Anhaga: Pray for Hardship & Other Poems

At the time of his death in 1992, Jon Furberg was one of the most disciplined and exciting poets writing in Vancouver. Ten years in the making, Anhaga was Furberg's masterly crafted retelling of the Anglo-Saxon poem "The Wanderer." Reading into the old text with courage and imagination, letting individual lines and words resonate and build associations, listening for the cadences of the ancient bards who were the original carriers of the poem, he allows a new work to emerge. The result is a contemporary Wanderer--that lost, doomed, desperate soul who is perhaps the first truly individualized--that is, alienated--figure in English literature. Furberg was a poet of spectacular skill, a poet who could embrace ancient texts and reinvent them with creative vigour while remaining true to their original voice. First published in 1983, this new edition features an introduction by Stephen Osborne, editor-in-chief of Geist magazine. Along with Dorothy Livesay's Governor General's Award winning Day and Night , this book is one of two books of poetry that is being brought back into print to celebrate Vancouver's 125th Birthday. It will be launched and promoted by friends and admirers of Furberg's in a number of events and celebrations on the West Coast. Published by Smoking Lung Press