The Blessing of the Bikes & Other Life-Cycles: Poems

Anthony Labriola received the Toronto Arts Council Grant in 2014 to write this poetic collection, which explores city life, and chronicles lives lived from childhood to old age. Throughout, the poems imagine and re-imagine urban living. The poems are praise songs for city life. What would we miss if it were all to go missing? Even if we left the place behind for new cities (or even the wilds), what would always remain dear to us? What would our lives be without the places we have known, including public and private spaces? This approach should lead to an appreciation of the true worth of urban life.