Sylvia Legris

book-legris-nervesquall

Griffin Poetry Prize 2006
Canadian Winner

Book: Nerve Squall

Poet: Sylvia Legris

Publisher: Coach House Books

Click here to read and listen to an excerpt.

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

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