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! Vancouver Lights This wartime poem looks out at Vancouver’s nighttime skyline and contemplates humanity. Let the Ponies Out In this poem, a dramatic monologue, the speaker implores their father to do something both real and more real in its imagining. From Red Doc In this poem-as-a-conversation, a man and his mother consider how the past lives on in the present. The Blue Guitar In this glosa poem, P.K. Page strums out questions about being an artist and telling the truth. For My Best Friend One way to grieve is to give tribute, perhaps even before the person you are grieving is completely gone. In Exile I Draw the Tower Card A poem that explores the loss of taken-for-granted abilities that lead to existential questions about oneself. 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? Two Words: A Wedding bpNichol presents life as a river of ever-changing words and asks us to step in. But I’m No One But I’m No one is a reflection on our tendency to fear death and the manifestation of this fear through uncanny beliefs. I Feel the Sun This poem articulates the poet’s intense feeling about the sunlight after going through a long winter. 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. I Feel the Sun This poem articulates the poet’s intense feeling about the sunlight after going through a long winter. Plenty Who would have thought a trip to the grocery store could be so full of beauty? Five Postcards from Jericho Postcards to regret, to time, to anyone at all Declaration of Intent Rita Wong invokes the "sacred bond" of water in this poem that invites us to learn from watersheds, and to act in their defense. Blank Sonnet Set in Halifax of the 1930s, this sensual, inebriated love poem plays with the sonnet form. Vancouver Lights This wartime poem looks out at Vancouver’s nighttime skyline and contemplates humanity. The Potato Harvest This lonely poem is about so much more than a bare field. 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. Qawanguq with Fox Abigail Chabitnoy’s dreamscape of a poem depicts a coy little fox. Fear of Snakes The life of a snake and the memory of girlhood trauma are told in sinuously entwined language. But I’m No One But I’m No one is a reflection on our tendency to fear death and the manifestation of this fear through uncanny beliefs. One Art When loss feels inevitable, sometimes the only thing to do is write it down… Buen Esqueleto With its allusions and repetitions, “Buen Esqueleto” speaks powerfully on behalf of families caught in the contemporary U.S. border conflict. 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… Marshlands Quietly pause to take in the colours and sounds of a marsh. April 30, 2014 One spring day, dreading an afternoon appointment that will dredge up all kinds of terrible memories, the speaker of the poem focuses on the natural world around her. Mantra of No Return It is possible to travel home when one has never been there. This poem does. Death of a Young Son by Drowning Blurring time but clarifying feeling, this poem gives voice to a mother who loses a son and gains a country. Letters In this tender poem tracing a lost love, the speaker holds on by letting things go… Blank Sonnet Set in Halifax of the 1930s, this sensual, inebriated love poem plays with the sonnet form. 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. The Tyger In the woods at night, the speaker talks to a magical animal… 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. The ABG (Able-Bodied Gaze) The abled-bodied gaze is an intrusive force in this poem, making a spectacle of a disabled body and attempting to reduce them to their impairment. 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 “Breathe dust…” Nearly punctuation-free, this is a breathless journey through memories of a youth spent in rural Canada. The Lonely Land In this free verse poem, snapshots of a wild landscape show that beauty and conflict are not mutually exclusive — and that one may be derived from the other. Aliens Visit the Islands In “Aliens Visit the Islands,” Terese Mason Pierre describes an extraterrestrial landing in the Caribbean that subverts familiar sci-fi tropes. The Potato Harvest This lonely poem is about so much more than a bare field. Pagination 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next › Next page Last » Last page Language English