These poems each have a set of guided questions, related videos that allow for deeper investigation, and suggested writing activities. We'll be adding more poems here soon! sturgeon Intense with empathy, the poem places poet and struggling fish in direct physical relation. Dulce et Decorum Est Wilfred Owen brilliantly uses rhyme and meter in this brutal poem about a poison gas attack during WWI. Community Garden Seeking to escape internet trolls the speaker turns her eye to the garden Beat! Beat! Drums! With rich bombastic language and Whitman's trademark sprawling lines, this poem rallies troops for war. I saw a perfect tree today Lillian Allen praises the rampant diversity of trees in Northern Ontario and asks us to see perfection in difference. Application Form Identity is elusive. Maybe it doesn’t exist at all. from Cross River . Pick Lotus Sometimes a simple wish granted, especially a final one, can change everything. Good Day Villanelle Is this a painful poem about a funny memory, or a funny poem about a painful memory? Jesse's Farm Sadiqa de Meijer reckons with environmental degradation and motherhood in this poem that asks whether showing our children “the beloved world” is enough. Late Prayer Erin Robinsong delivers a quiet and fierce prayer for life on Earth in an age of ecological destruction and oligarchical domination From thirsty In this delicate and brutal poem, the line between the speaker’s body and the city of Toronto blurs. Poor Speaker Yep, the speaker gets what you're trying to say Before the Birth of One of Her Children This frank, devout poem confronts the risks facing a 17th-century woman in childbirth. from “Road Shoulders” the shoulder of the road gleams with the poet's attention grass In his short, funny poem, Ward Maxwell asks us to step on the grass, saying “it deserves it.” But isn’t that the point of grass? Gayatri A selfie with no one in it surprisingly captures the magic of a childhood friendship. Opus 75, Sestina in B-flat for the Glockenspiel A silent glockenspiel plays out a teenage girl’s anxieties about growing up and fitting in. Five Postcards from Jericho Postcards to regret, to time, to anyone at all Blank Sonnet Set in Halifax of the 1930s, this sensual, inebriated love poem plays with the sonnet form. Plenty Who would have thought a trip to the grocery store could be so full of beauty? Someday I'll Love Ocean Vuong In this tender poem of healing, care and remembrance, Ocean Vuong reaches out to his younger self. Un Docteur Anglophone Traduit Les Inquiétudes De Son Patient Avec Google/An English Speaking Doctor Translates the Concerns of his Patient with Google This bilingual poem expresses the limitations of understanding across languages when experiences become lost in translation. World Town Layers of memory paint a moving, vibrant portrait of one man’s time spent in a seaside town with his father. Famous In Famous, Naomi Nye speaks to the relationship between objects and the ideas they represent. She is as famous to the poem as the poem is famous its words. The Powwow at the End of the World Sherman Alexie slams the environmental destruction of settler-colonialism as we travel on an upstream course towards the powwow at the end of the world. Guanahani, 11 This bracing ballad (re)considers the beauty and history of the Caribbean island where Christopher Columbus first landed. from Exhibits from the American Water Museum Natalie Diaz mourns the violence committed against the Mojave people (and by extension, Indigenous people across North America) and bodies of water, inextricably connected Journey of the Magi One of the three wise men who travelled to Bethlehem upon the birth of Jesus Christ describes his version of the story and the emotional upheaval he experiences from witnessing a miracle that shatters his previous beliefs and way of life. Vancouver Lights This wartime poem looks out at Vancouver’s nighttime skyline and contemplates humanity. The Swimmer’s Moment Will you choose to observe from the rim of the whirlpool, or its centre? At the Centre In this poem of a woman in deep repose, her seeds of self-care begin to blossom. people arrived Tracing and traveling with Kaie Kellough’s verse, the people in this poem plead to have their pulses read out loud. I Have Not Lingered in European Monasteries By telling us what he hasn’t done, this poem’s speaker reveals his spiritual ambitions. 1992 Sometimes a scent or a site or a taste can sweep you up into the past. This finely honed narrative poem knows what that’s like. The New Experience Join the speaker on a whirlwind journey towards a surprising realization. I Feel the Sun This poem articulates the poet’s intense feeling about the sunlight after going through a long winter. From One and Half of You Trying on traditional clothing and finding how it fits. Or not. Mantra of No Return It is possible to travel home when one has never been there. This poem does. I Have Something to Tell You In this surreal poem, a man made of cameras brings his unexpected concerns into sharper focus. I Am The speaker longs to escape himself and to find freedom from within and without Language English