Richard Lemm’s newest collection, Jeopardy, opens with “Profane and Sacred,” poems conjuring myths and journeys: Adam and Even’s Edenic choice; a Jewish surgeon’s pilgrimage to Assisi; the poet’s grandfather leaving the family farm for the Spanish-American war in the Philippines. In “History Lessons,” readers voyage to the British penal colony in Tasmania, explore pre- and post-Revolution experiences in Cairo teaching Egyptian students, and encounter an ancient civilization wrestling with across-currents of modernity and tradition. The poetic gaze turns, in “Skeletal Blues,” to a couple’s struggle with severe anorexia and the quest for healing. In the final section, “The Future Hurtling Toward Us,” Lemm evokes, with humour and urgency, our ecological reality and environmental crises.

Editor Jay Ruzesky writes: “In Jeopardy, Richard Lemm’s poems take readers around the world: from the streets of Charlottetown to the shores of Tasmania and the sands of Egypt. Sometimes introspective and other times outward-looking, Lemm’s poems are painted with humour and insight. No matter where he takes us, he wants readers to reflect on Important themes and to ask themselves what’s at stake.”

To order: contact your local independent bookstore, ISBN 978-1-77366-003-5. Cost is CAN$19.95.

Published by Acorn Press