Active Pass

Jane Munro’s fifth collection of poetry, Active Pass, explores connections among the visual arts, yogic discipline, and self-regeneration. The book opens with a suite of ghazals arising from the conflicts in mid-life, moves into poems about Mary Pratt’s paintings, and closes with a reflective sequence called “Nearer Prayer than Story.” A long poem in the third section won the 2007 Bliss Carman Award.​

“spellbinding … haunting … thoughtful, evocative … arresting images … Zen-like spirituality …”

“These are midlife poems, pensive reflections on loss and having to let go of places and people. They contemplate short-lived happiness and lingering sorrow. Yet they are threaded through with a calm energy and resolve, not regret and resignation. The reader feels buoyed up rather than weighed down.”
— Barbara Carey, Toronto Star (read the full review here)

“The first-place poem, “Master your hands and your feet, your words and your thoughts,” is full of elegant shifts, both physical and spiritual, stretching into new imaginative territory with great aplomb. An ambitious, yet playful poem. One that came into being in order to see if whimsy and daring could strike the same poses as the body elastic. A poem that tied me up in rather lovely knots.”
— Barry Dempster, judge of 2007 Bliss Carman Award competition