Hi-Res Front Cover
Back Cover
Pages 26-27
Pages 50-51
Pages 54-55
Foreword by Jock McKeen
Biographies

Dark Matter launched at Leaf"s Spring Party
May 14, 2013, at Rowan's Roof Restaurant in Vancouver, BC.

Launches coming up in Nanaimo, Gabriola Island, Victoria


We are grateful to
Alison Watt
for the cover image. Click here for a link to her work.

Poetry Lovers:
Please ask for this book at your favourite bookstore. If it is not there you can order from Leaf by clicking below. Or email orders@leafpress.ca.
We will include an invoice
(we pay shipping).

April 2013 | 5.5 x 8.5 | 84 pp | 978-1-926655-57-4 | $16.95

Dark Matter

by Leanne McIntosh
                with Jack Sproule

"This is a chronicle of a unique journey
of friendship between two unlikely people."

Dark Matter is a conversation between prose and poetry; a conversation between sun and earth. The prose has been culled from a Catholic priest's private correspondence, journals and articles; the poems are a woman's response, written with today's insights.

Dark Matter is about the allure of conversation and what is sparked between speaker and listener. It's about imagination and a "wild species of apple evolving/until the whole summer/stands inside me." It's about philosophical, religious, personal thought in relationship to feelings and experiences, and we are invited to "listen, listen as though the moon/has just pressed her face/against ours."

Leanne McIntosh was born in Regina, Saskatchewan. She has published two previous books of poetry: The Sound the Sun Makes and Liminal Space. Her poems have appeared in literary journals, anthologies and a series of chapbooks edited by Patrick Lane. She is a regular participant in local reading events and she volunteers poetry sessions at the Nanaimo Brain Injury Society.

Jack Sproule is a retired Roman Catholic priest currently living in Nanaimo. Jack ministered in parishes in Montreal, Nanaimo, and Sidney, BC and for twenty-five years he was a member of the Associate Faculty at Haven by the Sea on Gabriola Island.

Review Excerpts:

"Leanne McIntosh's deeply considered Dark Matter is rich in its genuine humanity, the desire to find basic goodness. This earnestness often overrides melody in poetry but McIntosh has escaped that dangerous territory with aplomb. These poems never feel heavy in weight, only in significance. McIntosh is never trite and gives Jack Sproule and his deep thoughts all the seriousness and gravitas that they deserve."
Read the rest of this review by Michael Dennis here.

Daniel Gawthrop writes: McIntosh creates "an intimate conversation between poet and priest that sheds light on things often left hidden beneath the surface. In many cases, the interaction produces fresh insight on matters the Church would prefer not to revisit. Who knew, for example, that celibacy could be rendered with such sensuality and empowerment? Read the review here.

Roger Kimmerly: "This collaboration with Leanne is an adventure into conversation with relationship, illness, identity and making a hole in denial through poetry."

Upcoming Events

"Dark Matter: A Conversation Through Dementia." A literary salon with Roger Kimmerly and Leanne McIntosh Thursday November 21, 2013 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at Gabriola Public Library, #5 - 575 North Road, Gabriola Island, BC.

View the invitation here.