Featured poet
Lillian Allen
A leading Canadian poet, Lillian Allen is a leading international exponent of dub poetry and a two-time Canadian Juno award winner. Lillian has been acclaimed a foremother of Canadian poetry by the League of Canadian Poets. She is also an arts activist and a cultural strategist who initiated and developed several key equity impacting arts programs. A mentor to the mentors and ”godmother of everything,” Lillian is also a recipient of many awards and citations, including the Toronto Cultural Champions Award, the Margo Bindhardt Award for significantly impacting the arts in Toronto through both creative work and activism, the William P. Hubbard Award for Race Relations, and an Honorary Doctorate from Wilfred Laurier University for her contribution and impact on Canadian Letters. She is a Professor of Creative Writing at OCAD University where she spearheaded the establishment of a Creative Writing BFA program. Lillian Allen's newest publication is Make the World New: The Poetry of Lillian Allen selected by Ronald Cummings, published by WLU Press September 2021 and available at local bookstores and online sellers. Other books include Women Do this Every Day, Psychic Unrest, plus several books and recordings for children and young people.
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Featured poem
Pandemic
The year 2020 time reversed
the world into a pause
search the lost and found
for meaning
misplaced things
Frantically we grope in quarantine
Within (our)selves
But not quarantined from our fears
and a conscience paper-thin
How can we fathom that stepping out your door
Or going to the supermarket
to get groceries
or to meet up with friends at dusk
could be a death sentence?
Ask any young Black man.
Ask any young Black man
In social isolation we rest
Become restless, the unknown looming
Weighty words;
lockdown, shelter-in-place
social-distance, self-isolation
quarantine
infection-count, intubate
Death-toll
Words screaming for submission
There is an enormity to the immensity
of this pandemic moment
A glum impenetrable disquietude
The Anthropocene like worms in cottonwood
We’ve been moving
through life like it’s our first feast
paid by an anonymous benefactor
with infinite generosity
Our eyes aglitter, everywhere
People say it’s a sign
greed of the world’s ruling classes has gone too far
we have given up too much of our personal values;
Flittering
Our Flitter an accomplice
to the pain of the othered
Now woke-ing from a universal drownin
busy and significance with our Things
We flitter; where to put our efforts
like where to put your eyes in feelings of shame
Then the George Floyd murder
Twisted our necks
And we couldn’t look away
Our Flitter weighted
As we held our breath
Didn’t breathe
until
In a collective gasp
we found
a voice
to exhale
Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter
The streets became our canvas
and the silence of the internet clicked and wanked
till community emerged
coalesced around the horror of racism we all know,
gas-lighted for decades
Black people are harmed by the spit and the spite
Of white people turning away
Even above systemic inequalities and white supremacy
Pressing on our necks
The year 2020 the world changed
before white folks did
before white folks did enough
before white folks did enough to courage-up
to fight against anti-Black racism
We are all in this together
Are we all in this together?
Embrace this poem
Talkback
to this poem with your heart, gentle
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"Pandemic." Copyright © 2020 by Lillian Allen.
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