Two Poems, by Catherine Graham

The Small Hour before Dawn

Grainy light presses
to pull apart, headlights
gleam—into the unblinking
between human/animal—
an elastic 

contracting, sight
hearts the race—deer-blood,
father-blood—surging
the leash
to live
is to smash light.

 

 

My Father Swerved to Miss a Deer

They count like sheep
through me, an endless
leash of antler, hoof— 

Never swerve, they flame. We are ready.

 

 

 

Catherine Graham is a poet, novelist and creative-writing teacher. Her sixth poetry collection, The Celery Forest, was named a CBC Best Book of the Year and was a finalist for the Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry. Michael Longley praised it as “a work of great fortitude and invention, full of jewel-like moments and dark gnomic utterance.” Her work has been translated into Greek, Serbo-Croatian, Bangla, Chinese and Spanish and she has appeared on CBC Radio’s The Next Chapter with Shelagh Rogers. She teaches creative writing at the University of Toronto SCS where she won an Excellence in Teaching Award. Publications include Arc Poetry Magazine, Poetry Daily, Glasgow Review of Books, Poetry Ireland, The Malahat Review and she was recently shortlisted for the Montreal International Poetry Prize. A previous winner of the TIFA’s Poetry NOW, she leads their monthly Book Club and is also an interviewer for By-the-Lake Book Club. Æther: an out-of-body lyric and her second novel, The Most Cunning Heart, are forthcoming. www.catherinegraham.com @catgrahampoet