Books

2011 Available through Harbour Publishing
Considering the vision Lane brought to bear on these poems over five decades—of suffering as a universal determinant, of a pitiless submission to the bedrock of Time and mortality—it amounts to no small miracle that they acquit themselves throughout with such a lucid, generous eye for the unsung and excluded; and such an abiding dignity in their rhythms of blind continuance, cyclic return, and compromised peace. Patrick Lane’s poems walked to the edge of a precipice—in that moment of emergency we might still see the outline of a nation trying to wake up. —Ken Babstock

2008
Patrick Lane’s Red Dog, Red Dog is a tale of blood, loyalty and redemption. The novel centers on Eddy and Tom Stark, two brothers struggling with their hardscrabble inheritance in the Okanagan Valley. Theirs is a fiercely unforgiving world, and, for the reader, an unforgettable one. The strength of Lane’s perfectly cadenced prose may bring to mind Faulkner, Cormac McCarthy and, inevitably, the Bible. There is a deep wisdom in this book and I cannot recommend it highly enough.” —Richard Bachmann, A Different Drummer Books

“An unflinchingly dark and brutal book, the violence and anger matched only by the sublime radiance of the prose. . . . Audacious. . . . While the novel is of a time and place, its significance is universal.” —Victoria Times Colonist

“Superlative, poetic, almost-epic writing, somewhat reminiscent of Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy.” —Edmonton Journal

“Lane is masterful at painting his setting and characters. It’s a Canadian Appalachia, a stagnant backwater peopled with losers, no-hopers, dopers and white trash. And, when the family’s inexorable, unyielding doom descends, they deal with it as they always have, as they must. Lane retains the poet’s lyricism, and packs power and poignancy into his prose. Propelled in a downward spiral from mere madness to hell, Red Dog, Red Dog is a gripping, thrilling journey.” —Hamilton Spectator

“Faulkneresque.” —Toronto Star

2004
In his memoir, Patrick Lane takes readers through his first year of sobriety, expertly weaving memories of his hard early life in the interior of British Columbia with wondrous descriptions of the activity in his garden – his own and the lives of the plants, animals, and insects that also inhabit it. Lane has gardened for as long as he can remember, and the life of his garden has become inseparable from his own. A new bloom on a plant, a skirmish among the birds, the way a tree bends in the wind, and the slow, measured change of seasons, invariably bring to his mind an episode from his past. An observant naturalist, he lives on Vancouver Island, a place of uncommon beauty where the climate is mild, the air is soft, wildlife is still plentiful, and the growing season lasts all year.

“To read this book is to enter a state of enchantment.” —Alice Munro

2010 Available through Harbour Publishing
Witness is the first volume of selected poems covering the breadth of Patrick Lane's career and gathering up the finest of his work – from early poems penned during his literary beginnings to new poems written at the height of his career. Fierce, piercing, and unflinchingly honest, Lane explores the darker side of human nature and desire even as he looks to the future with a hopeful eye, for "even among words/there are bright seeds hidden...."

This striking volume is required reading, not only for fans of Patrick Lane's work, but for poetry lovers and Canadian literature enthusiasts everywhere.

2007 Available through Harbour Publishing
Shortlisted for the 2008 Acorn-Plantos Award for People’s Poetry
Longlisted for the 2007 Victoria Butler Book Prize
Last Water Song, the first collection of new poetry from award-winning poet Patrick Lane since Go Leaving Strange (Harbour, 2004), is divided into two parts. The first part is a series of 16 long elegies on writer acquaintances who have died, including Adele Wiseman, Al Purdy, Earle Birney and Irving Layton. Prosey, relaxed and personal, these are some of the most moving poems Lane has written. The second section consists of 23 lyrics and narratives more typical of Lane’s recent work, ranging from the eloquent "Teaching Poetry" to the evocative title poem with its hint of finality. Last Water Song is the work of a great Canadian poet, a collection to treasure.

2004 Available through Harbour Publishing
You sit watching the hounds go leaving strange,
their nails clicking swift the wooden floor
as they slide like narrow smoke away.

”Haunting, ominous lines draw a bleak yet strikingly brilliant and intriguing picture...” —Winnipeg Free Press

2000 Available through Harbour Publishing
“Bare Plum will continue to please those who have been pleased for years by Lane's attention to detail, especially in nature. His competency as a poet is well-proven. Writing of men, he loosens moments of fluid language, as when a male friend remembers "the knife of night he cut himself with/ years ago when he carved his flesh into his own hands/ for want of love, thinking of all the blood there was/ and taking it." Lane's place in Canadian literature doesn't need to be argued.” —Fall Books

“This collection exemplifies Lane's mastery of the poetic craft and virtuosity with a number of poetic styles ranging from quiet meditations and beatific chants to rambling lyrics. . . If you are already familiar with Lane's writing, this book should be a pleasant surprise; if not, this is a great place to start.”
—Pat Carroll, Winnipeg Free Press

“Lane is a poet more of the individual, hard-hitting poem; like physical blows, he wields his pieces like small threats of intense beauty.” —Globe and Mail

1997 Available through Harbour Publishing
In this 20-year retrospective of Patrick Lane’s work, readers are given a selection that tends toward sentimental morbidity at its most poetic. While he is celebrated for his pioneering work in West Coast poetry circles and for his wanderer's spirit, we get very little of Lane as the multifaceted writing professional. Instead, the book is tightly focused on a way of thinking, returning again and again to poems in which Lane travels ever-darker paths to murky conclusions.

Despite the surface ugliness of Lane's material, the work shows a fierce and assured talent. He digs under his own stories to get at the kind of veracity only an interesting life can uncover. One can't help but see the poet himself in these scenes, observing, participating, suffering. The voice of these lines knows too much of the hidden details of what others might assume is the truth. For instance:

That was the year my wife slept with my best friend. . .
The wreckage of that world stayed wreckage, though
we tried to build it back. The steady years of trying,
her taking the flowers I picked in the fields
and placing them in a jar where we watched them die.

In the end, this is a collection determined by sex and death and the place where the two come together. It is territory Lane has travelled, and it shows.
—John Degen, Quill & Quire

The next books in this gallery have been published outside of Canada.

Available through Arc Publications, UK
“A truly great poet… Lane will deliver warts and all, and you’ll be shocked and delighted at once. You’ll find yourself thinking about issues you’d rather push to the back of your mind.” —John Kinsella

Recipient of the Governor General’s Award and many other major literary prizes, and regarded by fellow writers and critics as “the best poet of his generation”, Patrick Lane is one of Canada’s foremost literary figures. Syllable of Stone is his first book to be published in the UK and contains work from nine of his poetry collections, selected by Arc’s international editor, John Kinsella, who also provides a thoughtful and illuminating introduction to Lane’s work, part of it in the form of a discussion with the poet himself.

Intense, starkly honest, often disturbing, yet also subtle, compassionate, even gentle, Lane’s poems are always political, driven by personal experience – and whether he’s writing about the natural world or the human condition, they make an indelible impression. Patrick Lane’s long-overdue arrival on the British poetry scene is an event to be applauded.

2006 Available through Shambala Publications, USA

In this exquisitely written memoir, poet Patrick Lane describes his raw and tender emergence at age sixty from a lifetime of alcohol and drug addiction. He spent the first year of his sobriety close to home, tending his garden, where he cast his mind back over his life, searching for the memories he'd tried to drown in vodka. Lane has gardened for as long as he can remember, and his garden's life has become inseparable from his own. A new bloom on a plant, a skirmish among the birds, the way a tree bends in the wind, and the slow, measured change of seasons invariably bring to his mind an episode from his eventful past. What the Stones Remember is the emerging chronicle of Lane's attempt to face those memories, as well as his new self—to rediscover his life. In this powerful and beautifully written book, Lane offers readers an unflinching and unsentimental account of coming to one's senses in the presence of nature. (from Shambala)

The cover for Red Dog Red Dog as it appeared in the UK.

“Red Dog, Red Dog reveals itself to be not only a searing portrait of a time and place so often the stuff of cliché but also a noir-ish thriller when Eddy inevitably goes too far. ...a really impressive debut.” —The Metro (UK)

“Lane is talented and five decades as a poet are evident in his prose: rich and evocative, yet always precise.” —The Observer (UK)