Riffs

By Dennis Lee

Deluxe redesign of an aching solo situated at the mid-point of a long, melodious career.

On the occasion of the press's 40th anniversary, Brick Books is proud to present the third of six new editions of classic books from our back catalogue. This edition of Riffs features a new introduction by the poet Paul Vermeersch, a reprint of an extended interview with Dennis Lee about the book, and a new cover and design by the renowned typographer Robert Bringhurst.

Riffs is a story of a passionate love affair, told in vintage Lee style—with whoops, deep chords, and headlong improvisational arcs. We hear Bach, Bo Diddley, Bird; the news is heartache and being. Celebratory, claustrophobic, the poem tracks ways in which eros and our lives are made mutually accountable.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brick Books
• Release date: Apr 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781771313742

Dennis Lee

DENNIS LEE is Toronto’s first Poet Laureate, an Officer of the Order of Canada and the author of timeless children’s collections such as Alligator Pie, Garbage Delight, Jelly Belly, Bubblegum Delicious and The Ice Cream Store. He has received many honours for his body of work, including the Vicky Metcalf Award for Children’s Literature. He is also an acclaimed writer of poetry for adults. His work is anthologized and read around the world.

Book preview

"Cool cat, hot Riffs. . . It’s the jazzy song of a word-lover. . . It’s a slim, accessible paperback whose jazzy cover is like the opening blast of the syncopated, reckless, apparently impulsive writing within."

— Globe and Mail

"Lee’s driving energy and faultless craft make Riffs an unusually easy book of poems to read. And while it sometimes indulges in pure headlong excitement at the expense of deeper emotion, it also swirls into little eddies of complex, original beauty. Its climax is deeply moving, with its reverberant image of dolphins arcing over a silver sea."

— Maclean’s

"The poems in Riffs are honest, passionate and full of insight. Their masterful rhythms and melodies re-establish Lee as one of the country’s great poets."

— Montreal Gazette

. . . Impossible to put down. Lee has a way of making language seem inevitable. . . Whether the emotional moment swoops or falls, we are taken along for the ride in an entirely convincing, captivating way. . . one of the finest poets in the English language.

— Quill and Quire

"Lee resurrects the music of Dylan Thomas, the wordplay of e.e. cummings, the zany delight of his own Alligator Pie."

— Ottawa Citizen

Poet Dennis Lee may add love-junkie beatnik of distinction to his long list of credentials.

— NOW Magazine

RIFFS

BOOKS BY DENNIS LEE

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POETRY & PROSE

Kingdom of Absence · 1967

Civil Elegies · 1968

Civil Elegies and Other Poems · 1972, 2012

The Death of Harold Ladoo · 1976

Savage Fields · 1977

The Gods · 1979

• Riffs · 1993

Nightwatch: New and Selected Poems · 1996

Body Music · 1998

Un · 2003

Yesno · 2007

The Bard of the Universe · 2007

Testament · 2012

ANTHOLOGIES

An Anthology of Verse (with Roberta Charlesworth) · 1964, 1989

The Second Century Anthology of Verse (with Roberta Charlesworth) · 1967

The University Game · (with Howard Adelman) 1968

T. O. Now: The Young Toronto Poets · 1968

The New Canadian Poets, 1970–1985 · 1985

FOR CHILDREN

Wiggle to the Laundromat · 1970

Alligator Pie · 1974

Nicholas Knock and Other People · 1974

Garbage Delight · 1977

The Ordinary Bath · 1979

Jelly Belly · 1983

Lizzy’s Lion · 1984

The Difficulty of Living on Other Planets · 1987

The Ice Cream Store · 1991

Ping and Pong · 1994

Dinosaur Dinner · 1997

Bubblegum Delicious · 2000

The Cat and the Wizard · 2001

SoCool · 2004

Alligator Stew · 2005

Melvis and Elvis · 2015

Dennis Lee

Riffs

with an afterword by the author

and a new introduction by

Paul Vermeersch

BRICK BOOKS

Copyright © Dennis Lee, 1993, 1996, 2015

Brick Books Classics first edition, 2015

ISBN 978-1-77131-374-2

We acknowledge the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for their support of our publishing program.

BRICK BOOKS

431 Boler Road, Box 20081

London, Ontario N6K 4G6

www.brickbooks.ca

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Lee, Dennis, 1939– , author

Riffs / Dennis Lee ; with an afterword by the author and a new introduction by Paul Vermeersch. – Brick Books Classics first edition, 2015.

(Brick Books classics ; 3)

Poems.

First published: c1993.

ISBN 978-1-77131-374-2 (epub)

I. Vermeersch, Paul, writer of introduction II. Title. III. Series: Brick Books classics ; 3

PS8523.E3R5 2015                C811’.54                C2014-905754-7

for Susan, my wife

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION: That Funny Ping,

by Paul Vermeersch

Riffs

AFTERWORD: The Luminous Tumult

A Note on the Text

Biographical Note

THAT FUNNY PING

AN INTRODUCTION TO DENNIS LEE’S RIFFS

When we have the opportunity to look back on the career of a remarkable writer like Dennis Lee, we might take note of the trajectory that his work has taken, and through this scrutiny