Air Canada Owls

In this collection of poetry by Glen Sorestad, a once-comfortable world takes on a startling and dreamlike quality when removed from the usual surroundings of home. These are poems about places encountered, from the oil donkeys rocking by the runway in Calgary to the fields of France seen through a train window. They are also about people observed and the nature of travelling. They move from his silent reflections on the nighttime street sweepers of Frankfurt to raucous encounters in the beer halls of Amsterdam, from airport departure lounges to secrets offered en route by anonymous strangers.

In these poems, the foreign world encountered is filtered through the perspective of home. Distances are measured in prairie miles; an Austrian hayfield is felt through the itch of Saskatchewan foxtail. The traveller arrives at unexpected destinations, and home is seen in a new and unfamiliar light upon return.