“Flaunt your wealth, we/will forcibly reclaim it”
In his new book of poetry, Colin Smith’s droll humour and meticulous control of language are metered out to explore the stakes of pain and the pain of folly. Language plays throughout the text, bringing a blithe tone to dark matters, and evoking fruitful tensions for the reader. Scattered topics of climate change, labour disputes, war, and massive inequities within cities are encountered by a voice that seems to scorn humanity as much as it delights in human language. Permanent Carnival Time is laugh-out-loud language poetry.
"100 years on from the Winnipeg General Strike, and where are we? Same super-rich greed and oppression tactics, same massive poverty, and pandemic illness. Permanent Carnival Time stirs us to see clearly the deluge of claptrap that passes for public discourse in neoliberal capitalism. A superb word-crafter with a sharp ear for rhythm, Smith makes us rage against callous injustices, while we laugh out loud with his urgent, compelling, heartfelt poetry." —Meredith Quartermain, author of Lullabies in the Real World
"Smith’s latest Rabelaisian screed accepts the high stakes of its moment and sets its author to work, painstakingly fact-checking Empire, peeling at the truth-y slough atop a rotting system. Herein the poet names names, spits statistics with sadistic wistfulness, and cackles as he kicks against the pricks. This is writing where anything goes, because everything matters; and like the killer mixtape that Smith’s sequencing slyly implies, reminds us that another word for 'dissonant' is 'bittersweet.'" —Cam Scott, author of ROMANS/SNOWMARE
