Congrats to Karen Solie, fast becoming a fixture on the Canadian poetry scene, for her Griffin win. Also, hats off to an Irish poet, who also won. Maybe next time, the paper this links to can feature the International winner's photo instead - or is this the new Olympic Spirit of Grab That Podium or whatever that already-forgotten slogan was from those Winter Olympics? Seriously, 130,000 Canadian dollars is a lot to fork out on two poets, and hopefully over time this prize will lead to people actually reading Canadian poetry somewhere beyond our borders, with anything approaching the love and enthusiasm they show for Scottish and Irish and Australian poets. Canada is becoming a cool place, eh? Now David Cameron wants to borrow our vicious cost-cutting methods from the Chretien years. Will he start speaking in that funny way too?
A poem for my mother, July 15 When she was dying And I was in a different country I dreamt I was there with her Flying over the ocean very quickly, And arriving in the room like a dream And I was a dream, but the meaning was more Than a dream has – it was a moving over time And land, over water, to get love across Fast enough, to be there, before she died, To lean over the small, huddled figure, In the dark, and without bothering her Even with apologies, and be a kiss in the air, A dream of a kiss, or even less, the thought of one, And when I woke, none of this had happened, She was still far distant, and we had not spoken.
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