The Lost Letters by Catherine Greenwood

At the centre of The Lost Letters is a sequence of radically diverse poems based on the story of Heloise and Abelard, truly lovers in a dangerous time, the twelfth century. The raw material is heavy, tension between flesh and spirit being the serious issue carried forward from the twelfth century into the twenty-first. But Greenwood’s deft and delicate handling of scenarios of love requited but balked becomes a perceptive reading — extraordinarily inventive and constantly surprising – of contemporary secular society.

The Lost Letters creates a world of wonder tinged with sadness on behalf of so much that goes unnoticed, whether it’s a bin of severed sows’ ears, a lizard tethered by its tail who severs it by self-amputation, or a down-and-out old schoolmate.

Praise for Catherine Greenwood:

“With discerning wit and a large range of styles and voices, she holds up each subject for contemplation as though it were a pearl. . . .” — Don McKay

“…at her best like Elizabeth Bishop on caffeine.” — Marilyn Bowering

Press Coverage:

The Lost Letters — The Malahat Review

Contraband Dreams: Review of Poetry Collections by Catherine Greenwood, Russell Thornton & David Seymour — Numéro Cinq