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? 

 

Poems By YEAr:

  • “Exploring McNabs Island.” Each Life a Poem: Celebrating Twenty Years of Halifax Humanities. Eds. Susan M. Dodd, Neil Robertson, et al. Halifax: The Halifax Humanities Society, 2026. 4-6.

    “Witness for Viola Desmond,” in “Black History Month” statement by the Honourable Mary Coyle, Senator, on Thursday, February 26, 2026. One poem. Debates of the Senate. [Hansard.] 1st Session, 45th Parliament, Vol. 154, No. 54, p. 1. (Also published in French.)

    “Apricot Blossoms.” One poem. Dalian Natural History Museum. PRC. February 18, 2026. Trans: Yin Xiaoyuan. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/LS5ClKmlQwWq5dF0PmDiUQ

    6 poems. Translated into Bangla by Tasmina Khan and Prof. Dr. Suresh Ranjan Basak. Weekly Bangla Mail. Toronto (ON). 14.13 (Thursday 5 February 2026): 29 & 30.

    “April 16, 1977 (Viewed from April 16, 2022)”; Verses Adapted from Sor Juana de la Cruz: “71: Para cantar a la música de un tono y baile regional….” & “50: En que responde la poetisa … al conde de la Granja” & “19: Puro amor….”; and “Trancelating” the Verses of Agnes Fong (Lucero): “XI.” Five poems. Maple Tree Literary Supplement (28): mtls.ca

    “The Minotaur: An Anatomy, by Sigmund Freud.” One poem. Verse Afire. 3.1 (January 2026): 22.

    “Josef Korzeniowski à Freetown, Sierra Leone (1890).” One poem. Anglistica Pisana. [Pisa, Italy] Fall 2016. [Forthcoming]

    “John Thompson Ghazal #IV,” “April 19, 1981 (Viewed from April 19, 2024),” and “April 19, 1981 (Viewed from April 19, 2024).” Three poems. The New Quarterly. [Forthcoming]

    “April 19, 19—,” “Haligonian Market Cry,” “February 1999,” and “On the Wildlife; or, Saluting the Rampaging Moose of Buttoville, Ontario, November 2017.” Wild Things. Ed. Rhonda Wicks. [Forthcoming]

    “Verte Langue,” “Pear Tree Pome Addendum,” and “Master of Horse: Diary Entry.” Three poems. Freefall. [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]

    “Negro Inventory,” “Harlem Pamphlet (1943) by Langston Hughes,” “Inventario Negro,” and “Folleto de Harlem (1943) para Langston Hughes.” Four poems (two in Mexican Spanish translation). Puntos de Ruta/Waypoints. Trans. & Ed. Colin Carberry. [Forthcoming]

    “‘Trancelating’ the Verses of Agnes Fong (Lucero): (XVII).” One poem. Prairie Fire. 2026. [Forthcoming]

    “The Last Love Song of Francis Chancy.” One poem. Fix Your Hearts or Die: Essays on David Lynch. Louisiana State University Press (LSU Press). [Forthcoming 2026]

    “Ode Re: The Compelling Wind.” One poem. Printed on massive T-shirts for display at Wujiaochang Wanda Plaza and Songjiang Wanda Plaza, Shanghai, China. June 2026. https://we.tl/t-u8RRPwdOo5E222dW

    “for guernica, spain, this love letter.” One poem. Canada and the Spanish Civil War: An Anthology. Eds. Emily Robins Sharpe and Bart Vautour. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2026. 308-311.

    “Ogling Pulsatilla Chinensis.” One poem. [立夏

    The Beginning of Summer, website maintained by the Dalian Natural History Museum, China; published 05/05 [May 5th]. 2026. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/PP6Wk7bg7ZERGC6BHu_I5w

    “The Call to Home.” One poem. Traces: A Canadian Journal of Christian Arts & Letters. 4. May 4, 2026.

    “Morality Police Manual (7th Edition): Foreword.” One poem. Where Words Defeat Bullets: Poems for the Iranian People and Their 2026 Uprising. Ed. Mansour Noorbahksh. Toronto: Asemana Books Canada, 2026. 170-173.

    “The Death of Maximilian I of Mexico,” “On Shakespeare,” “The Death of Cleopatra: Authored by Herself,” and “I—Wagner.” Four poems. POL. 7.7 (September 2005): 342-355.

    “II/MMXX,” “A Year of Cancellation Starts Here,” “Furthermore,” “The Old Book Mark,” “Notes of a ‘Hoteleur,’” “Austin C. Clarke at the Pilot Tavern: Summer 1970, The Playboy Interview,” “Respecting Roger McTair: A Perspective,” “Addendum to ‘Pisan Canto’ for St. Louis Till: By Ezra Pound,” “Ezra Pound @ Rimini, 1935,” and “Emmett Till (1941-1955): A Beginner’s ABC”: Ten poems. Nashwaak Review. Vol 54/55. 1 (Winter Spring 2026): 95-121.

    “Elegy on a Theme by Gasparini.” Con Brio: The Life and Works of Len Gasparini. Ed. J.R. (Tim) Struthers. Toronto: Guernica Editions, 2026. 183.

  • “‘Trancelating’ the Verses of Agnes Fong (Lucero): V, XXXVII & XLV.” Three poems. Riddle Fence. 56 (Winter 2025): 45-47.

    “Yukon / Utopia,” “Envy,” “April 16, 1977,” and “Burning Poems.” Four poems. Sowing the Seeds of Gold. Ed. Brenda Clews. Toronto: The Ontario Poetry Society, 2025. 4, 46, 62, & 100.

    “À Tempio Malatestiano By W.E.B. Du Bois,” “Venezia Ancora (III),” and “About the Rubinstein Staccato Etude.” Three poems. The Malahat Review. 232 (Fall 2025): 96-100.

    “Verses Adapted from Sor Juana de la Cruz (#92: Arguye de inconsecuentes el gusto y la censura de los hombres.…),” “‘Trancelating’ the Verses of Agnes Fong (Lucero): XL,” and “A Coda to the Warren Commission Report.” Three Poems. White Wall Review. 54 (2025).

    https://whitewallreview.com/category/wwr-54/

    “The Pumpkin: An Anatomy.” One poem. Wechat platform. Shaanxi Museum of Natural History. PRC. September 2025. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/cc1q5kN0x6sDuRBtgF6_EA

    “Amore.” One poem. Profusion of Love. Ed. Yin Xiaoyuan. Booklet produced for Exhibition in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, PRC. September 2025. [pp. 11-12.] [See, in “Downloads,” GECAmoreProfusionOfLove.]

    “‘Trancelating’ the Verses of Agnes Fong (Lucero): XXVI & XLIX,” “For E.J.P.,” “Off the Pig!,” “Guilty Pleasure: On Re-Watching Goldfinger (1964),” and ‘The Call to Home.” Six poems. Beltway Special Issue. August 2025. https://www.beltwaypoetry.com/poetry/poets/names/george_elliott_clarke/

    “The Testimony of Nanny-of-the-Maroons.” One poem. Transition. 137 (2024): 50.

    “‘Trancelating’ the Verses of Agnes Fong (Lucero): (XXXII).” One poem. Literary Review of Canada. 33.4 (May 2025): 34.

    “Re: Henry Kissinger,” “Aggression!,” “Once the sun be done…,” “Verses Adapted from Sor Juana de la Cruz (#48: Respondiendo a un caballero del Peru…),” “Green Screen,” “‘Can’t’ Chant,” and “Venezia Acora (II).” Seven poems. African American Review. 57.3-4 (Fall/Winter 2024): 359-365.

    “Observing the Torre de Belem.” One Poem. 𝑯𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒛𝒉𝒐𝒖 𝑪𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝑬𝒙𝒉𝒊𝒃𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏: "𝑵𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝑷𝒐𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒔: 𝑬𝒏𝒄𝒚𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒄 𝑷𝒐𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒚 𝑺𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒍'𝒔 𝑰𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝑰𝒏𝒗𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝑬𝒙𝒉𝒊𝒃𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝑷𝒐𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒚--𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝑯𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒔 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑩𝒓𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑼𝒏𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒅." Hangzhou Shopping Plaza, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China, June 21, 2025.

    “Verses Adapted from Sor Juana de la Cruz’s ‘258. Maitines de la Asuncion, Mexico, 1679….,’” “Observing the Torre de Belem,” and “On African Fashion Philosophy.” Three poems. Asemana Magazine. May 21, 2025. https://open.substack.com/pub/asemanabooks/p/three-poems-by-george-elliott-clarke

    “Verses Adapted from Sor Juana de la Cruz’s ‘322. Maitines de Santa Cantarina de Alejandria, Oaxaca, 1691….’” One poem. Bookworm. #92. April 22, 2025.

    “Le Bateau en état d'ébriété (1870). One poem. Accenti. Pub’d April 18, 2025.

    https://accenti.ca/le-bateau-en-etat-debriete-1870/

    “Looking at a Book Three Ways.” One poem. Selected for Chinese translation and advertising hoarding display at CITIC Books Group branch at Joy City Mall, Beijing, People’s Republic of China. [Of 14 international poets accorded this prestigious honour, GEC was given the most prestigious billing!] March 11, 2025.

    “Ode Re: The Compelling Wind.” One poem. Selected for Chinese Translation and Chiffon Flag presentation via the Encyclopedic Poetry School at Shanghai Zhenru Uni-Park MAX, Shanghai, China, March 2025.

    “Le Bateau en état d'ébriété (1870). One poem. A Literary Harvest: Canadian Writing About Wine and Other Libations. Eds.. Licia Canton, Giulia De Gaspari & Decio Cusmano. Montréal: Longbridge Books, 2025. 205-209.

    “Looking at a Book Three Ways.” One poem. Selected for Chinese translation and Public Banner presentation as well as by video display via the CITIC Books Group at the Sanlituan international cultural centre of Beijing, People’s Republic of China. [Of 19 international poets invited to be considered for this prestigious honour, GEC was one of the top four candidates, and actually finished first!] Broadcast and posted on January 22, 2025. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/WN1yMG0xV1WoXqlU0feMzg

    & https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ESi353KORCprobpU1Eu_vA

    “Paris Annapolis.” One poem. Verse Afire. 2.1 (January 2025): 20.

    “Homage to Skip James,” “‘Brazen’ Daylight Shooting in Little Italy,” “Helsinki—I,” “Pace Barcelona,” “Profile of an Assassination,” “April 16, 1977 (Viewed from April 16, 2024),” and “May 19, 1979.” Seven poems. Maple Tree Literary Supplement #27. Winter 2025. https://www.mtls.ca/issue27/george-elliott-clarke/

  • 2024

    “A Hymn for La Reine Noire, La Déesse du paradis” and “Can’t Chant.” Two poems. The Goblin Markets: 2024 Black Fruit Fellows Anthology. Ed. Alan Wright. Toronto: Black Fruits Press, 2024. 18-21.

    “The ‘Brink’s Coup’ In Reverse.” One poem. Ellipse. 93 (2024). & “Le ‘coup de la Brink’s’ en marche arriere.” French translation by Robert Paquin. Ellipse. 93 (2024).

    https://ellipsemagazine.com/index-93/

    https://ellipsemagazine.com/portfolio-item/le-coup-de-la-brinks-en-marche-arriere/

    “A Portrait of THE John Fraser.” One poem. Dalhousie Unversity Alumni News and Spotlights. Posted September 11, 2024. https://www.dal.ca/alumni/news-and-spotlights/alumni-news/remembering-the-john-fraser-1928-2023-george-elliott-clarke.html?utm_source=Dalhousie+Office+of+Advancement&utm_campaign=2a6d905828-EMAIL_enews-sept24&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-3263912293-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

    “Justice Must Be a Home!,” “No Follow-Up & No Follow-Through Blues,” “‘Trancelating’ the Verses of Agnes Fong (Lucero): XXXIV,” and “Irving Layton Drafts, ‘The Day Aviva Came to Paris.’” Four poems. Gravity of Desire: A Canadian Anthology of Verse. Ed. David Stones. Toronto: Beret Days Press, 2024. 42, 51, 112, 123.

    “Calvin’s Inadvertent Call for Apartheid (1555).” One poem. Swaziland and Soweto Revisited. By Lewis J. Poteet. Rock’s Mills & Oakville (ON): Rock’s Mills Press, 2024. [9].

    “Amsterdamned Torontonians.” One poem. Devour: Art and Lit. 19. (Summer 2024): 70.

    https://issuu.com/richardgrove1/docs/devour_summer_issue_019_-_book_block_for_issuu

    Three haiku. Three poems. Porch to Porch: A Maritime Haiku Anthology. Eds. Blanca Baquero & Carole Martignacco. Ottawa: Haiku Canada, 2024.

    “Guilty Pleasure: Re-Watching You Only Live Twice (1967).” One poem. Verse Afire. 1.2 (June 2024): 26.

    “A Waltz Through Vienna—August 1999,” “Respecting the Sugar Cane Fields of Mauritius,” “Chance Glance Poem,” “Opera: The Art of Loving,” “Marigolds,” and “La-di-dada.”  The Nashwaak Review.  50/51. 1 (Fall/Winter 2023/2024):  87-95.

  • 2023

    “A Portrait of Martin Kuester.”  Prudent Crossings: From Milton’s Paradise to Canada’s Bush Gardens.  Eds. Alessandra Boller, Sylvia Langwald, Anca-Raluca Radu, Waala Said, Kirsten Sandrock.  Augsburg: Wissner-Verlag, 2023.  226-228.

    “Elegy for Elizabeth Windsor (1922-2026).”  Exile.  46.1 (2023):  24-31.

    “November 22, 1963.”  One poem.  Bookworm, No. 18.  Literary Review of Canada.  November 21, 2023.

    “V,” “XXXIV,” “LXIII,” “Trotsky in Halifax,” “Trotsky in Halifax (II),” On Writing J’Accuse…! (Poem versus Silence),” “Years After Stockholm,” and “A Amatoritsero Ede.”  Seven poems.  Maple Tree Literary Supplement.  26.  Autumn 2023.

    https://www.mtls.ca/issue26/george-elliott-clarke/

    “The Pumpkin: An Anatomy,” “Meditation on April,” “Entering Janey’s Arcadia,” “At the Lighthouse,” “In the Wake of Sleep,” “O Bumblebee!,” and “XXIX.” Seven poems.  The Antigonish Review.  52.212 (Winter 2023): 78-84.

    “I have now seen” and “Quiet Blues.”  Two poems.  The Alchemy of Tears.  Toronto: Beret Days Press, 2023.  113-115.

    “Yukon / Utopia.”  One poem.  Verse Afire.  June 2023.  [n.p.]

    “For the Africadian Empowerment Academy.”  One poem.  By Zoom.  Africadian Empowerment Academy, East Preston (NS), March 25, 2023.

    https://youtube.com/live/BNgPFr-WKG8?feature=share

    “Elegy on J.F.K.”  One poem.

    https://richlerlibrary.ca/shelf-portraits/my-autobiography-is-just-a-bibliographical-appendix-to-my-fathers-library

    “Elegy for Alexa Ann (Shaw) McDonough.”  One poem.  Recited by Hon. Mary Coyle.  The Senate, Ottawa (ON), March 7, 2023.  Debates of the Senate, 1st Session, 44th Parliament, Volume 153, Number 103, p. 3009.

    https://youtu.be/VNGuVR6rluY

    “XXXIV” [from J’Accuse…! (2021)].  Columba.  14.  Winter 2023.

    https://www.columbapoetry.com/clarkejaccuse.html

    “African Heritage Month [including reference to Whylah Falls].”  One poem.  Recited by Hon. Mary Coyle.  The Senate, Ottawa (ON), February 14, 2023.  Debates of the Senate, 1st Session, 44th Parliament, Volume 153, Number 100, p. 2942.

    “Observing the Torre de Belém .”  One poem.  The Tourism Office of Portugal in China.  Trans. Yin Xiaoyuan.

    https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Skz6Ct3nZEgFX7wUhNsMWw

    “Respecting the Sugar Cane Fields of Mauritius.”  One poem.  The Tourism Office of Mauritius in China.  Trans. Yin Xiaoyuan.

    https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ADUoo3jwKRDGJ_54E6QR0Q

    “Lessons from Queen’s University.” One poem.  Kingston (ON) Tourism Office website.  Trans. YIN Xiaoyuan. 

    https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/3u-bc7kqnjHxAfAtba1MKg

    “Elegy for Vivian White.”  One poem.  Verse Afire.  January 2023.  [n.p.]

  • “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.]

 

“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.

 

FULL POEM

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.

 

FULL POEM

 

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);

 

FULL POEM

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...

 

FULL POEM

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?

 

FULL POEM

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

 

FULL POEM

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.

 

FULL POEM

Beat Meditations:  Beach / Mountain

 

Waves shining like woven cord and straw—

shoot forth short fronds—

linear whips—

knotting against rocks

or leafing with seaweed,

 

FULL POEM

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,

 

FULL POEM

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;

 

FULL POEM

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

 

FULL POEM

More Poems Online

"Address to a Politico."

For Robert Burns night, published on the League of Canadian Poets website,

January 23, 2018.

"The Gospel of Tobit."

September, 2017.

 

"Answer 3." 

A Dialogue. "Ain't you Scared of the Sacred?" (With Aaron Kent).

April 8, 2017.

 

"Elegy - Non-Partisan - for Fidel Castro."

The Halifax Examiner, December 3, 2016.

 

"The Testament of Ulysses X." 

The Malahat Review, summer 2016.

 

"Solomon 2:1-7" and "Experience 1:1-9"

The Toronto Review of Books, October 15, 2013

Translation of "Self-composed."

Chinese Translation by Anna Yin.

April 22, 2017.

"Extro: Reverie & Reveille."

YVR (Vancouver International Airport, Richmond, British Columbia)

24 Février MMXVII.

(CBC: Published Online September 30, 2017.)

“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

More Poems on Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Archive

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.

42 More Recordings at The Poetry Archive