In a variation on an old and beloved theme, poet Molly Peacock joins us again this September 21, the day of the fall equinox, together with guest editor Priscila Uppal to give us a preview of the 2011 Best Canadian Poetry in English anthology due out next month.
Guest
Molly Peacock, poet, series editor of the Best Canadian Poetry in English anthologies
Priscila Uppal, guest editor of the 2011 Best Canadian Poetry in English anthology
Four weeks off the coast, crotch rotting
in seawater, cock cupped
by the wetsuit,
and I swear to God
I'd marinate a whale
in petroleum just to see
your face again.
I hate how the satellite phone
spits oil in my ear
when we try to talk,
how the ocean throbs under me
like a toe
stubbed. All
in the name
of research.
The bureau says it takes 22 gallons of oil
to manufacture a truck tire,
which helps me understand
the ritual waste of repeating I miss you,
and I miss you,
and I miss you,
to be heard just once
above the cackle of static.
I think that somewhere
between our shores
swims a giant sea turtle
choke-chained by telephone wires,
muzzled by envelopes,
gulping up those stray I miss you's.
One day he'll wash up on a beach,
rot out a bellyful of our words
for all the world to smell. I think about
the carcasses of our conversations,
know our love must end up
somewhere, must ooze its way
to some lonely reef
and make one fish
the happiest in all the sea.
Shouting to be heard above
the buzz of salt and shaky cables
makes for poor conservation,
but let the ocean have its slurry of words;
the world could stand to be polluted
by a little more
unnecessary love.
Seeing My Father in the Neighbours' CockatooBy Lorna Crozier
The cockatoo says three things:
"Cookie," "Pretty bird," and
"What a beautiful day!"
Some mornings you don't want to hear,
"What a beautiful day!"
but nothing stops him.
His name is Joey. Perhaps because
he wants to be something other
than a bird, he pulls the feathers
from his breast,
his grey and naked skin
what you glimpse between
an old man's buttons.
This trick does much
to make him unattractive
though he's a friendly bird, quite
beautiful when he lifts the yellow
plume on the top of his head.
If you say, "Kiss, Joey, kiss,"
and stroke his feathered cheek,
he'll bunt your hand like a cat
and click his beak. Sometimes
when he's feeling fond he'll curl
his tongue, a thick black snake,
around your finger.
The day my father decides to come back,
he hovers behind Joey's eyes
and looks at me in that way he had,
as if he'd left us long before he died
to find a new religion,
or grow cell by cell
into a different species,
tired of his memories, the tumours
in his throat that made him sound
as if he shouted underwater.
No matter how I listened
I could no understand
what he was trying to say.
Now in Joey's voice he cries
"What a beautiful day!"
and looks straight at me,
his eyelids grey and wrinkled.
Then with a wink,
he plucks three feathers from his chest
and lets them fall.
Our Lady of Rue Ste MarieBy Sandra Lambert
Our lady of ste marie street
our lady of the cul de sac
our lady of chaste lawns
and roofs, intact
virgin of the stinking creek
virgin of the vacant lot
our lady of the airport
virgin of the smooth flight
Our lady of ville marie
our lady of the mountain and the river
madonna of mohawks
madonna of rapids
and massacres
madonna of terra firma
madonna of the new world
Our lady of quebec
metal virgin, incorporeal, hollow
our lady of granite
our lady of frost
our lady of incense
our lady of holy polluted waters
our lady of the mud and sludge of the river
pray for us
Our lady of fur
our lady of ice
our lady of live wires
our lady of sparks
immaculate virgin of snow
Our lady of palisades and canons
madonna of missions and guns
virgin of smoke
our lady of traps
virgin of pelts, sinews and hides
virgin of knives
our lady of scalps
our lady of blood
virgin of voices
our lady of two tongues
and another one, forgotten
our lady of land claims
our lady of reservations
our lady of treaties, broken
Our lady of the recessed shrine and the domed ceiling
our lady of lilies
our lady of locks
our lady of ansoopial saints
our lady of the slender cross and the heavy hammer
our lady of stigmata
our lady of bones
Stained virgin made of glass
our lady of lead
our lady of the coin slot and the burning candle
virgin of the church and the casino
our lady of the gilt edge
Our lady of the organ and the sounding brass
tombless, wombless lady
of no relics
Virgin of amythyst and silver
madonna of the muttered prayer
madonna of the thousand stairs
our lady of beads
Virgin of the black veil
virgin of the cassock and the swinging skirt
virgin of bells
Our lady of first communion
our lady of confession
our lady of depression
Nun of the thick tongue and the blunt fingers
virgin of wool
Our lady of sodomy by another name our lady of love
Madonna of peregrinations
virgin of the v-formation
madonna of winter migration
our lady of geese
Our lady of the lake and the chemical toilet
virgin of duck blinds and screaming gulls
our lady of the great blue heron
our lady of the sharp-shinned hawk
our lady of owls
Our lady of beer
our lady of pepsi
our lady of ecstasy
Our lady of the swab and the syringe
our lady of the tampon and the pill
footless floating lady of weeds
our lady of please, please, please
Virgin of vegetation
virgin of genetic alteration
virgin of the potted geranium
virgin of tubers and bacteria and fungi
our unearthly lady of the decay of the body
virgin of worms
Virgin of polite parks and crude forests
virgin of bathtub shrines
virgin of bottled water
virgin of vinegar
our lady of e-coli
Our lady of white sails against the blue line of the horizon
our lady of fish and the turbid fleuve
our lady of star charts
our lady of mercury
our lady of floods
Our lady of antlers
virgin of trophy hunters
have mercy on us
Sweating lady of summer
lady of black flies, mosquitoes and bees
lady of blueberries and wasps
virgin of prickly heat
virgin of honey
Our lady of the screened porch
our lady of turnips and beets
madonna of the vine ripened tomato
virgin of the waxy green bean
virgin of summer lightning
Invisible madonna of the blossoming orchards
our lady of apples
our lady of sugar
our lady of maples
our lady of butter and cream
our lady of the wooden spoon
and the pointing finger
madonna of the terrible mother
Madonna of marriage
our lady of domestic fights
our lady of incest
our lady of adultery
our lady of alimony
our lady of visiting rights
our lady of assault & battery
madonna of misogyny
our lady of love
Our lady of builders and masons
lover of carpenters
our lady of hammers and nails
patron of painters
Our lady of bills and loose change
our lady of the stock exchange
our lady of property
Virgin of appearances and disappearances
virgin of miraculous occurrences
our lady of refrigerators and trucks
our lady of billboards and toothpaste
our lady of road signs
our lady of the empty barn
and the looted grave
our lady of paradise, paved
Our lady of white linen and red wine
our lady of the chalice and silver plate
our lady of toxic waste
Our lady of wafers, soup kitchens and petitions
our lady of largesse
madonna of bandages and salves
our lady of hospital beds
our lady of SARS
our lady of chronic fatigue
our lady of ADD
virgin of the hysterectomy
our lady of AIDS
our lady of genital mutilation
our lady of infanticide
our lady of suttee
our lady of child
pornography
our lady of inoperable cancers
madonna of the mammogram
madonna of the MRI
our lady of the wire excision biopsy
our lady of the double mastectomy
virgin who runs for the cure
Our lady of artificial insemination
(our lady of the Annunciation)
Our lady of chaos, mutation, and change
virgin of asylum for the sane and insane
madonna of mad cow disease
Our lady of liberty & democracy
our lady of invasion of privacy
virgin of hostages
virgin of heresy
virgin of law
(our lady of lies)
virgin of politics
virgin of terrorists
virgin of electronic spies
virgin of holy suicides
Virgin of rape
virgin of genocide
madonna of the mass grave
mother of the child soldier
mother of the sex slave
Our lady of earthquakes
our lady of hurricanes
our lady of tidal waves
virgin of volcanoes
Our lady of logic
our lady of mathematics
our lady of nuclear physics
(virgin of x-rays
virgin of clouds)
Our lady of salvation
our lady of radiation
virgin of blistering skin
madonna of melanoma
Queen of the known universe
madonna of galaxies
our lady of black holes
madonna of the wobbly moon
(our lady of ozone)
Virgin of immaculate memory
(our lady of whitewash
our lady of history)
our lady of prophecy
our lady of gibberish
our lady of anguish
our lady of silence
Madonna of felicity
madonna of mystery
madonna of misery
madonna of mercy
