The Fire Extinguisher

Miranda Pearson’s exquisite poems in The Fire Extinguisher reveal the human psyche in ways that are both painstakingly beautiful and generous. No detail is too small to find a place in her constantly shifting vision. Threaded through with natural imagery—fire, the sea, animals and plants—alongside many references to visual art, these poems ask brave and difficult questions: how do we find a balancing place between peril and safety, can we endeavour to live in the contemporary world with compassion and hope, how do we live with uncertainty?

“These are poems you enter and never quite leave. They are alive to the things people don’t say, the complications of a view, the strength and fragility of our bodies. They commemorate the present and admit how difficult it is to live in it. Above all, these are poems that describe our ‘flammable lives’ with shrewdness and grace.”
~ Helen Mort

“Miranda Pearson’s shimmering poetry falls on the reader like snow, leaving one with a gorgeous, mature, complicated appreciation of what the world offers.”
~ Arleen Paré

“Pearson is intent of finding beauty while recognizing the immense flaws of human beings…her gift for marrying the natural image with human error is amazing.”
~ Candace Fertile (on Harbour - The Malahat Review).