Two or Three Guitars
The Boys
Disarmament
Falling into Place
Captain Kintail
The Church Not Made With Hands
Devil's Punch Bowl
Scrabbling for Repose
Naked Trees
Forty Days & Forty Nights
Two or Three Guitars
Selected Poems
Gaspereau Press (2006)
The Boys
Or, Waiting for the Electrician's Daughter
Gaspereau Press (2005)
Author John Terpstra's story of his wife's family and the short lives of her three brothers, each of whom lived with muscular dystrophy until their early twenties
With humour, reverence and great love, Terpstra charts the experience of a family under unusual, but resounding human circumstances. He recreates the daily life, the vitality and wit shared by the three boys, and his relationship with then as they entered the final stages of their illness.
Above all, he underlines the privilege of spending time with each of them—Neil, Paul and Eric—coming to know their persistence as individuals, their collective brand of humour and the force filed of their personalities in unison.
Many times along the way, convictions are checked, challenged and rechecked, faith upended and restored, and perceptions of illnes, disability and quality of life vigorously shaken.
The boys honours the last year in the lives of the three brothers whose days could never rightly be called wasted or tragic. Terpstra celebrates life and challenges the brakets we place around lives characterized by illness.
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DisarmamentGaspereau Press (2003) ContentsRestoration
Giants
Beach
Disarmament
Free Lunch
Two Couples, Four Voices |
Falling into Place
Gaspereau Press (2002)
This book is what happens when one person becomes completely enamoured of the landscape where he lives—especially if this person, Like John Terpstra, engages the world with the imagination of a poet.
Terpstra's investigation centre around the Iroquois Bar, a giant glacial sandbar which lies beneath one of Hamilton's busiest transportation corridors.
Combining history and geology with gumshoe work and poetry intuition, Terpstra struggles to fathom just how much the physical and social geography of the area had changed since the sandbar was formed, and the meaning of modern society's constant ill-considered alteration of landscape.
Terpstra's acute focus on his neigbourhood offers insights of global value that are both provocative and entertaining.
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Captain KintailNetherlandic Press (1992)
excerpt Captain Kintail lets the screen door
slam,
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The Church Not Made With HandsWolsak and Wynn (1997)
ContentsI The little Town of Bethlehem
II This Orchard sound III Low Easter, Rock Chapel
IV Starshouts Café V Physical mysteriesThe big round belly of the future Present light |
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Devil's Punch BowlThe St. Thomas Poetry Series (1998)
ContentsPresent Perfect
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Scrabbling for ReposeSplit Reed Press (1982)
ContentsBlondin on a Tightrope
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Naked TreesNetherlandic Press (1990)
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Forty Days & Forty NightsNetherlandic Press (1987)
ContentsForty Days and Nights
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