In his debut poetry collection
Through the Cities and the Woods,
Thomas Doerksen paints scenes that juxtapose images from the natural world with those of postindustrial dystopia; where he shows some-who make the daunting attempt to derive an identity, and to make connections, in the face of crushing daily overwhelm-and others-who live automatically and unquestioningly, unconcerned with, or incapable of, imagination and wonder; and where he describes the sparks interspersed among the rhythms and images of routine, which help recuperate us from entropy and show us the world we can make within the world that we have.