rob mclennan
3 Poems
January 1
In your language, there is illusion, but there is no hope,In hope, there is illusion.
And in illusion, there is the stuff of language.
– nathalie stephensthis is the begun but then it is
/ the long hangoveran unsteady cough
i am entering into
an unsteady gazeof nothing
new ottawa winter, sunrise,
the year extantan authority of pinstripes,
roses*
an entry of north
an entry of thinkingthe thaw that held us last night all
& then this morninga 5am blinding light
when i returned, i might not leave
all daywould you love me as
i amarchibald lampman
is dead& so his kate,
his figures in stained glassso graceful
in other fieldsa single
a single-madewhat you cant
unheara bullet
January 8
Stand up! Stand
Suzanne is walking by.
– Leonard Cohenit happens
writing, “suzanne wears a leather coat”
the long touch of granite is lost
is not lost
there is wet snow all along the entranceway
her boots are never clean
in the prairies last week, threatened wind chill
of fifty below& who says ottawa is cold
clifton joseph on elgin street from torontowhere he has the lake
& so much further southin the prairies, where there is nothing
to stop the wind
or slow it downfrom the rocky mountains to sudbury
or sioux lookouta leather coat in this weather
at least it can break from the winddid suzanne wear anything else i wonder
on ste catharines street or the isle of hydrai am losing track of my contemporaries
on a saturday morning in the rideau centre
waiting for my daughter & her mothersuzanne her memory is marble
it hasnt changed in eonsnot even erosion can touch her
sing me to sleep; i am four days
remembering nothingthe tim hortons coffee is too hot still
to drinkwhat happens
lay down your marble tea; this is not
about deathsome things forget us, perfectly
in time
January 10
Sometimes a surface lands on the surface,
a pelt on bone.
The inaudible resides over
the word you crave.
– Elizabeth Robinsona sympathetic mode, between here
& the eastsun rises, sets
quitting, closing, moving to bagdad
, whats all this thena shift in some