Animal Husbandry Today

Composing an arranged marriage of the bestial and humane, this anthology finds a balance between instinct and intellect. The featured poems clarify vision through the funhouse mirror logic is strained, existence contracts and multiplies, connections amputate and then graft in incongruous ways reflecting the human race's own absurd image. From Nancy Reagan promoting crab salad to Paris spilling into the countryside and a hammer seeking understanding through a vase, this assemblage of often disparate elements attempts the ultimate reconciliation that of the mind with the world.An accessible & illuminating debut collection that explores the arranged marriage of the bestial and humane Logic is strained, existence contracts and multiplies, connections amputate then graft in incongruous ways in JamieSharpe’s poems, which, like a funhouse mirror, reflect our own absurd image. Nancy Reagan promotes crab salad (which is to say, her husband); the city of Paris spills into the countryside; a hammer seeks understanding through a vase. An assemblage of often disparate elements, Animal Husbandry Today attempts the ultimate reconciliation: that of the mind with the world. A plane crashes on the border of two countries.Can you wear white to the funeral If you’re a virgin before mayday? — from “Two Trains”   

Jamie Sharpe is the author of Animal Husbandry Today (ECW, 2012) and Cut-up Apologetic. He lives in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.