Reviews
Bryn Robinson: “A Current Through the Flesh by Richard-Yves Sitoski” in The Seabord Review of Books
Kim Fahner: “Wait, What? by Richard-Yves Sitoski” in periodicities
Susan Wismer: “Richard-Yves Sitoski, Wait, What?” in The Miramichi Review
Unsubstantiated Opinions
On A Current Through the Flesh:
“Sitoski is the master of the meaningful non sequitur… He riddles his poems with koans that lead to thinking, to wrestling with ideas, images, concepts, with the realization that it’s the engagement, not the conclusion, that matters… [He is] something of a trickster, a quicksilver-tongued poet who slips the noose and sings here and there with mischievous asides like the wise fool in Shakespeare.”
—John B. Lee, author of Do Songbirds Know Where They’re Singing
“That tumble of figurative language, such unexpected but spot-on imagery. A mother “foursquare as a dresser shimmed with a crucifix.” The father’s words “a brace of shot geese / tossed on the table / to prove to strangers / whose home they were in.” “Here she is, beating confessions from a rug.” So much energy, and applied to such complex subject matter — the energy of anger and love combined.”
—Alice Major, author of Knife on Snow
“Truly phenomenal. It has a density and bristling intensity to it, and is full of artistic panache, while also moving and mind-expanding.”
—Allan Briesmaster, author of Windfor
On Butterfly Tongue:
“If you put rap, slam poetry, Tom Waits, Bukowski, Huston’s Fat City, and Shakespeare in a blender and added a little standup, you might get close.”
—John Brownlow, screenwriter of Sylvia and The Miniaturist
On How to Be Human:
“Richard-Yves Sitoski has lifted a regular moment into something both glittering and poignant that for a moment made me forget about routine, expectation, order.”
—Elee Kraljii Gardner, Poet Laureate of Vancouver and author of Trauma Head
On Wait, What?:
“Poem after poem surprised and floored me, holding a beautiful knife to my throat.”
—John Tyndall, author of Mangoes from the Seventh Dimension
“Richard-Yves Sitoski offers the reader an open hand through his poetry's unmapped turns and deep surrealism. He lets us know he's here for the joke, the truth, and the message. No words are wasted getting to the themes of absurdity and futility. These poems have the reader thrown into a Dali-esque landscape anchored by meaning and self-effacing humour. These poems are little logic whiplashes. With just a few words, Sitoski will leave you in another dimension wondering how you got there so quickly, and deeply.”
—Charlie Petch, author of Why I Was Late
“Throughout Wait, What? the poet is utterly present, witnessing with exquisite, unflinching acuity his life from conception on. Wait, What? articulates keen perceptions on every page with finely honed lines that are an intense delight. These poems give the reader pause (and sometimes a jolt!) to ponder what it is to be human.”
—Penn Kemp, author of Ordinary / Moving
“He says more in … two lines than many people might manage in a thousand…. I read this book twice with great delight.”
—John B. Lee, author of Do Songbirds Know Where They’re Singing
“These are clear-voiced and well-crafted poems, and the poet is adept at turning phrases with quick wit and intelligence, and with compassion for self and others, too.”
—Kim Fahner in periodicities