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Post by louisa on Oct 13, 2008 5:18:07 GMT 2
Daphne Marlatt(Dis)spelling
the alphabet of fear, a current running just offshore, off the edge of some clan pier which wasn’t mine, the sinking feel of footings underwater, ankle-deep on what remains, afraid i’ll drown, swept out (there was a broom) to sea.
close by two women wade, prosaic under sun umbrella, hauling pigeons to sell. i too discover i can walk … deep in this place that feels like history, old jossticks burning, old offerings.
here on this once bombed island i re-enter my singular, body alive in the halflight morning, in a rush of wings (gone) the cooroo song (blue dove, blue vulnerable yearn- ing). you call me and i am speechless. you call me and i am still. out of this murmuring wreckage of names, old beach, iam finding a new floor. miles off i walk in water feeling the current, our swift magnetic current run, all around the islands sinking in me and you. From “Booking Passage” in Salvage, Red Deer College Press, 1991 and www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/people/poet/poem-of-the-week/poems-e.htm?param=58Other sites of interest:
robmclennan.blogspot.com/2008/02/12-or-20-questions-with-daphne-marlatt.html
www.nwpassages.com/bios/marlatt.asp
www.uwo.ca/english/canadianpoetry/cpjrn/vol31/chan.htm
www.athabascau.ca/writers/dmarlatt.html
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