Poem by Jenna Butler

Eyewear is happy to welcome Jenna Butler (pictured) this Canada Day Weekend. Butler was born in Norwich, England in 1980, but has spent most of her life on the prairies of Western Canada. The varied landscapes of the prairies and mountains feature prominently in her poetry and fiction. Her work has been awarded a number of prizes and has appeared in print, onstage, and on the air for several years, both at home and abroad. She lives in Edmonton with her husband, where, among other things, she teaches, is finishing up a PhD, and runs a small poetry press, Rubicon.

I got to know her during the year we both did the MA in Creative Writing (Poetry) at the University of East Anglia (UEA), Norwich - at that point she had come full circle.

Jenna's a poet of great gifts, with a brilliant mind and rare ear for the best, least expected word. I expect to hear much more of her work in future.

Keswick

The light here just off-true;
sight blurred by cloud, by distance.

What opens: flint-riddled hills,
church cradled like balm.

Bridle path at dusk,
rank and white with hawthorn.

The rookery: a cuckoo
borrows dark wings.

Cow parsley shatters into bloom.
Our grief in the forgetting.

poem by Jenna Butler

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