THE WAY TO COME HOME Smart, Carolyn London (Ont.), Brick Books, 1992. 77pp, paper, $10.95, ISBN 0-919626-56-4. CIP Grades 11 and up/Ages 16 and up Reviewed by Pat Bolger Volume 20 Number 5 1992 October Smart introduces this collection with a brief translation from Basho, and her poetry is like his in transforming the simplest of things into a kind of magic: Listen now to the pond's heartbeat, the shrill monotone of spring peepers calling goodnight and goodnight over and over, to everything that is beginning, or is no more Twenty-one poems grouped under the heading "Cape of Storms" evoke the beauty of South Africa and admit the shame of apartheid: I have traveled half way round this world to sit with the owners and drink their cool beer by the pool... The five poems in "The Sound of the Birds" are a powerful tribute to the memory of Bronwen Wallace, recalling unflinchingly the pain of her last weeks and days, and still suffused with a hard-won acceptance. "Home: A Calendar" has a poem for each month, a project that many beginning poets would like to undertake. Recommended as a useful addition to the Canadian poetry resources in any high school library. The cover, with a beautiful fall photograph, will attract browsers in the literature section. There is excellent material on themes such as death, racism and the family — and people who read poetry for pleasure will become fans of Carolyn Smart. Pat Bolger is a retired high school librarian in Renfrew, Ontario