“In Christine Smart’s finely wrought poems, one has the sense of an Intelligence that sifts the world for its gold: she interweaves the precision and splendour of the natural world with acutely perceived narratives which range from the personal to the global. It strikes me that this is the real vocation of the poet– to provide a context and a means of reconciliation for every sorrow and every shiver of beauty.” Marilyn Bowering
“Sensual and dynamic, The White Crow immerses us in the joyful art of building. “We found/ a mountain, called in the drillers and blasters,/ the high-speed tools, dynamite and black mats/ . . . such weight to keep the rocks from flying,” the poet writes. Energetic and meditative, by turns, Smart’s poems also document our uneasy truce with the wild: the cougar spotted at the compost heap or the buck outside the window at night—“twelve inches from my face.” Ultimately, the collection conveys the spiritual necessity of building—homes, poems, and memories—despite inevitable loss. Read this book for its bravery and its beauty.” Marlene Goldman
