I SHOULD NEVER HAVE FIRED THE SENTINEL

I SHOULD NEVER HAVE FIRED THE SENTINEL
My second collection of poetry, I Should Never Have Fired the Sentinel, is also a MisFit book, published in 2005 by ECW Press. Reflecting and examining the culture of panic that infuses contemporary life, these unique poems are preoccupied with discomfort, when the expected goes amiss, when reality suddenly shifts into an unfamiliar realm—mentally, physically, emotionally, or otherwise. Phony plastic surgeons, seven-armed boaters, hostile jeans, and skydiving incisors: these poems seem friendly, frolicking at your heels like lost pets. But don’t trust them—if you look closely, you’ll see they’re foaming at the mouth.

“If you want to speak literally, Jennifer LoveGrove’s new book contains the best poems I’ve ever seen about the high school prom, hockey, and the menace and seductions of middle management. But if literal is what you want, you’ve missed your stop. There are poems here that borrow the logic of vexing dreams – the kind that make you late for work, that make you turn off the alarm and drop back into a strangely familiar, completely alien place. This is an awfully good book, by a writer who understands that poetry, if it’s going to be any fun at all, has to be something new.” – Kevin Connolly

“LoveGrove’s intelligent formal artistry connects with earned emotion and pulls you in…The controlling metaphor in it serves the best insight into I Never Should Have Fired the Sentinel (sic): corruption is a banquet, and it is delicious.” – Books In Canada (December 2005)

“Edgy, surreal, innovative, thought provoking – and very, very cool…shockingly poignant, beautifully surreal, and packs enough punch to knock you on your ass.” – Scene magazine (July 7, 2005)

“These six poems (from The Beauty Killer section) contain an entire life: they’re impressive for their strength of voice, their intentionality and their sophistication.” Reviewer Matt Holmes also says that Sentinel is “a book of psychologically jarring poems… a challenging vision of unsociable and austere worlds.” – Broken Pencil (issue 30, February 2006)

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