The Loom

Did you know that babies cry all night? That toddlers create an ungodly amount of laundry? That growing boys must be fed?

Andy Weaver led a life of quiet contemplation before becoming a father at the age of 42. Within three years he had two sons; two small, relentless disruptions to an existence which had, for a very long time, been self-sustaining and tranquil.

The Loom is a book about love. It is a book about frustration, confusion, crying, and being sticky. It is a book about doubt, unreadiness, fear, sleeplessness, and pressure. It is a book about parenthood. But mostly, it’s a book about love.

Andy Weaver presents a series of lyric poems which stand on their own yet weave together to create a complete whole, like childhood days. He shares the beauty of parenthood, and it’s unexpected frustrations, and the surreality of an experience that is at once deeply universal and completely personal. With self-awareness and a deep vein of humour, he translates the total submission to unconditional love the parenthood demands.

Andy Weaver is a settler writer and scholar. He is an associate professor of creative writing, contemporary poetry, and poetics at York University in Toronto and author of the poetry collections Were the Bees, Gangson, and This.