Lookout Paperback - 2010

The Role of Calcium in Evolution
 
Sweet calcium we found we could live with,
stir into our cells’ hubbub, tinker into
a trellis to carry our fi erce red vine – its
eyeball blossoms, cunt orchids, cock orchids –
we could whittle it into bone stilts and paddles,
hooks, tongs, helmets, mallets, cleavers, awls,
fl utes, rasps, rattles, corsets, folding spokes,
but then, oh god the weight of all these
contraptions! Just throw them out and be
light! While the old hardware clatters
down like Victorian claw-foot settees
settling in scrap heaps – the ear trumpets,
the spurs compressed in archaeological
fi les – we fl oat careless as fruit fl ies
in an armoury, all the weight lifted,
tra-la! But the dark rock candy of history
dissolves in the rain, leaking the diatom’s binary
code, the lobster’s molecular gospel into
the water we drink. Sleepless we pore over
Things You Can Make with Calcium in cellular
Braille. As soon as you throw something away
you need the damn thing! Hinged pincers
down here somewhere under the catapults and
greaves. Tell me how else to deal with the world!

Praise for John Steffler:
"In a profound way, John Steffler's poetry is concerned with cultural identity and memory, and provides a touchstone for Canadians seeking a way to move forward as a nation…. What makes John Steffler's poetry so valuable is that his consideration of the philosophical problems of memory, history and identity speaks directly to key preoccupations in Canadian culture today."
— from Letter of Nomination for the Parliamentary Poet Laureate

"John Steffler is Canada's most sensuously passionate writer. Reading him, we are put in touch with the pure erotic draw which the world exercises upon him. The acuity of his perception, and the size of his heart, make his poems an essential part of our literature."
— Don McKay, Griffin Poetry Prize winner for Strike/Slip

"Steffler paints the wilderness in a language that often 'knocks and hisses and crackles,' but nothing of the poetry here sounds contrived or artificial. [Steffler's work] subtly nudges the reader along, never falling prey to the usual grab-bag of bells and whistles. It is a work that teems with images that are celebratory of life, ones that quietly ring with the music of the land."
— Montreal Gazette

"John Steffler is one of our finest lyric poets in mid-career."
— Ken Babstock, Globe and Mail

"[John Steffler's poems] reveal an unexpected side to the exotic and hidden dimensions of the familiar…. Part keen-eyed naturalist, part exuberant philosopher, Steffler memorializes the terrain of his beloved Newfoundland, in particular, with disarming whimsy and grace. His descriptions are vivid and metaphysically resonant, too."
— Barbara Carey, Toronto Star

John Steffler was the Parliamentary Poet Laureate of Canada from 2006 to 2008. His previous books of poetry include The Grey Islands, That Night We Were Ravenous, winner of the Atlantic Poetry Prize, and Helix: New and Selected Poems, winner of the Newfoundland and Labrador Poetry Prize. Steffler is also the author of the award-winning novel The Afterlife of George Cartwright.