Whitney Morgan’s Review for The Coast

Writing the Common: Being An Anthology of Poetry Commemorating the 250th
Anniversary Of the Halifax Common
Published by Gaspereau Press

This spring the Friends of Halifax Common released a collection of all-new poetry inspired by and in tribute to the 250th anniversary of Halifax’s iconic green space(s). With a detailed introduction of “the common” as a concept born in 11th-centruy Britain through to the modern, local iteration, the collection speaks to its “enclosed poets” ability to “share a common of the mind.”
Here the Common is both muse and misused, the site of rhododendrons in defiance of urban sprawl….but at its very core this book is a collective ode: 31 reasons why the Common should continue to be enjoyed by future generations, be they poets, pets or pedestrians.  With contributions from well-loved potes as situated in our landscape as the space itself…Sue Goyette, George Elliot Clarke, Tanya Davis…as well as local historians, artists, and naturalists, Writing the Common is a tribute to the wild green heart of our city.
Contributors include: Joanne Bealy, Miriam Breslow, Lois R. Brison-Brown, George Elliott Clarke, Tanya Davis, Joan Dawson, Brigid Garvey, Corinne Gilroy, Sue Goyette, Bill Hanrahan, David Huebert, Joanne Jefferson, Pauline Kaill, Justin Kawaja, Anne Lévesque, George MacDonald, Jean MacKaracher-Watson, Heather L. MacLeod, Michael McFetridge, Kenna Creer Manos, Maryann Martin, Robin Metcalfe, Anne Moynihan, Michelle Paon, Jaywant Patil, Tamara Rasmussen, Karen Raynard, Wanda Robson, Vincent Tinguely, Helen M. Vaughan, and Matthew Walsh.

96 pp / $21.95