A Portrait of Paradise, review by Elaine O'Farrell, The Vancouver Courier

     A Portrait of Paradise, the latest offering by Kerisdale poet-in-residence Carolyn Zonailo, is the poet's attempt to render actual experiences "with as little artifice as possible".

     Published by blewointment press, the book is divided into the zones of the poet's reality; landscapes, portraits (several describe the "female nude"), songs (to spring, to the moon, to sleep) and mandalas. Her writing is sensual, rich and textured. Scenes painted with words convey a mood, a feeling. She quotes Cézanne: "One minute in the life of the world is going by. Paint it as it is."

     Zonailo's mandalas, or "magic circles", which make up the last quarter of the whole are primitive, childlike doodles. The illustrations, with titles like "dream and reality", "the double yolk separates" and "sometimes when you look at the horizon, it expands", cry out for better reproduction and colour. The sketches are Zonailo's "search for the human place in the seemingly impersonality of the universe". The circles "are not contained by always expanding", she writes.

     The book's cover is illustrated by David Simmons' sketch of "the meaning of life", similar to the famous Escher trompe d'oeil of a hand drawing a hand.

     Previous books by the author include Inside Passage, auto-da-fe, Zone 5, Split Rock and The Wide Arable Land.

Copyright by Elaine O’Farrell: www.carolynzonailo.com, 2004.