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! My sister cries the sea In this poem of environmental apocalypse, Mordecai pictures a divided planet as her sister, listening to the voices of plants and fish as they mourn habitat destruction in creole Mantra of No Return It is possible to travel home when one has never been there. This poem does. The Dead This sonnet considers the fragmented, elusive way the dead resurface in our lives. fluorine Rita Wong uncovers the poisons in everyday life to teach us about our relationship to the natural world. 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. What Is Poetry Using only the letters in the title’s question, Holbrook generates a smorgasbord of weird and delightful answers. Before the Birth of One of Her Children This frank, devout poem confronts the risks facing a 17th-century woman in childbirth. 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? from Cross River . Pick Lotus Sometimes a simple wish granted, especially a final one, can change everything. Salmon Courage Deep bravery can emerge amid clashing familial hopes and truths. M. NourbeSe Philip shows us how. The Potato Harvest This lonely poem is about so much more than a bare field. the ghosts of women once girls Poet Aja Monet reveals both gladness and sadness from a little girl enraptured by literature. Other In Other, Livesay breaks free of patriarchy’s hold and ventures into landscapes of mountain, cedar forests, night skies, and the fierce interior of her spirit. For My Best Friend One way to grieve is to give tribute, perhaps even before the person you are grieving is completely gone. “Breathe dust…” Nearly punctuation-free, this is a breathless journey through memories of a youth spent in rural Canada. Blank Sonnet Set in Halifax of the 1930s, this sensual, inebriated love poem plays with the sonnet form. The Blue Guitar In this glosa poem, P.K. Page strums out questions about being an artist and telling the truth. Reluctance Even after you’ve jumped all the fences, climbed all the hills, and looked at the world, it can be hard to accept how you feel… The Bull Moose A moose's final, tortured moments unfold in a series of brutal images. My Poem Without Me in It Imagining herself removed from her own poem, a poet realizes how poetry gives her the space to create herself. people arrived Tracing and traveling with Kaie Kellough’s verse, the people in this poem plead to have their pulses read out loud. 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. Not the Music In Not in the Music, Crozier explores the inviolable: the sacred parts of ourselves that we cherish as personal sanctuaries. 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. Two Words: A Wedding bpNichol presents life as a river of ever-changing words and asks us to step in. sturgeon Intense with empathy, the poem places poet and struggling fish in direct physical relation. My Brother at 3 A.M. A pervasive sense of paranoia threads itself through the quiet night of this poem. From Red Doc In this poem-as-a-conversation, a man and his mother consider how the past lives on in the present. 400: Coming Home You can’t help thinking about your life on a long stretch of highway. World Town Layers of memory paint a moving, vibrant portrait of one man’s time spent in a seaside town with his father. My Grandmother Washes Her Feet in the Sink of the Bathroom at Sears A clash of cultures in a department store bathroom showcases pride and power in the towns matrons as well as the space in the middle where the speaker lives 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 Full Metal Oji-Cree That’s ok, our robomocassins will outlive you nine times over. Weed Killer Fiona Tinwei Lam moves from personal to universal and back to the personal in this chilling poem about the ecological destruction bequeathed from one generation to the next. The Fatigue Fatigue is often the first sign something is wrong with one's body. Fatigue looms larger than life in this poem which grapples with meds, family, and coping. Thou Poem A poet reveals the happiest and unhappiest parts of their poetry – in conversation with a poem. Late Prayer Erin Robinsong delivers a quiet and fierce prayer for life on Earth in an age of ecological destruction and oligarchical domination La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad What would you ask a knight if you found him alone and palely loitering along a barren path? 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. I’ve Tasted My Blood In this thunderous poem, the speaker proclaims his rage, anguish, and hope in the face of war and oppression. Language English