John Lent celebrates the urban and natural landscapes of southern British Columbia in a series of jazz?inspired meditations sung in a laid?back, conversational style.
In order to get the music he wants, Lent plays with the visual architecture of his poems, making them mirror what the poems see: those crazy mysteries and back beat moments when you catch a big and strange idea sideways and then it disappears, leaving you feeling triumphant for no reason.
In Cantilevered Songs, Lent stresses the typically unstressed ? the throwaway moments during walks and hikes ? and holds these recollections up to a light that is prismed by experience. Gazing from these various angles, Lent takes his own advice: ?Play that song. Play it again. Now, improvise?, and the poems become song.
