recent Poems
Elegy for Alexa Ann (Shaw) McDonough
(1944-2022)
I
A Kindergarten is what a proper
Legislature is, where the Treasury
Is Sharing. How else do humans prosper
If not by Charity beyond measure?
To parcel out fairly peanut butter
Cookies, sluiced down by lemonade, and teach
That Policy is Rhyme—never stuttered—
And Law is verses versus what pirates preach,
So the bee may hop-scotch, dipsy-doodle,
And songbird serenade (like Portia White),
And poutine mash well with apple strudel,
And finger paints mirror stained-glass delights….
II
So did you model such Wisdom, Beauty,
O Miss Shaw, sprightly and winsome, laughing
In your lessons, the chalked-letter duties
Lightning cross blackboards, sea chanteys puffing
From a record player, or flared spirituals
Hymning out of sing-song mouths and cherry
Or ebon cheeks? Pure, Mother Goose minstrels—
Our alphabets sloppy, dictionaries
With crayon-crazed pages half-torn-out—
We well-versed citizens are, who do trust
That Magic is possible when we vote,
And abracadabra rhymes with must.
O my teacher, an essential element
Of the Superb, so you were—in plaid skirt,
Working daily such endless astonishments:
Crafts to soothe bruised egos, kiss-salves for hurts;
So intrinsically sensitive, or stern—
To cure misdeeds with sharp look or a hug,
As you could, so we civil rites would learn
And our human rights never would we shrug.
III
You always said I was a rascal boy
In that pre-school legislature of yarns,
Tall tales, short naps, where ideas were toys—
Pixie-dust dreams, such Nonsense that discerns
Better ways of thinking, being, doing,
While Charity ushers Euphoria.
(What’s a rainbow save all colours hewing
To-and-from gilt phantasmagoria?)
O my teacher, the first politico
To breathe my Poetry into Hansard,
News of your passing stirs my vertigo—
Til tear-cracked eyes and tear-wracked voice (censored
No more), now weep for you—liberator
Of gulag-tortured man or downpressed mom—
Opponent of each troop-backed dictator;
Sister to each feminist from-the-womb!
IV
O my teacher, to the assembly born—
The whole people’s parliamentarian—
You took my mom and me boating one morn
On waters smooth, egalitarian.
After, as the sun washed its beams in froth—
And you and my mom talked of schoolbook things—
I spooned clam-chowder’s buttered broth,
And chewed cookies, slurped juice, and soared on swings.
That was one day distinct from thousands since—
One moment of momentous radiance!
The lesson taught? O Joy is Insolence
Upsetting all vile, petty governments.
The House of Commons’ most uncommon Sense—
Intransigent, insurgent Eloquence—
O my teacher (Grammar all future-tense)—
You taught—I witnessed—deathless Magnificence.
For the Murdered & The Missing: A Spiritual
Someone’s guilty of a million crimes!
Blood on his hands, Death on his mind!
To send my sister away, away;
To put my mama in a distant grave.
Why she gotta be murdered?
Why she gotta go missing?
This land is hers, so I heard!
All the saints are insisting!
Someone’s gotta sink in Hell and rot!
Dumped bones in bush or parking lot.
Disappeared my auntie, saw her die;
Exiled my daughter, served her Misery!
Why she gotta be missing?
Why she gotta be murdered?
Why I hear Justice hissing
Like a viper in a graveyard?
2022
“XIX,” “XLII,” “For the Murdered and the Missing,” and “I have now seen.” Four poems. Indigenous: A Great Lakes Anthology of Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Poetry. Ed. Ron Riekki. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press. [Forthcoming]
“On My Dark Hobby and Blackest Art,” “16 / 61,” and “The Poet.” Three poems. The Beltway Poetry Quarterly. August 2021. [Forthcoming]
“Isolation.” One poem. South Shore (Nova Scotia) Library Association. [Forthcoming]
“The (Imagined) Testament of George Taylor, Late of St. Marys (ON).” One poem. Celebrating the Black Family: Resistance, Agency, and Change. Eds. Michelle H.A. Bailey & Stanley Doyle-Wood. [Forthcoming]
“Corinthians XIII,” “Surah Al-Mursalaat,” and “Matthew V.” Three poems. The White Wall Review. 2020. [Forthcoming]
“The Founding of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia: By Col. Charles Lawrence, Overseer,” “‘Sam Slick’ Contradicts Harriet Beecher Stowe,” “Papers of Edward Mitchell Bannister, Barbizonian,” “Bannister Reflects,” William Hall, V.C., Remembers,” “Chronicle of the Triumph of William Hall, V.C., at The Relief of Lucknow, India: By Sir Richard Burton,” “The True History of Jesse Williams.” Seven poems. Harriet's Legacies: Race, Historical Memory, and Futures in Canada. Eds. Natalee Caple & Ronald Cummings. Kingston & Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2021. 69-104. [Forthcoming]
“À Mary Oliver” and “W.E.B. Du Bois Critiques Coleridge.” Two poems. Prairie Fire. 2021. [Forthcoming]
“Jones/Baraka.” One poem. Canadian Literature. 807 (2021). [Forthcoming]
“A Gigabyte-Size Let-Down.” One poem. Africanthology: Perspectives of Black Canadian Poets. Ed. A. Gregory Frankson. Gatineau: Renaissance Press, 2022. 183-184.
“Are Poets Ever Legible or Legitimate?” One poem. Verse Afire. January 2022. [n.p.]
2021
“The Liberation of the Creole (1841),” “A French Slaveholder Revises the Revolution,” “Dessalines Comments on L’Ouverture’s End,” “Frederick Douglass Writes to President Lincoln,” “Aux Brésiliennes,” and “Isandlwana (II).” 6 poems. Maple Tree Literary Supplement. 25. Fall 2021.
“Manifesto of the New Untouchables” and “Masquerade Sonnet.” Two poems. 2020: An Anthology of Poetry. Ed. Judith S. Bauer. Parrsboro (NS): Black Dog & One-Eyed Press, 2021. 85 & 149-151.
“Ezra Pound.” The Trinity Review. 133.2 (Spring 2021): 39.
“At Dover Beach.” One poem. The Beauty of Being Elsewhere: Poems of Journey and Sojourn. Ed. John B. Lee. N.p.: Hidden Brook Press, 2021. 44-45.
“Against the Government of Nova Scotia.” One poem. Love Lies Bleeding: A Canadian Poetry Anthology. Comp. George Elliott Clarke. Toronto: The Ontario Poetry Socitey, 2021. 58.
“Landing: A Love Story.” One poem. The LaHave Review. Fall 2021.
“Self-Composed,” “Au Tombeau de Keats,” “Translated from the Spanish,” “Exile,” “Ode to Machiavelli,” and “Experience 1: 1-9.” Six poems with Chinese translations. Mirrors and Windows: East-West Poems with Translations. Ed. & Trans. Anna Yin. Toronto: Guernica Editions, 2021. 14-17.
“Weathering.” One poem. Poemdemic. Ed. Honey Novick. Toronto: The Secret Handshake Gallery, 2021. 49.
“Weathering.” One poem. [spaces] Literary Journal. 15 (2020/2021): 45.
“Self-Portrait (III)” and “Rime Mire.” Two poems. KOLA. 33.1 (Spring 2021): 63-64.
“Blank Sonnet.” One poem. Verse Afire. April 2021. [n.p.]
“On Basic Income.” One poem. The Case for Basic Income. By Jamie Swift & Elaine Power. Toronto: Between the Lines, 2021. xv-xvi.
“16 avril mcmlxxvii,” “The Poetics: Redux,” and “Athletic Aesthetic.” Three poems. Literature for the People. 2 (2021): 52-54.
“Inside the Nova Scotia Statistical Average,” “Rigid Truth,” and “Louiselle Bosse Morin.” Three poems. WordCity. April 2021. Issue 8.
“Au Tombeau de Keats [1822].” One poem. The Celebration of Poetry 20th Anniversary Anthology. Ed. I.B. Iskov. Toronto: Beret Days Press, 2021. 50.
“Whitewash” and “Towards the Declension of ‘Unprecedented.’” Two poems. Vallum. 18.1 (2021). Electronic edition. xi-xxi.
“Cristoforo Colombus Witnesses.” One Poem. Poets’ Corner Reading Series. January 23, 2021.
“The War Scroll—XII” and “Gospel of Peter—III.” Two poems. The Trinity Review. 132. (Spring 2020) [published January 2021]: 51-53.
“Self-Composed,” “Au Tombeau de Keats,” “Translated from the Spanish,” “Exile,” “Ode to Machiavelli,” and “Experience I: 1-9.” Six poems. Translated into Chinese by Anna Yin. Mirrors and Windsows: East West Poems with Translations. Ed. & Trans. Anna Yin. WePoetry. Vol. 28 (January 2021).
“Chancy’s Menu.” One poem. Verse Afire. January 2021. [n.p.]
2020
“À St. Matthias.” One poem. ‘Membering Austin Clarke. Ed. Paul Barrett. Waterloo (ON): Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2020. 189.
“Manifesto of the New Untouchables.” One poem. We are One: Poems from the Pandemic. Ed. George Melnyk. Calgary: Bayeux Arts, 2020. 70-73.
“Entitled.” One poem. Seven Chinese translations. Global Poets and Artists Monthly. October 2020. 全球诗人艺术家月刊：全球洲与洲诗人对话-美洲与欧洲诗人对话 - 美篇 (meipian5.cn)
“Blank Sonnet” and “The Ballad of Othello Clemence.” Two poems translated into Bangla. Trans. Farzana Naz. Daily Jugantor. Bangladesh. October 2020.
“Esther VII.” One poem. Columba. Issue 5 (Fall 2020): October 14, 2020.
“Ain’t You Scared of the Sacred: A Spiritual.” One poem. Recited by Rhodnie Désir. “[In]verse.” Fall for Dance North. Published on website. October 5, 2020.
“Walcott.” One poem. Literary Review of Canada. 28.8 (October 2020): 8.
“Mormon Speaks!,” “Right-O! Right On!,” “Death of a Woman by Train,” and “22 novembre 1963.” Four poems. Literature for the People. 1 (2020): 110-116.
“Self-Stampeded in Our Spring of Discontent.” One poem. Exile. 43.2 (2020): [Inside front cover].
“On Basic Income.” One poem. July 16, 2020. Basic Income Calgary and Ontario Basic Income.
“Amherst African Methodist Episcopal Church.” One poem. Sunday Edition. CBC Radio. Sunday, June 14, 2020.
“Emmett Till (1941-1955): A Beginner’s ABC.” One poem. Freefall. XXX.1 (Spring 2020): 8-15.
“19 avril/Nisan MMXX.” One poem. Verse Afire. Spring 2020. [n.p.]
2019
“Answer 1 [Claire Claremont’s Ventriloquized Response (circa 1852)],” “Answer 2 [The Odyssey of Ulysses X: Outtake],” and “Answer 3 [Ain’t You Scared of the Sacred?].” Three poems. Poetic Interviews. Edited and Conducted by Aaron Kent. Carmarthenshire, Wales: Broken Sleep Books, 2019. 135, 137-139, 141-142.
“Ecclesiasticus XLIX” and “Baraka I.” Two poems. Kola. 31.2 (Fall 2019): 20-26.
“Ballad: To Vote ‘Yes’ Always for the Winnipeg General Strike!” One poem. Labour / Le Travail. 84 (Fall 2019): 17-23.
“For Robinson Jeffers.” One poem. Tor House Newsletter. [Carmel-by-the-Sea (CA)]. Winter 2019.
“Thanksgiving Hymn I” & “V.” Two poems. Riddle Moon. 34 (Fall 2019): 5-8.
“Elegy for Gord Downie via a Review of Coke Machine Glow.” Verse Afire (January 2020): [n.p.]
“Mao Reads Pound,” “Addendum to ‘Pisan Canto’ for St. Louis Till, By Ezra Pound,” “James Madison Bell in Canada (1865),” “Jean Toomer Seduces Georgia O’Keeffe (1930),” “Adah Isaccs Menkens’s Compromise,” and “Mao Approaches Nanking.” Six poems. 52.1 (Fall 2019): Special Issue: The Windsor Review at 50+. 311-328.
“Daniel VI.” One poem. Vallum. 16.2 (2019): 56-57.
“Ruth—I,” “Ruth—IV,” “Ezra—III,” and “Ezra—VIII.” Four poems. Maple Tree Literary Supplement. 24 (October 2019-September 2020). ISSN 1916-341X.
“To Vote or Veto? An Elector’s Vice Versa.” One poem. The Current. CBC Radio. October 6, 2019.
“The Letter of Jeremiah.” One poem. Kola. 31.1 (Spring 2019): 19-26.
Excerpt from “Absolution” (from Whylah Falls). One poem. Frankfurt Book Fair “Scroll.” Library of Parliament. Frankfurt Book Fair 2020.
“Enus.” One poem. The Amethyst Review. August 17, 2019.
“Song of Solomon—VII.” One poem. Braided Way Magazine. June 4, 2019.
“I have now seen….” One poem. My Nova Scotia Home. Ed. Vernon Oickle. Lunenburg (NS): MacIntyre Purcell Publishing Inc., 2019. 7-9.
“Samson II.” One poem. Canadian Literature. 237 (2019): 83-84.
“Exodus XX (Gloss),” “Ruth II,” “Ruth III,” and “Ezra VI.” Four poems. Ottawater. 15 (January 2019): 17-20.
“Musing On the Apple Cider Doughnut.” Verse Afire. June 2019. [10].
“For Joan Jones, Sanctified and Righteous.” In honour of Civil Rights Activist Joan Jones. The Chronicle Herald. June 1, 2019.
“Moses” and “Song of Solomon—VII.” Two poems. Braided Way Magazine. February 5, 2019.
“Wisdom of Solomon VI,” “VIII,” and “IX.” Three poems. The Pangolin Review. January 8 2019.
“Exodus XX (Gloss),” “Ruth II,” “Ruth III,” and “Ezra VI.” In Ottawater. January 2019.
2018
“At Ortona: An Oratorio.” A poem. The Globe and Mail. [Toronto (ON)] Thursday, December 27, 2018. A19.
“Discourse on Pure Virtue.” Translated into Bangla by Farzana Naz. October 9, 2018.
“Zanzibar: A Meditation on Slavery.” A poem handwritten on Fairmont Hotel Chain stationery and mounted and framed, and also printed, for exhibit, “eRacism.” Curator: Paul Crawford. Penticton Art Gallery, Penticton (BC), July 6, 2018-September 16, 2018.
"Address to a Politico." For Robert Burns night, published on the League of Canadian Poets website, January 23, 2018.
“The Tragedy of Whylah Falls.” Song by Vanessa Wang (inspired by GEC’s Whylah Falls). Recorded February 2022.
Excerpt from “Achieving Disaster, Dreaming Resurrection: Witnessing the Halifax Explosion, 6 December 1917, and After.” Halifax Explosion Remembrance, 2018. With Pianist Tim Crofts.
“Storm.” Featuring Phoenix Pagliacci and George Elliott Clarke.
“Rollcall.” Commissioned by Canadian Heritage as part of Black History Month, celebrating the contributions of African/Black Canadians. Accompanied by Timothy Crofts of Fountain School of Performing Arts on piano.
MORE
Poems written as Parliamentary Poet Laureate
From the Diary of William Andrew White, à Lajoux, Jura, France, Décembre 1917
A powerful rain
dins down these mountains,
rinses peak snow into hellish streams,
floods gully and pitfall.
Ain’t You Scared of the Sacred?: A Spiritual
Ain’t you scared of the Sacred?
Ain’t you scared of the Sacred?
Divinity spies you naked.
Tremble or your heart breaketh.
Up in Smoke, or Reverie on the “Mary Jane” Legislation
If Parliament high-fives marijuana,
Druggists will decide that grass is manna
(Reefer potent right now—and mañana:
Good weed feeds medicinal arcana);
Kaddish for Leonard Cohen
(à la manière d'Allen Ginsberg)
This terrible, irritable dawn—
This morning of Mourning—
His obituary crowbars apart
Prophecy and Nostalgia...
Letter to Canada
(pace Allen Ginsberg's "America")
Canada, when will we finally enforce a Pax Canadiana in America,
replacing all their automatic weapons with hockey sticks?
An Elegy for Gord Downie—
via A Review of Coke Machine Glow)
Elegantly trick-riding rain—
Savvy as Grant Fuhr in the crease—
Levitates militantly, but
Still drops, freckling, speckling sidewalks
On Heckling, or Oral Violations of Standing Order 16
To exclaim, loudly, is no boorish act -
So long as Members honour the contract
That one is silent to let others speak,
To audit discourse with thought forensic.
Beat Meditations: Beach / Mountain
Waves shining like woven cord and straw—
shoot forth short fronds—
linear whips—
knotting against rocks
or leafing with seaweed,
i have now seen….
i have now seen -
nestled twixt warped ties of rusted train tracks,
snow, aged dingy, grey and black,
frosting loose, brown dirt and jumbled gravel,
Yukon / Utopia
In “Spell of the Yukon,” Bobby Service suggests,
The realm’s Utopia—snock snarls of forests;
Avalanches that out-grumble politicos;
Gold that outweighs paper dollars backed by zeroes;
On Political Economy; or, The Ballad of Viola
Desmond
It's impossible proof! The ten-dollar
Bill sporting her face demonstrates "Crime pays":
But, first, the heroine has to holler;
She has to be jailed while ass-like Law brays
More Poems Online
"Address to a Politico."
For Robert Burns night, published on the League of Canadian Poets website,
January 23, 2018.
"Solomon 2:1-7" and "Experience 1:1-9"
The Toronto Review of Books, October 15, 2013
"Extro: Reverie & Reveille."
YVR (Vancouver International Airport, Richmond, British Columbia)
24 Février MMXVII.
(CBC: Published Online September 30, 2017.)
“A Rimini (1906)” and “Julius Caesar’s Report On His Assassination.”
Carteggi Letterari, November 12, 2016.
“III. The Fire Sermon"
Waste Land German translation by Paul Celan [1947]. The Walrus. April 15,
2016.
"Royal Audience"
Eyewear, the Blog, January 7, 2011
Recorded Readings
“Never,” performed with Chris White and Mary Gick at Parliament Hill, November 17, 2017.
“Position/Status/Place.” Poem for the Minister for the Status of Women. October 23, 2017.
"An Introduction to the Late Revolution in 'Haiti': by Abraham Lincoln (1834)."
“On Autism or Authoritative Art.” Performed at the Metcalfe Hotel in Ottawa, Canada for Autism Canada.
"Everything Is Free". Ron Davis' brilliant SymphRONica - the electric/acoustic jazz/pop/string group - accompany Clarke and vocalist Shelley Hamilton in a performance of the poem.
“Surveying Winnipeg.” Written by George Elliott Clarke as the Poet Laureate of Parliament, about Winnipeg.
George Elliott Clarke reads at the Art Bar Poetry Series, September 13, 2016.
“Poem on Transgender Equality, or Re: Bill C-16.” Recited into Hansard record of the House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario, by Julie Dabrusin, MP, on November 18, 2016, at 12:57 p.m. (EST).
“Jealousy.”
“A Edgar Mittelholzer.” Performed to the music, “Magmatea,” by Triat.