This collection of linked poems takes us on a journey where angels ride bicycles, wounds both grieve and heal, and “our will / diving through the shuddering / wet world, carries us.” A poet of striking maturity, Eleonore Schönmaier writes of icy depths and serene pools with equal ease. Unflinching when charting the terrains of human nature and the natural wilderness, she travels to landscapes such as Crete and Portugal, the watery depths of the Sargasso Sea, and she explores an abandoned lighthouse on the Canadian Atlantic coast.
Critical Commentary on Treading Fast Rivers
The natural world is prominent, almost dreamlike in Treading Fast Rivers, and starkly beautiful….Treading Fast Rivers is strong poetry. –Shane Neilson, Prairie Fire Review of Books, Autumn 2000
Schönmaier’s poetic world is a deftly-realized visual landscape….allowing her to examine—with clear-eyed perceptiveness—the territory of the heart. [Schönmaier] is alert to the sensual possibilities of the world. These poems…delight in the richness of experience. –Anne Simpson, Atlantic Books Today, Spring 2000
Her poems open windows not so much onto but in their subjects…they describe a kind of reverence. –Susan Gillis, League of Canadian Poets, Autumn 2000
She has begun to make beauty.…wonderfully unforgettable. –M. Travis Lane, Fiddlehead, Winter 2000
Schönmaier’s poetic gifts are apparent. –Christian Riegel, The Antigonish Review, Winter 2001
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