A Good Closing

A poem, a new chapbook, an invitation to a reading

A Good Closing

The purple hills.
The busy work

of robins through
the saskatoons.

The photos sorted 
by who’s in them, 

boxes with big labels 
she can no longer read.

What might be 
heirlooms—

wristwatch, pocket watch, 
handkerchief, chisel, 

a darning mushroom,
a tin of teaspoons.

Still the urge is for 
story. She wants to give.

A bright yellow moon 
rises in her mind.

A small pink curl 
of cloud. 

No language 
for any of it.

---

This poem comes from a new chapbook now making its way into the world, published by Deer Mountain Pages.

The poems in Calling It Back to Me trace, falteringly, my great-grandparents' arrivals to this continent, and more specifically my great-grandmothers—what brought them here, what they left behind. Heirlooms, receding memory, basement shelving, airport line-ups, industrial farming, genealogy, climate collapse, colonial theft: just some of the tunes this small book whistles. And how the settlement story, the split from home to make a new home elsewhere, repeats, unresolved.

On September 20, we’re going to launch Deer Mountain Pages’ two new titles—mine and D. Ptryrczwz’s—and celebrate all that DMP has published. You, dear friend, dear reader, are invited!

If you’re in Toronto, please come on over to Flying Books, where we’ll have all DMP’s titles for sale, as well as the two new ones. And if you’re farther afield or unable to attend in person, you can tune in to a livestream of the readings on DMP’s YouTube channel and buy books directly from their website.

With thanks, and happy September to you,

Laurie