“openbound is a mesmerising poem-cum-post mortem on an open marriage. Donaldson's dignified, lyrical lines harmonize without blunting the mixed feelings arising from a messy human drama. 'How generous we were, how civilized. And heartless,' Donaldson writes, questioning events and motives with the curiosity of the philosopher and the historian’s sense of inevitability. 'All the joys of regret are in the realm of possibility,' Donaldson sighs, without knowing where that longed-for realm may lie, in a world in which what is precious and what is painful are so often the same thing.” – Daniel Cowper, author of Kingdom of the Clock “openbound is a reflection on what love is or can become when the doors of a marriage are opened. All the world will have an opinion. Time structures these poems into a narrative that starts with the meeting of two, then of others, to end considering where the couple will rest in their final sleep. In between, with grace and wordplay, with heart and intelligence, openbound establishes that in whatever configuration it presents itself, ‘love is the hard stuff.’” – Ricardo Sternberg, author of Some Dance “One of Canada’s most pre-eminent metaphor detectives turns his attention to open relationships and the forging and curation of true intimacy. Within the tidy stop-and-start of blank iambic triplets, these poems meander through history and epanorthotic shifts to mine, with honesty and abundant wit, the messy question: ‘Does love survive more love?’ Only Jeffery Donaldson could (openly) marry the cerebral and the granular to love’s ‘shifting centres of gravity’ so gracefully.” – Alexandra Oliver, author of Meeting the Tormentors in Safeway and Hail, the Invisible Watchman “In openbound, Jeffrey Donaldson recounts the ups and downs of a relationship that dares to test the bounds of what a marriage is or could be. Using language at once playful and economical, Donaldson brings the reader, ‘the last person to be left out,’ into a nontraditional love story, and in so doing entertainingly challenges our notions of both ‘love’ and ‘story.’” – Misha Solomon, author of My Great-Grandfather Danced Ballet “Jeffery Donaldson's openbound is a resolute narrative of a marriage moving to open marriage told in the exquisite precision of form: each page five tercets in syllabics, ten syllables per line. Form provides restraint. Like the great poets, Donaldson has the poise to unravel the complexities of love, both the most profound and ridiculous thing humans can do.” – Ross Leckie, author of The Critique of Pure Reason “Love affairs have long been the banquet of poetry, but Jeffery Donaldson’s remarkable openbound refreshes tradition with its candid exploration of open marriage. This fascinating book of linked sonnets gives us a new portrait of polyamory, exploring a marriage of extreme loyalty to a partner even as the high emotional price of the sexual jealousy is paid. The triangulations affect all aspects of emotional life and family relationships, including partners and children. Witty, consummately crafted, and unafraid of complexity, it’s at once devasted — and devasting. openbound’s deft lines and wordplay feel like being on a balance ball with the poet himself.” – Molly Peacock, author of The Widow’s Crayon Box
