COBOURG VARIATIONS by STUART ROSS

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I arrive in the field back of the town hall of Poet Hope, (the secularistas call it Port Hope). I was looking for Stuart Ross. I was downwind and immediately noticed that something didn't smell write. It smelled like one part you're-not-from-these-parts-are-you and nine parts exuberant innocence. It was in that aromatic ambiance that Stuart Ross presented his chapbook, which had that new chapbook smell, COBOURG VARIATIONS.

(Cobourg is my home town. I tell you that so that you know where I'm coming from. Cobourg has a very long and rich poetic history. There are many dead poets all over town that have been forgotten by the prose bags that do all the hard work to make Cobourg feel good. Cobourg is renown for holding its poetry readings in a fabulous faux salon thereby earning a national rep as the better poems and garden set.)

So there is Stuart Ross launching his first writings inspired by his very presence in Cobourg and he does it where? In Poet Hope, which is a comparable town only eight tokes away from Cobourg. This is a very troubling situation, because Stuart wants to continue to live in Cobourg for his foreseeable future.

This information is going to circulate throughout the local literary circles and triangles.

COBOURG VARIATIONS is a frolic. Stuart asserts that there are four dogs for every human in Cobourg. He is correct. Before you get the idea that Cobourg is an open dog pound, you should be aware that Cobourg has the most literate dogs this side of history.

Stuart did a splendid piece called 28 LINES ABOUT COBOURG. It is a treat to see how he arrived in Cobourg and took down its details and recylced them into a place much more wonderful.

The best part of COBOURG VARIATIONS is the price. Stuart delivers a density of imagination that deserves a higher price.