Eunoia means “beautiful thinking,” and is the shortest English word using all five vowels. Eunoia is also a book of sound poems by Christian Bök, a poet and a poetry professor from Calgary, Alberta.  Eunoia won the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2002.

Eunoia came out in 2001, but during the 2008 Christmas season, the book became a bestseller in the UK. The author was interviewed on BBC Radio about the new-found interest in the UK, thus provoking interest in the book and giving it buzz and sales in the United States.

This got me curious, and I decided to pick up the publication. Eunoia has five chapters,and each of them uses only one of the five vowels in the English language: A, E, I, O and U. For example, in Chapter E: ” Enfettered, these sentences repress free speech.” Another example: “Westerners revere the Greek legends.  Versemen retell the represented events,  the resplendent scenes.” The poetry uses only words that stick to that singular vowel, in this case, the letter “e”, in its long and short sound versions. The result is sonorous assonance,  playfully done, and yet is genuine, moving poetry.

Reading the poems of Eunoia, I was made aware of how creative the author is in his ability to use all the words he employs. You can see and feel the characteristics of each vowel.

The book was seven years in the making: Chapter U being the shortest, I the most successfully poetic,  and Chapters A and E being the longest.

After reading Eunoia, it gave me a sense of how poetry can spark interest by using a single vowel. This book is a great read, and has a quirky and unconventional approach to the exclusive use of a single vowel, and to the English language of poetry. [Editor's note: try reading this book while listening to Bok's performance of the same in sound files on Ubuweb.]

Unfortunately, Eunoia has not yet found an American publisher to release the book in the American market. Certainly, it will be worth the wait.