Seldom Seen Road

Seldom Seen Road is a collection of sharply observed and understated poems about the land and its people, specifically those who have made it grow. Bare bones, full of wit, insight, and fine imagery, they make up a book carefully constructed around a striking vision of the Prairies and its slowly disappearing history. Butler illuminates an oft-hidden world of strong women spanning two centuries, focusing the most powerful sequence of the book, Lepidopterists, on them. These poems find their place in a tradition of prairie poetry that owes much to the work of such poets as John Newlove, Robert Kroetsch, and others. Combining an exacting attention to detail with organic sensibilities, Seldom Seen Road will grow on you.