Phantom Limb : Reflections from Far and Near

British Columbia author Harold Rhenisch has written that Theresa Kishkan is one of the richest voices in Canadian writing. She creates vivid pictures of an earth that has been abandoned but is 'waiting to be found and praised.' Kishkan, in this new collection of essays, once again displays the acute eye of a wise observer of nature and people. Her reveries on subjects as seemingly disparate as meteor showers, spawning British Columbia salmon, Irish wells, Pacific coast First Nations folk fables, Utah quilts, and a family paperweight in Nova Scotia freighted with personal significance are infused with deep poetic sensibility. These are meditations that sometimes speak of loss, as in the title piece about the demise and spectral absence of a much-loved dog, but they're also celebrations of the telling spirit that pervades place and time. The locales and personalities of Phantom Limb are invested with a lyrical presence that is so poignant that one practically hears the drip of rain in prehistoric rainforests, feels the frenzy of salmon to renew an ancient cycle of change, and touches memories long gone but somehow still very real.