We’re back with a new edition of The Poet’s Point of View where we ask Anansi poets to recommend art, writing, music, and more to experience in tandem with their new collections.

This month, beloved Newfoundland author and poet Michael Crummey published his new collection of poetry, Passengers. Eclectic, unpredictable, and strange, Passengers follows Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer on an imagined circumnavigation of Newfoundland; traces the island escapades of Lucifer from the time of his arrival as a stowaway in the Middle Ages; and wanders the pre-pandemic cities of Europe, touching down in Stockholm’s ABBA Museum, the Belfast Public Library, Austria’s plague cemeteries, and the Czech Republic’s Punkva Caves.

Widely considered “one of Canada's finest writers” (Globe and Mail), Michael Crummey is noted for the immediacy and emotional impact of his poetry and fiction and for his ability to raise the vernacular to planes of “exquisite beauty.” He is the author of 12 books of poetry and fiction.

Michael Crummey, while reading your new collection of poetry, what would you recommend as...

One song or album to listen to: 

MC: “Years” by Amelia Curran or “1962” by Ron Hynes.

One film to watch: 

MC: “Hard Light” by Justin Simms, available on the NFB website.

One meal to eat: 

MC: Well, Jigg's Dinner of course. With a side of mustard pickles. 

One piece of art to look at: 

MC: “Caribou on the Barrens,” by Gerald Squires. On display in the Arrivals Lounge at the St. John's Airport. 

One place to plan to visit: 

MC: There are several dozen places identified on the maps in Passengers. I would recommend any of them, but Francois on the island's south coast is a jewel.

One quotation to read from another writer: 

MC: “The heart in St. John’s, this warm-hearted city of rain, drizzle and fog, it leaks a little.”

Stormy Weather, Stan Dragland

One question to ask yourself or a friend: 

MC: “Can I get you something?”

Learn more about Passengers and more very good books by Michael Crummey