Michael V. Smith’s lyric memoir, Soundtrack (Book*hug, 212 pages, $25), is composed of narrative poems about coming of age as a gay man in the shadow of AIDS. The collection is structured around memories evoked by specific albums from the late 1970s to the early 2000s.

Throughout these poems, Smith reaches through the pretence imposed on working-class gay men into a grief and revelry and a fundamental insistence on presence: “Without need/ to restrain themselves (…)//we open// a current of kinetic memory at the edge of our bodies.”

The last poem, (hidden track: 29/09/24), marks a shift in tone and technique. Here, Smith engages with the philosophical underpinnings of memoir — the question of what it means to write publicly about lives that are ongoing and that will change or end between the time the poem is describing, the time the poem is written and the time the book is published.

Writing about the past is “forming a future/ dilemma,” which seems only more poignant when one of the subjects is dying: “I do not want/ this printed lyric/ to claim Kim/ is dying// after he has.”

National Poetry Month may not kick off until April, but there’s lots to chew on in the meantime when it comes to poetry-related news.

The Griffin Poetry Prize revealed the 10-book long list for the $130,000 award on March 25, with Canadian scribes shut out from the group of finalists.

The prize, which originated in Canada, is the most lucrative single award for poets. In past years there were two $65,000 awards handed out annually — one for a Canadian book of poetry, and another for an international volume. The two were combined in 2023.

Among the poets longlisted for this year’s prize are Marissa Davis (End of Empire), Ange Mlinko (Foxglovewise), Kevin Young (Night Watch) and Emily Wilson (Burnt Mountain). The five-book short list will be revealed April 22 and the winner announced on June 3. For a complete list of longlisted poets see griffinpoetryprize.com/finalists.

A young boy learns about the world as he travels with his mother on the subway in My Subway Runs (Groundwood, 32 pages, hardcover, $22), a story poem for children ages 3-6 set in author James Gladstone’s home city of Toronto.

The boy sees every kind of person, including the sleeper in the corner who no one seems to look at or goes near. The speedy trains blow the passengers’ hair, the wheels screech sharply.

Back home, he feels comforted knowing that “Below the afternoon road, I know my/subway is still running.” Award winner Pierre Pratt’s illustrations capture a child’s perspective of the motion, the crowding and the humour of the underground world.

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