by Meg Freer (Published by Wild Dog Press)
Still Life Waiting tells the story of Garnet, Montana through poems as well as through photos, both color and black and white, taken some 25 years apart. This collection is inspired by trips Meg Freer made to Garnet, a former mining town near Missoula, Montana, a ghost town of several decades. The landscape of this remote mountain site provides a backdrop for the story of the town’s journey through boom and bust periods. Each poem, told in different voices, honors the residents who braved the harsh climate and work conditions in pursuit of gold and silver, or one aspect of life in the town.
Meg Freer has published numerous poems, photos, and short prose in North American literary journals and anthologies. She also has two poetry chapbooks: Serve the Sorrowing World with Joy, co-authored with Chantel Lavoie (Woodpecker Lane Press, 2020) and A Man of Integrity, (Alien Buddha Press, 2022).
Reading Still Life Waiting, it was as if I was magically transported back 100-125 years through time and space to Garnet, Montana. I could hear the sounds, smell the wood in the stoves and fireplaces, hear the noise of the miners, the blacksmith’s hammer, the children on the way to the candy store, or school, or home. Freer does beautiful work pulling what she has discovered from printed records, photos, and tales, and then laying that out in a wonderful image-laden, poetic narrative. I can see myself revisiting this place from time to time through this book. Maybe you’ll visit once, too.
— Bruce Kauffman, poet. Author of still arriving
In Still Life Waiting, Meg Freer writes about an abandoned mining town in Montana and takes readers full circle through the lifespan of the rush to the bust. The poems remind us that these were hard times, not simply a literal gold mine. From Double Jacking: “3-4 feet dug: one or two dollars pay / 9 out of 10 carts: waste rock / one mistake: injury or death”. Davey’s Store provides readers with a personalized view into the life of an individual who tried to capitalize on the mining boom. Images that accompany the poems show the makeshift housing that frontiersman were willing to live in for the “dream of the mother lode / freedom to choose your destiny” (Homesteading at 6,000 Feet).
Mark Danowsky, Editor-in-Chief of ONE ART: a journal of poetry
You can find copies at Amazon:
We only have print copies available at the moment but give us a bit and we’ll send out the link for ebooks. Thanks!
NEWS RELEASE: For 2024, Meg Freer is officially the “Poet in Residence” for the prestigious McDonald Institute, founded by Nobel Prize winner Arthur McDonald – a Canadian network for researchers, theorists, and technical experts in astroparticle physics at Queen’s University here in Kingston.
She has written several science-themed poems, and knew the institute had previously collaborated with visual artists, so Meg is very grateful they accepted her unsolicited proposal for a short-term residency which will allow her to create a new collection of science poetry. https://mcdonaldinstitute.ca/
Congratulations Meg!
Another Award! Meg’s poem “artificial singularity” for 1st place in the Ontario Poetry Society’s “Entitled Titles” contest. You can find out more on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/119307501464053/about
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