Pulse
Description
Rajinderpal S. Pal's first, acclaimed collection, pappaji wrote poetry in a language i cannot read, was an exploration, a search not only for a place in the world, but for a sense of one's self.
Pulse is a collection of love poems, about the sharing of stories and the sharing of that discovered self. Pal writes about those moments in our lives that we cling to, then draw from as "we strive for fabric and texture" in our lives. With echoes of Ondaatje and Wah, Pal's magical, ringing voice sings intimate. These are sensual poems, explorations of "the pulse in fingertips," and Pulse, the book, is a mature, sophisticated collection of poetry from one of Canada's truest writers.
Awards
- Short-listed, Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry 2003
- Short-listed, Alberta Book Award 2003
- Short-listed, W.O. Mitchell Book Prize 2003
Reviews
The excellence in this book is how it deftly operates between the personal and the national, between how people live their day-to-day lives in the systems in which they live them.
- Calgary Herald
-Calgary Herald
Both subtle and explicit in its narrative arc, Pulse captures the longing for acceptance and forgiveness of the contemporary body.
- Georgia Straight
-Georgia Straight
. . . will make you feel the sum of life in a heartbeat. . .
- Filling Station
-Filling Station
[Pal achieves a] richly layered text. . . as he threads the motif through the various byways of memory, remembrance, filial, ancestral, spiritual and carnal love. . . I loved it!
- Richard Stevenson
-Richard Stevenson, League of Canadian Poets website
Pal's poems speak of reverence for those things the narrator knows he has distance from . . . his strengths come from the tensions just below the surface.
- The Globe & Mail
-The Globe & Mail
There is an enviably wide range of sentiment, form and mode on display in this accomplished collection.
- Vue Weekly
-Vue Weekly
. . . Yet, Pal is, with Shani Mootoo, a voice that will establish a dominant presence in English-Canadian letters.
- Chronicle Herald
-The Chronicle Herald