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
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.