Erin Mouré Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Susan Glickman

SOURCE: "Speaking in Tongues: The Poetry of Erin Mouré," in Essays on Canadian Writing, No. 43, Spring, 1991, pp. 133-43.

Glickman is a Canadian poet, educator, and critic whose works include Henry Moore's Sheep, and Other Poems (1990). In the following essay, she provides an overview of Moure's work.

        To get back to that purity. My friend, hand, voice a stutter at
        the edge of. What is. Real trees with real birds in the branches,
        wet tamarack, the birds' feathers glossed up & beaks singing.
        The throats birds have, throats of thrushes, oh soft spotted brown
        chest repeating bird-ness
 
        Oh name of the bird
 
        Thrush
 
        Do I have you beside me, me who is so small, the seeds I have
        gnawed ache inside of me forever, do I have you beside me, bird.
        Take the cup of wine away from me, so I won't fill it again. Take
        away the telephone number of the friend I am hurting
 
        Grief everywhere, now;...
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