The Wind River Variations

A new collection of poems on the Peel River watershed by nationally-acclaimed writer Brian Brett was recently released.

The Wind River Variations promises to take the reader "on an expedition" into the heart of the Wind, Snake and Bonnet Plume river valleys.

Best known for his brilliant, angry and hilarious book, Trauma Farm, which chronicles life at his Salt Spring Island agricultural project, Brett was also the Yukon’s writer-in-residence back in the day when there was money for such luxuries.

In 2003, Brett paddled the Peel’s Wind River as part of the Three Rivers Journey.

He was one of an assortment of writers, artists, photographers and conservations travelled down the Wind, Snake and Bonnet Plume to draw attention to the region's natural splendours.

That’s when Brett first met Yukon photographer Fritz Mueller, whose powerful black and white images accompany this latest poetic rendering.

“In an odd kind of way, the plundering of the world in the past is understandable, because there wasn’t the knowledge,” Brett writes his new book’s acknowledgements.

“Now, there are no excuses, and the almost belligerent and certainly arrogant lust of so many individuals to destroy what remains merely to create more wealth for a few has to make us wonder about the mental health of our species, and its eventual survival."

The Wind River Variations is published by B.C.-based Oolichan Books.