The New Direction of Time | Toronto Wordstage - 14 March 2012
- from The New Direction of Time
[...] The evening ended with readings by Myna Wallin. She read a homage to Layton, a poem which satirized the larger than life quality of the poet by asserting that he ought to be carven into Mount Royale, along with the visages of Cohen and Richler, in a Mount Rushmore style edifice. (Though this has already been accomplished in the hearts of all zealots of Canlit.) She also didn’t pass up the chance to give a poetic treatment of Layton’s prolific love life and lifelong search for matrimonial bliss, a treatment that is well in line with her work “Confessions of A Reluctant Cougar.” It was from the latter book that her other readings came. In theme, like in Varnum’s poetry, Wallin alluded to the influence that social media is having on our relationships. Under the affect of social media, Wallin, like the ancient poet Juvenal, apparently finds it hard not to write satire. Thus the Wordstage audience was treated, in Wallin’s effective, sonorous recitation, to selections from the her acclaimed book that bears comparison to the best satire of Juvenal and the other masters of ancient times who gift of the muse was turned to exposing the absurdity of their social life.
Copyright © Myna Wallin,