At one moment, a pure abstraction, at the next, an incontrovertible presence of hooves, antlers, and fur. The beating heart of this assured debut by Richard Kelly Kemick is the Porcupine caribou herd of the western Arctic.

Following the caribou through their annual cycle of migration, Kemick orchestrates a suite of poems both encyclopedic and lyrical, in which the caribou is both metaphor and phenomenon, both text and exegesis. He explores what we share with this creature of blood and bone and what is hidden, alien, and ineffable.

"Caribou Run" serves notice that a formidable new talent has been let loose on the terrain of Canadian poetry. - 20160304"