Speaking of Power: The Poetry of Di Brandt introduces the reader to
the lyric power and political urgency of the poetry of Di Brandt,
providing an overview of her poetry written during a prolific and
revolutionary twenty-year period.
Beginning with her early poetic inquiries into the dynamics of gender,
religion, and the politics of language, Brandt examines the use and
abuse of power as a cultural issue, emphasizing cross-cultural and
domestic relationships. Particularly engaged with questions of
motherhood, the land, violence and reparation, feminism, and
spirituality, Brandt explores ecopoetics, an ecology of poetry, as a
possible antidote to the cultural despair of the twenty-first century.
Editor Tanis MacDonald's introduction outlines the major movements of
Brandt's work, emphasizing the relationship of language to power and the
value of a dissenting voice in a forceful cultural poetics. An afterword
by Brandt completes the volume.