Bear Pause

Nancy Woods is an Ojibwa native born on the Temagami
Reserve. She has spent most of her life in Toronto and is a
well known resident of Kensington Market. Nancy is a street
poet. No cocktail parties, ivory towers, or English P.H.D.s
here.
Nancy’s poetry is real. It hits in the gut, or in the groin,
depending on the poem. Questions and Joe deal with suicide
and loss of family. Nancy doesn’t pull any punches. She
looks death in the face and confronts it. Several poems are
angry. Generic Food For Thought deals with the topic of
sexual abuse. Residential School deals with another kind of
abuse. Rape of the mind.Subterranean Market expresses the soul of Kensington.
Fruitey Pie High, Travelling and Ode to Allison R areoutrageously funny. Who? Me? is poignant in its honesty.Incident in an Elevator is vintage Nancy. She talkes of love
and sex with an openess and honesty that is disconcerting to
our traditional male egos.
Nancy is an earth mother. Her roots are sweetgrass. This
is her first book. It won’t be her last.

Brian J. Grieveson
Loon Lake, March 12, 1991

cover design based on a painting by Filip Kotarski