Griffin Poetry Prize 2006
Canadian Winner
Book: Nerve Squall
Poet: Sylvia Legris
Publisher: Coach House Books
Sylvia Legris reads 4 MARKED BY CLAWS AND CLOUDBURST …
4 MARKED BY CLAWS AND CLOUDBURST …
The calendar marred with birds and you are kik-kik-kik-kicking all the way into June.
180 days scratched with black X’s and crow’s feet: bird-of-two-minds (goodandevil
goodandevil)
single-minded bird (plotting the sky).—
… birds … notorious … birds (… ruffled feathers and fiendish …)
Rain-divining ducks; rain-murderous blackbirds, hollering hollering from sunrise to sunrise.
Long day after longest day of wing-striped sky, sun eclipsed by featuers. Blue-black,
bruise-black,
antigen-tinged half moons under your eyes. Beleagured just by thoughts
of countless birds, prospects of an entire summer riddled with peck-marks and quills …Even under closed eyes: oneiric birds; four stages of sleep, each one soaring you deeper
And deeper into raptor-psyche: Cooper’s hawk, Red-tailed hawk, Black-shouldered kite
keep-keep-keep… getting sleepy … sleepier …
From Nerve Squall
Copyright © Sylvia Legris, 2005