Low Centre of Gravity finds Michael Dennis in familiar territory. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. Dennis’ poems continue to be the narratives of movies you’d like to someday see. These poems ask the questions you’d really like answered, sauntering into the room and staking claim. The story-telling continues, the good, the bad and the sadly tragic. With Low Centre of Gravity Dennis remains “direct, curious, pissed off and honest.”
Born in London, Ontario, in 1956, Michael Dennis published his first poems in the early ’70s. His poems have appeared in scores of journals and more than 30 books and chapbooks. From 2013 to 2020, Michael wrote in-depth responses to 812 poetry books he admired on his blog, “Today’s book of poetry.” His working life has included everything from stints in car plants and copper mines to installing artworks in galleries and doing time as a short-order cook and dishwasher in a strip club; he ran a small boutique hotel in the ’80s, was Santa at the Kmart in Charlottetown one year, and opened a non-profit ESL school in Jablonec nad Nisou, Czechoslovakia, immediately following the Velvet Revolution. Michael has driven a taxi and a truck and had a brief stint as a private chauffeur. Michael passed away in Ottawa in December of 2020.
