrison’s love of comic books, his struggles with haiku and his willingness to stay in the game, to “try again.” Combining elements of memoir, elegy, lyrical essay and personal correspondence, On Not Losing My Father’s Ashes in the Flood is a generous and enchanting book, one that leaves you, like the poet, thinking about the way “characters in a novel can escape anything / except their story.”

Contributors

Richard Harrison

Richard Harrison’s eight books include the Governor General’s Award–finalist Big Breath of a Wish, and Hero of the Play, the first book of poetry launched at the Hockey Hall of Fame. He teaches English and Creative Writing at Calgary’s Mount Royal University, a position he took up after being the Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at the University of Calgary in 1995. His work has been published, broadcast and displayed around the world, and his poems have been translated into French, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic. In On Not Losing My Father’s Ashes in the Flood, Richard reflects on his father’s death, the Alberta Flood and what poetry offers a life lived around it.

Chapter Title Contents Contributors Pages Year Price

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On Not Losing My Father’s Ashes in the Flood – A Poem in the Arms of Tyrannosaurus Rex – Gone – This Son of York – The World Made New – Slinky – Now is … 19 $1.90

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When: A Love Poem – Jack Kirby – Superman – Apostrophe – Archive – Small as God – Just So Story – Propaganda – Just Who Do You Fuckers Think You … 20 $2.00

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Cell Phone – Spoken Word – Confessional Poem – Greatness – With the Dying of the Light – Ode to a Temporary Urn – The Creative Writing Teacher Writes to his … 24 $2.40

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Skype – This Poem is Alive Because it is Unfinished – A Poem is a Story that Sometimes Happens to Someone – Birthday Card – Prayer – The Wonderful Life – … 12 $1.20