NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

An independent small press poetry review

NHI independent review
DENIS ROBILLARD: PRIMAGRAVIDA
Caledon House Press
10435 Caledon Court
Windsor
Ontario N8R 1C7
Canada
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This page last updated: 11th December 2007. 		DENIS ROBILLARD: PRIMAGRAVIDA

Denis Robillard has already produced a number of chapbooks and this one is about a new addition to the family. This chapbook is divided into three parts and the poems are about the birth of a child. The cover merits special mention. The design is simple but very effective. The chapbook is A4 size and the binding could have been a little stronger.

The poems cover love and gratitude, and there are descriptive passages too. The extract below is from POEM FOR AN UNBORN CHILD:
	Your mind, fragiled in jelly bone wrap
	is not yours neither,
	but your mother's,
	a precious gift packaged
	into embryo's long dark liquid journey into ontogeny.

	Months from now,
	I imagine your neophyte hands,
	tiny brittle gifts I yearn to hold for the first time,
	to trace your fine baby pink palm print
	that is poet's pedigree.
Robillard taps into his own emotions and takes us into his world of expectancy. The verses need to be read together rather than as individual pieces. This is because each one is integral to his exploration of new fatherhood, and consequently all I can do is leave you with a little taster, this being from MASTER OF TIME:
	The robin scampers across
	the sprouting green lawn
	my wife spanks the toaster,
	dislodges early morning
	sleeper crumbs —
	slowly house awakes,
	slowing everything down
	towards the beauty of
	G-d's creation —
reviewer: Doreen King.