Decoding Dust
B.W. Powe
About the Author
B.W. Powe is a poet, philosopher, storyteller, and essayist. In 1995, B.W. Powe began teaching in the Department of English at York University where he taught first year introduction to literature courses as well as two additional courses entitled Visionary Literature: from Hildegard von Bingen and Dante to Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, and Marshall McLuhan and Northrop Frye: Two Canadian Theorists. In July, 2010, Powe was promoted to Associate Professor of Literature at York and given tenure. Powe was the program director of the Creative Writing Program at York University during the 2013-2014 semester. At York he currently teaches courses on Modernism and Post-Modernism, and divides his time between researching visionary traditions (Visionary Literature: from Dante to Bob Dylan is still offered) and continuing the McLuhan Initiative for the Study of Literacies. On June 7, 2014, B. W. Powe was married to Maria Auxiliadora Sanchez Ledesma in Cordoba, Spain. They currently live in a small town outside of Toronto, and in Córdoba, Spain.
“What’s B.W. Powe: A Poet, an aphorist, a lyric philosopher-historian, a master of the post-modern-essay cybot…? Well, anyway, one of our best writers…”
—A.F. Moritz, poet
ISBN 978-0-9903565-8-5
162 pages
$16.95
5.5" x 8.5" perfect bound, paper
Excerpt
Reader
Come quietly with me
into silent letters again
fellow falling cipher
in the alphabet marking
the shaman calls this page
an image skin
they’ll call it
the dead tree medium
Come quietly with me
to decode the dust
in the speck
of a single word
how we could be breaking
breathing through
Praise for B.W. Powe
"His words seem to emanate fully formed from the cosmos. Ecstatic moments, hair-raising lines."
—The Globe and Mail
“The man is oceanic—in intellectual breadth and interest, spiritual vision and in pure, unshielded feeling. … like a third-eye on fire.”
—Elana Wolff, Celebration of Canadian Poetry, Brick Books
“My god. I am blown away by the bardic power of this poetry. Thank you so much for putting it out into world, which needs it so. …Simply numinous.”
—J.F. Martel, author, essayist, filmmaker
“Evocative of hitherto unsuspected modes of communication and communion…. I hope it receives the notices and reviews it deserves…. A distinctive and stylish accomplishment.”
—John Robert Colombo, author, critic, poet, chronicler of quotations
“The poet sings throughout the book, which is a strange mixture of the elegiac and the celebratory—a cacophony of voices, murmurs, whispers, cries… All of Powe’s books, in prose or in poetry, incarnate being that sings.”
—J.S. Porter, poet, essayist, columnist for Dialogue
“An extraordinary work.”
—Philip Marchand, author, critic, National Post columnist
"[Powe] uncovers dimensions that are so obviously a part of our experiences yet so rarely commented on… Whatever fragments of life or vision we have, we’ve got to hold onto them as what we’ve got… We’ve got to search for what’s left over, what inspiration remains… That’s when we find ourselves ‘decoding dust’… In emotional arches and longings, yearnings… in the language that speaks to the gravity of life… The gravity that the spoils of our contemporary early 21st century existence sometimes allows us to float through effortlessly, carelessly, unremarkably. [Powe’s} work is in defiance of the blahs. I was reached by the sheer imagination and attention to detail in this work. Whatever changes it’s made in me are just beginning. …This is writing for our times.”
—Karl Leschinsky, writer, teacher, film-critic
"Decoding Dust is a marvellous collection. Your expression of love for family, particularly your children and ailing mother, is intensely moving and tender. Auxi's presence is at the jewel centre of your journey into love, and seems to act as counterpoint to the shamanic visioning of Raven, allowing you to explore the sacred in the context of everyday observations. You tell a grand and inspiring story in the ordering of your fragments, prayers, and your tales, and your liberation philosophy. There is so much to savour, to reflect on, the channelling of Georgie Yeats and Rumi and de Chardin perfectly en pointe. This is some of your best writing, so in tune with the time's vibrations and oscillations. A gift. Your words are opening up my heart and reminding me to take that leap into the unknown."
—Marshall Soules, writer, artist, scholar, critic
