Hour

TV poetry

Melora Koepke

David McGimpsey constructs intelligent stanzas out of the idiot box

What is poetry, really, but situational (tragi)comedy? T.S. Eliot knew it - his Prufrock did not dare to eat a peach. Unsurprisingly, Montreal-based writer, professor, musician, stand-up comedian and travel columnist David McGimpsey knows it as well.

Shannon Bramer is a wonderful wordsmith. Her book titled The Refrigerator Memory contains a ditty called Urbain Restaurant -a beautiful poem in a beautiful book that conjures up images of Ezra Pound, Chinese ideograms and a snake who takes care of the mice while sunning himself on the patio stairs. And much like the new saucier she's in love with, who speaks six languages and leaves no fingerprints on the plates, Bramer's poems are pristine, immaculate and roll deliciously off the tongue.