We Have Seasonal Bodies – The Poetry of Gerry Shikatani

From Toronto based-writer Gerry Shikatani, who has worked across the textual, visual, and aural domains, from performance to experimental film, comes We Have Seasonal Bodies: The Poetry of Gerry Shikatani. Selected and introduced by poet and scholar Eric Schmaltz, this volume brings together poetry and visual texts from across Shikatani’s multifaceted and dynamic oeuvre and concludes with a compelling dialogue between Shikatani and poet and critic Deanna Fong.
Schmaltz has drawn selections from across Shikatani’s career, including some of his earliest ephemeral works from the early 1970s with the little-known publisher missing link press. Some of these poems are reproduced in this collection for the very first time since their original publication date. This volume also includes standalone lyrical and formally experimental poems from Shikatani’s first full-length books, along with excerpts from his signature serial travel poems, a form he notably explored in Aqueduct-a 400-plus-page book of long-form poetry documenting his travels across Europe, particularly France and Spain.
We Have Seasonal Bodies is not a definitive selection; rather, it is a long-overdue reintroduction to Shikatani’s poetry-his standalone poems and excerpts from longer projects-presenting the inimitable perspective and adventurous spirit of his writing, which brings extraordinary beauty into this world.