Thursday, June 20, 2024

Clea Roberts : What can be done, as if an answer/ is possible?

folio : Barry McKinnon (1944-2023)

 

-         for Barry McKinnon

 

You push
broadsheets like
illicit substances

under the fluorescent light
of Muffin Break,

take the top off
a chocolate chip delight.

I only want the whole fucking world, you say,
so the next time we meet

I bring a globe that spins,
set it on the table between us.

*

A printing press
sits in your basement—
a life’s ballast.

You’ve stayed
for all the reasons—

because you love the place
and hate it too.

*

It’s years before
I understand
what you really wanted:

a home, a people,
poetry rising
from the dark places,

a page spacious enough
to hold the light.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clea Roberts lives on the outskirts of Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada with her husband and two children. Her poetry has been translated and published internationally and has been nominated for the League of Canadian Poets Gerald Lampert Award, the ReLit Award and a National Magazine Award. She has received fellowships from the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Atlantic Centre for the Arts, Vermont Studio Centre and is a five time recipient of the Yukon Advanced Artist Award. Clea facilitates a poetry and grief workshop through Hospice Yukon. Her website is www.clearoberts.ca.