Woods | Pages

Jay Millar

The remaining leaves rustle. Who are you, ask the owls. And you reply: where are you? Shadows of branches cast along the ground; you turn another page. You’re in the woods. In these pages. Taking a deep breath, the sound of your lungs exhaling is similar to the sound made by the leaves. “Perhaps these woods are tied to / a book of letters invisible / to the naked enjambment of our / lives…”

Woods | Pages, Jay MillAr’s new collection, furthers his exploration of the natural world, which those familiar with his work will recall from Mycological Studies (Coach House, 2002) and False Maps and Other Creatures (Nightwood, 2005). But what can words do that the leaf can’t, that the tree’s crackle can’t? Here, on these pages, is a fine and meditative stoicism.

 

For a closer look at this book, please visit
Jason's portfolio website.

 

Jay MillAr

Jay MillAr is a Toronto poet, editor, publisher, and virtual bookseller. He is the author of False Maps for Other Creatures (2005), Mycological Studies (2002), and The Ghosts of Jay MillAr (2000). His most recent collection is the small blue (2007). In 2006 he published Double Helix, a collaborative "novel" written with Stephen Cain. Millar is the shadowy figure behind BookThug, an independent publishing house dedicated to interesting and innovative work by well-known and emerging writers, as well as Apollinaire's Bookshoppe, a virtual bookstore that specializes in the books that no one wants to buy. A long-time fixture of the Toronto writing and publishing scene, Jay has participated in such diverse projects as the UNBC/Via Rail Poetry Train, The Scream in High Park, Test Readings Series and Influency: A Poetry Salon. He is also the co-editor (with Mark Truscott) of BafterC, a small magazine of contemporary writing. Currently Jay teaches creative writing at George Brown College.
   

^back to top