As American poet Anne Waldman usefully asks, ‘And what to make of [poetry]? “Do” with it? “Do” anything? Is it part of the poet's vow to perpetually catch, distill, refine, re-imagine where one walks, what one notices?’ I can't answer for all poets here. As a teacher, however, I can say that yes, it is our vow as instructors to show students how poetry perpetually catches, distills, refines, and re-imagines our selves and our worlds. I agree with Neil Besner, general editor of Wilfrid Laurier Press, that what we ‘do’ with poetry starts with our students. We need to attend more carefully to what poetry we teach as well as how we teach it. I thus applaud the efforts of the Laurier Poetry Series, which, with the hopes of creating and sustaining ‘the larger readership that contemporary Canadian poetry so richly deserves,’ has been publishing ‘useful, engaging, and comprehensive introductions’ to the life's work of major Canadian poets. Each of these volumes includes 35 poems selected and introduced by a critic, followed by an afterword by the poet. The volumes are intended, Besner argues, to make the connections between the life and the work more accessible to a ‘general’ reader (‘Foreword’). Besner's eloquent, timely, and practical arguments remind me of Lyn Hejinian's belief that our poetic revolutions will always be ‘local, particular, and temporary,’ but are nonetheless undiminished. Let us consider what poetry is doing in the world. Let us consider how Laurier's texts differ, as Besner argues in their intent, from the conventional anthology and whether they in fact demonstrate the relevance of poetry to a life. Let us consider, for example, how in the Laurier Poetry Series' most recent collections, Mobility of Light: The Poetry of Nicole Brossard and Fierce Departures: The Poetry of Dionne Brand, we might understand what it means to live. Let us think about how, through poetry, we can re-imagine who we are as well as the world we walk through.

Nicole Brossard published her first collection of poetry in 1965. The national and international influence of her thirty collections of poetry, ten novels, four book-length essays, and numerous theoretical articles has been enormous. Her latest work in translation, Notebook of Roses and Civilization, was shortlisted for the 2008 Griffin Poetry Prize.
|Louise H. Forsyth was the chair of the French department at the University of Western Ontario, dean of Graduate Studies and Research at the University of Saskatchewan, and president of the Canadian Federation of the Humanities and Social Sciences. Her academic specializations are contemporary Quebec women poets and playwrights, and she has recently edited Nicole Brossard: Essays on Her Works and Anthology of Québec Women’s Plays in English Translation, Vol. I (1966—1986) and Vol. II (1987—2003).

Table of Contents for Mobility of Light: The Poetry of Nicole Brossard selected with an introduction by Louis H. Forsyth
Foreword | Neil Besner
Biographical Note
Introduction | Louise H. Forsyth
Aube à la saison / “Season Dawning”
Sur fil de lumière || On strands of light
Mordre en sa chair / “Biting in the Flesh”
La loi du muscle || Muscle’s Law
L’écho bouge beau / “Echo Budges Beautiful”
neutre le monde m’enveloppe neutre || neutral the world envelops me neutral
écoute plutôt paisiblement l’écorce craquer || listen quite peacefully to the crust cracking
Suite logique / “Suite logic”
en ces temps opaques || in those opaque times
entre code et code || between code and code
suspension de lacte || action suspended
Le centre blanc / “The White Centre”
IV. le mot vertige || IV. the word vertigo
V. attentive au silence || V. attentive to the silence
Mécanique jongleuse, suivi de Masculin grammaticale / Daydream Mechanics. Masculine Singular
son désir l’explore || her desire explores her
verte vague sur le ventre sur l’échine || green billows on the belly on the spine
La partie pour le tout / “The Part for the Whole”
je prends la page par le côté incertain || I dive into the page through the uncertain side
L’amèr ou le chapitre effrité / These Our Mothers Or: The Disintegrating Chapter
Le corps des mères enlacées || The bodies of mothers entwined
Amantes / Lovhers
quelque part toujours un énoncé || somewhere always a statement
selon les années de la réalité || according to the years of reality
« la splendeur » dit O. || “the splendour,” said O.
« la science » dit Xa. || “science” says Xa.
MA continent || MY continent
Marginal Way / “Marginal Way”
l’intention la beauté extrême || intention extreme beauty
ce n’est pas familier dans l’ombre || it’s not familiar in shadow
si dans l’ombre je pense à la passion || if in shadow I think of passion
L’aviva / Aviva
l’aviva (l’aviva son visage et les relais) || aviva (aviva a face and the relaying)
l’en suite traduite (l’anima l’image et les effets) || the latest translated (anima image and effects)
l’aviva (car l’aviva, l’attisa lève le voile) || aviva (for the aviva, stirred her lifts the veil)
l’en suite traduite (car voilà que lèvres encore d’elle) || the latest translated (for here that lips still hers)
À tout regard / “If”
Si sismal || If Yes Seismal
Installations / Installations
Réalité || Reality
Langue || Tongue
Installation || Installation
Contemporain || Contemporary
Langues obscures / “Obscure Tongues”
Je m’intéresse à la connaissance || I indulge in knowledge
Je m’intéresse à la connaissance || I indulge in knowledge
La nuit verte du Parc Labyrinthe. Green Night of Labyrinth Park. La noche verde del Parque Laberinto
entre l’histoire bordée de visions || between history framed in visions
Vertige de l’avant-scène / “Downstage Vertigo”
fait de langue tourmente || fact of tongue torments
une fois reproduites dans la langue || once reproduced in language
une façon de se jeter sur le lit || a way of flopping on the bed
Au présent des veines / “Coursing through the Veins”
ce sont toujours les miêmes mots || they are always the same words
La matière heureuse manoeuvre encore, in Auprésent des veines / “Harmonious Matter Is Still Manoeuvring”
aujourd’hui je sais que la structure || today I know that the deepest blue structure
Musée de l’os et de l’eau / Museum of Bone and Water
Théâtre: vitesse d’eau || Theatre. Speed of Water
ce soir si tu rapproches ton visage || tonight if you lean your face close
Le présent n’est pas un livre || The Present Is Not a Book
Le silence de l’hibiscus || The Silence of the Hibiscus
Je m’en vais à Trieste / “I’m Leaving for Trieste”
Wanuskewin || Wanuskewin
Hôtel Clarendon || Hotel Clarendon
Ogunquit || Ogunquit
Cahier de roses et de civilisation. Écritures 2 / Notebook of Roses and Civilization
Suggestions le coeur serré || Suggestions Heavy-Hearted
Soft Link 2 || Soft Link 2
dans le temps facile et bleu || in a time blue and easy
Shadow: Soft et Soif, in Ardeur / Shadow Soft et Soif
tiens-toi bien dans le silence || hold on in silence
Après les mots / “After Words”
Le dos indocile des mots || The Indocile Back of Words
Le dos indocile des mots || The Indocile Back of Words
Postface || Afterword | Nicole Brossard
Acknowledgements