I’d already received Ronna Bloom’s book A Possible Trust when she messaged me to say hey, do you want to do a book exchange? I’ve read, I think, all of Ronna’s poetry already, and this is a selected with an intro by Phil Hall whose work I also love. Her work is what I have down as an “insta-buy.” I don’t need to know anything about it; I know I need it. And I was not wrong about this book either, because it’s such a gift to have so many all-time favourite poems in one place. Banger after banger. This is the book, I can tell already, that I’m going to press into the hands of others the most often in the coming year.

Ronna lives in Toronto, and for a minute I was excited because I’m launching my book in Toronto at the end of the month. As luck would have it, she won’t be there then, but that’s okay, because as I wrote to her, I know that we’re fated to someday meet. I mean, c’mon, Ronna and Shawna….it’s gotta happen! Bloom and Lemay! Amiright??

For now though, we meet through words, and I really think we’re in conversation, especially with our two current books. If you like mine, I would recommend Bloom’s book.

The book of poems is, as I said, titled A Possible Trust, and trust me, this is a necessary book, a balm, and a useful thing. I wrote about Cloudy with a Fire in the Basement in this post (which coincidentally also talks about Hall’s book) in 2016, which makes me feel like I’ve been blogging for a very long while…!

Some lines:

“If you carry a frame, everything’s a picture.
And outside the frame, more picture.
Outside the more, more.”

“The more dead I’m close to, the aliver I get.”

“Use these poems as breaks in meetings that become tense /
and threaten. Use them to alter /
the wind in the room…”

“A friend says she thinks we’re not wired
for this much intimacy, for knowing so much
about so many lives…”

What clinched the idea that Bloom’s book and mine are in conversation is her poem “The Job of an Apple” which begins:

“The job of an apple is to be hard,
to be soft, to be crisp, to be red,
yellow and green. The job of an apple is to be pie,
to be given to the teacher, to be rotten.
The job of an apple is to be bad
and good, to be peeled, cored, cut,
bitten and bruised. The job
of an apple is to pose for painters….”

So that is a little taste of what A Possible Trust has in store for you! And it’s lovely to have our apples talking to each other. I was also delighted by Phil Hall’s intro to the book. What a lovely way to talk about poetry so that the reader also feels part of the conversation, and can take joy in his admiration, well-deserved! I want more of that in my life. More, more! (Which reminds me also of the beloved AKR).

A friend of mine on FB recently joked about how Canadian writers and artists must feel as though they’re in a witness protection program, since everyone is always trying to keep their identity a secret. Ronna Bloom is someone whose work you should know, if you don’t already. She’s amazing! These poems are useful and will make your life better. If she lived in the states she’d be a household name, at least among the writers!

Enjoy and spread the word. :)