A Compact of Words, Canadian poet Rob McLennan's fifteenth trade poetry title, comes out of a series of reflections on domestic matters - a break-up, his daughter - influenced by the ghazal form as brought into Canadian literature through the American ex-pat John Thompson in the 1970s. Through disparate leaps, the lines write as much between them as the words themselves, writing out a clear and present labyrinthine voice that goes beyond even what the words themselves convey. Where not a word is wasted.