The Brave Never Write Poetry

By Daniel Jones (Coach House)

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Jones is not for everyone. He is for the rejected, the frustrated, the marginalized, the addicted or for the people who are so smart they’re bored to death. He is a largely forgotten yet essential figure of Canadian poetry and Coach House has done young readers a service by reprinting his one-off book of poetry. Upon initial publication in 1985, this volume received almost entirely negative reviews, yet managed to sell incredibly well, and it has since proved challenging to track down a copy. His poems are brutish and up front: Jones revels in both the vulnerability and the power that comes from being so forward about his addictions, his defections and his disdain for the Canadian literary canon (and often life in general). If you’ve ever been fed up with the artist’s life or thought the popular taste ignorant, Jones will make it all better by making it sound even worse.