Wellwater by Karen Solie | Poems Rethabile Likes
“Wellwater,” by Karen Solie
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"The poems of Wellwater come from the whole of an adventurously lived life. They hold the two sentiments 'The world is a beautiful place / The world is a terrible place', in perfect equipoise. They offer no happy endings, no salvation in past or future, in epiphany or private happiness. And yet they are anything but grim, with an ironic humour that plays over our increasingly euphemism-hungry culture."
— Michael Hofmann
Here is how “Wellwater” opens:
I didn’t know what I had,
drove the watertruck underage to the well
in a swimsuit, anointed with baby oil
to encourage a uniform exposure,
a mild burn atop the tank as it filled
in that burgeoning era of means
to an end.
Solie’s Wellwater reflects on environmental change, memory, and the natural world through the lens of a life shaped in Saskatchewan. The collection also co-won the Forward Prize for Best Collection. As Michael Hofmann, chair of the judges, observed: “The poems come from the whole of an adventurously lived life. They offer no happy endings, no salvation in past or future — and yet they are anything but grim.”
— Rethabile
Karen Solie reading “Wellwater”
In this video, Karen Solie reads from her poem “Wellwater.” She begins with the lines quoted above, her voice precise and strict, reflecting the Canadian landscape and the ecological concerns at the heart of the collection. The reading continues with the poet's characteristic clarity and wit.
Video source: YouTube, T. S. Eliot Prize reading. Duration approximately 2 minutes.
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