Pathways into the Mountains

Ken Belford is an eco-poet who examines the archtypically Canadian conflict between developement and preservation. The sharp social commentary of his work establishes British Columbia's northern Interior as the battlefront. Though he generally favours preservation, Belford varies his perspective from poem to poem to capture the full spectrum of the conflict.

In many of the poems, Belford struggles with how his way of life implicates him in something about which we should all feel guilty. The food he eats, the house he dwells in and the oil that keeps him warm are all products of industries that destroying destroying natural habitat. Without being theoretical, the unified consciousness of this collection portrays all the raw emotions and frustrations within the contemporary environmental debate. Belford's personal divisiveness is representative of a much larger social division that incorporates us all.