Holiday Gift Guide: The Collected Poems of Patrick Lane by Patrick Lane

If the person on your list has a particular interest in Canadian poetry, The Collected Poems of Patrick Lane (Harbour) is a handsome and complete collection.

For many years considered by many to be one of his country’s leading poets, Patrick Lane was born in Nelson, British Columbia and currently lives in Victoria. In the time between he has lived many places all over North and South America. And he’s crafted a lot of words. The author of 27 books of poetry, a novel, a short story collection and a memoir. In a career that spans over 50 years, Lane has won every award available to him, including the Governor General’s Award, the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence.

Winter is silence
when ice gathers on crows’ wings
and nothing can be salvaged from dreams.

The Collected Poems of Patrick Lane provides a fantastic overview of Lane’s awe-inspiring body of work and brings together, as the preface tells us, “all the poems that Lane wants to preserve,” some of them revised for this publication. ◊

Monica Stark is a contributing editor to January Magazine. She currently makes her home on a liveaboard boat somewhere in the North Pacific.