salt/ /water
william t marshe
About the Author
william marshe is an Island son of Cape Breton, on Canada’s east coast. He spent his early years immersed in a vibrant culture of artists, writers, singers and thespians, where he wrote, directed, acted in and designed many productions. Like many of the youth of the economically challenged area of Sydney, he left his home as a young adult to seek gainful employment elsewhere and now resides in Toronto, Ontario, working as a millwork designer for luxury homes, locally and around the globe. He continues to write when every moment presents itself. salt/ /water is william’s first collection of poetry. His work has appeared online and in the journal ETC. as well as in the collection The Medium is The Muse [Channeling Marshall McLuhan] published by NeoPoiesis Press.
“In this, his first published collection, Cape Breton native William Marshe gives us poems that could be a read as the map of an internal landscape. Frequently rooted in nature, Marshe’s verse explores the complexity of love and the inevitability of loss. It is, at turns, sensual, startling, melancholic, funny and chilling as he searches for that which is greater than the Known. Throughout this collection he is, as he writes in Bridal Path, ‘coaxing a dream from beneath the bed’. In that he succeeds, wholly. This is a beautiful book of poetry.”
—Ed Macdonald, author of Spat the Dummy and Atomic Storybook
ISBN 978-0-9903565-1-6
178 pages
$16.95
5.5" x 8.5" perfect bound, paper
Excerpt
cabot head, georgian bay
this landscape was crafted
for painters and photographers,
but to me, the passionate lover,
strolling the smooth stones
at the edge of the deep, clear water
of georgian bay,
lacking the savory smell
of beached urchins and weeds;
of angel hair tumbling in cresting waves;
it is a two dimensional facsimile.
it is the touch of a heartless lover,
looking away
at the exact moment
you start believing
movement can become
meaning.
Reviews
“William Marshe’s salt//water will not only resonate for the "island born", his insights into modern life and love will speak to all lovers of excellent verse. Full of insight of how landscape is internal as well as external, how the swings in a children's park can conjure the forlornness all of us have felt, Marshe is completely in tune with our times. Sensitive to every turn of the tide, bravely facing every storm, quietly etching the world around us in eloquently precise phrases, salt//water is an ambitious debut and a beautiful read.”
—Ken Chisholm, Arts columnist for the Cape Breton Post and whatsgoinon.ca Founding Storyteller in Residence for The Cape Breton Regional Library