{"product_id":"insomnia-bird-kelly-shepherd-9781771871693","title":"Insomnia Bird: Edmonton Poems","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe poems in Kelly Shepherd's \u003ci\u003eInsomniac Bird\u003c\/i\u003e are a cartography and a geography of Edmonton. The poems which shift between short, individual lyric pieces and found text emulate a black-billed magpie's nest with the subject-matter and also physically, with the words and lines. The poems generate the theme of home (the bird's nest, the city), and not feeling at home; sleeping, and the inability to sleep. The magpie (the insomnia bird) is the protagonist and the muse, the thread that connects everything to everything else in this work.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAs such, Shepherd's poems move across the surface at speed, like Edmonton's NAIT train, and dive like magpies after the occasional tasty image or crumb of detail. The city as it spreads out across the Prairies, can do nothing to prevent urban sprawl, and grows taller with each new highrise building and office tower and sinks deeper into the ground, which is memory! \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe city with purple fingers and black feathers\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eis bending branches outside the window.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eIn the photosensitivity of morning, \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe city is an open window that can't hear itself think.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWhile Shepherd's poems are at times critical of Edmonton's automobile culture and urban sprawl, his tone remains ironic rather than moralizing and he is consistent in his use of dark humour to avoid being didactic. With such guidance the poems effectively disclose what is not seen, what is repressed, what lies behind the scenes in the city he shares with magpies.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Kelly Shepherd\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1771871695\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781771871693\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Thistledown Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/01\/2018\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 96\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.45lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.30h x 5.40w x 0.40d","brand":"Kelly Shepherd","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48519337378047,"sku":"9781771871693","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_ea54bddb-625e-4e6c-86d1-a96172a3d557.jpg?v=1778737288","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/insomnia-bird-kelly-shepherd-9781771871693","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}