An advent calendar of poetry: December 7 | Arts & Culture | Halifax, Nova Scotia | THE COAST

An advent calendar of poetry: December 7

Halifax poet laureate Sue Goyette delivers her seventh daily poem between now and Winter Solstice.

Editor's Note: Each day from December 1 -21, Halifax' poet laureate Sue Goyette will write a new poem to share with the city on The Coast's website and social media. "If I need this, I bet other people need this," she told us on day one—and we think she's right. In a year that's felt like a months-long dusk, this will be some light we can carry forward, together, until the days begin to grow again.
Here is her poem for December 7:

When the body is the last company, hands beguile: beaks in long grass, typing for food. It sleeps only to dream of company arriving in a heap of carpetbags and telescopes. The body insists on the best platter for the toast. It wants cream, now it wants a poem: The goal is to make not sense but art of the story, the body is told by another body living on in its cathedral of The Lion, Talking Pictures book. Oof, the body counts the names of important people born on this day. 1352 years without a noteworthy woman if the body is to believe what it reads. The body sags a little. Little body sags. It reads the Great Storm of 1703 was God’s vengeance, a young journalism reported. The government told bodies the storm loudly calls for the deepest and most solemn humiliation of our people: a day of fasting. Bodies eat this kind of reading for breakfast. Affinity for the infinitive, this body insisted on this morning: to breathe, to sing, to light, to give, not wanting chair or sink or door. The body beside itself.

Morgan Mullin

Morgan was the Arts & Entertainment Editor at The Coast, where she wrote about everything from what to see and do around Halifax to profiles of the city’s creative class to larger cultural pieces. She started with The Coast in 2016.
Comments (0)
Add a Comment