"The False Laws of Narrative" is a selection of Fred Wah's poems covering the poets entire poetic trajectory to date. A founding editor of "Tish" magazine, Wah was influenced by leading progressive and innovative poets of the 1960s and was at the forefront of the exploration of racial hybridity, multiculturalism, and transnational family roots in poetry. The selection emphasizes his innovative poetic range.

Wah is renowned as one of Canada's finest and most complex lyric poets and has been lauded for the musicality of his verse. Louis Cabri's introduction offers a paradigm for thinking about how sound is actually structured in Wah's improvisatory poetry and offers fresh insights into Wah's context and writing. In an afterword by the poet himself, Wah presents a dialogue between editor and poet on the key themes of the selected poems and reveals his abiding concerns as poet and thinker.

Fred Wah has been involved with a number of literary magazines over the years, such as Open Letter and West Coast Line. Recent books are the biofiction Diamond Grill (1996), Faking It: Poetics and Hybridity (2000), a collection of essays, and Sentenced to Light (2008), a collection of poetic image/text projects. He splits his time between the Kootenays in southeastern B.C. and Vancouver.

Table of Contents for
The False Laws of Narrative: The Poetry of Fred Wah selected with an introduction by Louis Cabri

Foreword

Neil Besner

Biographical Note

Introduction

Louis Cabri

Mountain that has come over me

even the eyes

akokli (goat) creek

Gold Hill

Among

Poem for Turning

For the Western Gate

Havoc Nation

Hamill's Last Stand

Chain

severance spring water

September spawn

nv s ble

We are different

sounds of o and ree

Breathe dust like you breathe wind

Sigh. A tenuous slight stream

A hight

Aug 5

Music at the Heart of Thinking 1

Music at the Heart of Thinking 6

Music at the Heart of Thinking 28

Music at the Heart of Thinking 50

Music at the Heart of Thinking 55

Music at the Heart of Thinking 77

Music at the Heart of Thinking 78

Music at the Heart of Thinking 89

Music at the Heart of Thinking 93

Music at the Heart of Thinking 98

ArtKnot 1

ArtKnot 2

ArtKnot 4

Hermes Poems

The Poem Called Syntax

Dead in My Tracks: Wildcat Creek Utaniki

Hey,Man

(sentenced)

Ripraps (Louis Cabri) and Afterwords (Fred Wah)

Acknowledgements