Joanne Arnott : Three poems

 

 

 

Bird of Wisdom

arising through bark
of tree slipping free

sweeping through corridors
tidy impositions best intentions

the world your egg
your nest the world

  

 

Sky in a Dream

sleepbound human glimpsing
clear blue sky

spirit rising from bed to travel
through the immensity

glimpsing vast geographies
in small things

  

 

for Saeed in Rasht City

pandemic surrounds our cherry blossom sunlight   
deaths and illnesses birdsong starlight                     
ever-changing rules and hope and moonlight            

inclusive of all forms of government                        
embracing all cultures and possible race of human 
being— virus connects us 

you write to me of heartbreak and ICU                  
i worry for your well-being across the miles                        
with Kermani, gathering dust                                   

 

 

 

 

 

Joanne Arnott is a writer, editor, arts activist, originally from Manitoba, at home on the west coast.

She received the Gerald Lampert Award (LCP 1992) and the Vancouver Mayor’s Art Award for Literary Arts (2017). She has published six poetry books, a collection of short nonfiction and a children’s illustrated. Recent publications include her third poetry chapbook, Pensive & beyond (Nomados Press 2019) and the co-edited volume, Honouring the Strength of Indian Women: Plays, Stories and Poetry by Vera Manuel (U of Manitoba Press 2019). A new chapbook, pandemic friendship, is forthcoming from above/ground press.

Joanne is Poetry Mentor for The Writers Studio, Simon Fraser University, and Poetry Editor for EVENT Magazine. She is currently a Shadbolt Fellow (2021-22) at SFU. She is one of the co-founding members of the Aboriginal Writers Collective West Coast.

Joanne is mother to six young people, all born at home with the benign support of husbands and midwives.