Fables for Isolated Men

Although his work has appeared in most of Canada's prestigious magazines, Fables for Isloated Men is Barry Dempster's first collection of poems. What in this book seems at first an innocent consideration of the workings of convention and habit turns out to be a superlatively crafted study of what really goes on behind the façade of consciousness. At times language itself must be ripped open so that facts may reveal themselves to be as deep and as meaningful as dreams. Dempster is a psychological poet; he masters the sense of observation and will not content himself with easy answers.