Alice Burdick : Cobourg Poet Makes Shakshuka!

 
from Report from the Ross Society, Vol. 1, No. 1

 

 

 

A poet in a small town rounds
a corner and conducts traffic.
The four corners of his cerebral
cortex turn and levitate a heart-
felt lake front. Fine friend,
ideas listserv, a swerving lit
candle in a window for the winds
off Lake Ontario. Rooms
and doors fall in line, passages
on turntables, faint light
in a room of books and rugs.
Well, there are many consecutive
buffets, open and then closed,
but the best thing is to eat spicy primordial eggs in a
small town tomato historical reenactment. 

In this poet’s life, there are many intersections,
many routes. Stuart Ross, an innate city dweller,
has walked in cities, but also he has walked in rural areas,
and not only these places! He has walked
up the walls of consciousness, which
are located in dreams, chores, breathings,
houses, books, stair treads, big bright
breezes and hot tea. He has brought a pen
and paper, and cowboy shirts, on these walks.
Stuart Ross, you should know, makes the ladders
that climb all these walls. No fort withstands
his technique of joyful alacrity.

 

 

 

 

Alice Burdick is the author of four full-length poetry collections, Simple Master, Flutter, Holler, and Book of Short Sentences, and one selected: Deportment: The Poetry of Alice Burdick. She has also authored two cookbooks, and her essays and poetry have appeared in many chapbooks, broadsides, folios, magazines, journals, and anthologies. She has been a judge for various awards, including the bpNichol Chapbook Award. She also visits elementary and high school English classes as a “Poet In Your Class” through Poetry in Voice/les Voix de la Poésie, and leads workshops through the Writers Federation of Nova Scotia.