Biography
Born in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Lorna Crozier is the author of 15 books of poetry, including the Governor General’s Award–winning Inventing the Hawk. Crozier edited the anthologies Breathing Fire: Canada’s New Poets and Breathing Fire 2 with her husband, poet Patrick Lane. She lives in British Columbia.
Micro-interview
I loved "The Lady of Shalott" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson and all of Shakespeare's soliloquies from Macbeth and Hamlet.
I wrote my first poem in grade one and the teacher pinned it on the bulletin board. I think that's why I became a writer. It was about my dog dying though she was very much alive, and everyone felt sorry for me. I didn't dare tell them that I made it up.
I poet's job is to see clearly and to pass that vision on to others. It is to make sense of this extraordinary world and to shine a light on the commonplace and ignored. It is to give voice to what is silent and to make it sing.
"Fear of Snakes" is based on a true incident from my childhood. I did run from a group of boys who were chasing me with a snake and I hid and watched as one of them nailed it to a telephone pole. Years later I wrote the poem because I wanted to make sense of what had happened and I wanted to honour the snake.
I would like to memorizie my own and recite it as beautifully as I've heard students perform it. They blow me away.