Turning Dirt into Jewels

By Jean Greenberg

As a keen photographer, Jean Greenberg's eye is trained to spot the bizarre or unusual in ordinary urban street scenes. As a skilled poet, she is able to turn her observations into lively, amusing, and often quintessentially urban poems. Although many of the poems are set in Toronto, Israel, South America, and Europe appear in her poetic snap-shots. By bringing disparate items into focus Greenberg creates a scene, and suggests, rather than beats us over the head with it's subtle cohesion. A Chinese father playing with his child on a swing, a homeless man and the poet practising Tai Chi, Greenberg shows us how a city takes life in an instant. The book is not divided into sections, so it moves along at full speed, taking the readers breath away with the rush of constantly changing images. Turning dirt into jewels is illustrated with the wonderfully quirky pen and ink drawing of Joe Rosenblatt, reinforcing the wonder of this debut collection.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0919897967
• ISBN13: 9780919897960
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: Wolsak and Wynn Publishers Ltd.
• Length: 88 Pages
• Weight: 0.39 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.3" x 5.8"