SCAR/CITY (Hugh MacLennan Poetry Series): Volume 91 - Softcover

Elza, Daniela

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0228023734 ISBN 13: 9780228023739

Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2025

Synopsis

When the trees came down no one knew how / to interpret the light. homeless / it bounces off glass sur*faces */ pierces the wandering eye These poems walk streets and take snapshots of the impact financialization of our homes has on our sense of community and belonging. Meandering through physical and philosophical materials – cement, memory, water, narrative, history, sand, light, concrete, and others’ voices – Daniela Elza documents this urgent moment. The reader winds through fragments amidst urban fragmentation. A sequence of triptych poems harkens to silos, skyscrapers, and streets. Readers here have a choice: they can read across the page or down. She channels Syrian architect Marwa Al-Sabouni, who says “the fabric of our cities is reflected in the fabric of our souls.” SCAR/CITY emerges from the Vancouver context to take on global issues of predatory finance and a market that mines homes for profit. It steps outside of binary conversations in favour of poetic reflection and interrogates a system that results in perceptible depravity and scarcity, which leaves us homeless metaphorically and literally. French philosopher Gaston Bachelard says, “The space we love is unwilling to remain permanently enclosed … Space calls for action, and before action, the imagination is at work.” Amidst negotiations and advocacy in the fight for security of tenure and lease renewal, SCAR/CITY is a poetic call to action.

About this title

About the Author

Daniela Elza is the 2024 recipient of the Colleen Thibaudeau Award for Outstanding Contribution to Poetry. She lives in Vancouver, Canada.

Edition details

• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0228023734
• ISBN 13: 9780228023739
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 152