POEMS RELEASED ON A NUCLEAR WIND. Cooper, Allan. Porters Lake (N.S.), Pottersfield Press, 1987. 77pp. paper. $7.95. ISBN 0-919001-41-6. Distributed by Pottersfield Press, RR 2. Porters Lake, N.S. B0J 2S0. CIP Adult/Secondary Reviewed by Don Precosky Volume 16 Number 5 1988 September This book, Allan Cooper's fifth collection of poetry, is a good one. It tries nothing fancy or experimental and it succeeds within the limits the poet sets for himself. The poems are in the imagist tradition of spare, descriptive verse written in short lines. In addition to clear pictures of nature scenes, Cooper also incorporates strong emotional qualities in his work. He writes well of love, family ties and his sense of personal identity. This is dangerous territory because of the possibilities for cliché, but Cooper never lapses into it. Behind the imagist style, lurking as an influence, is the oriental tradition of terse, understated subtlety within images drawn from everyday life: I stand on a cliff above the bay. In all that silence, one bird song stretches across cold water. Melded with this influence is the more local maritime tradition of lyrical nature and character description begun by Sir Charles G.D. Roberts and carried on and developed by Alfred Bailey, Fred Cogswell and Alden Nowlan. Don Precosky, The College of New Caledonia, Prince George, B.C.