Raising Canada by Swati Rana
CBC Books | CBC | Posted: November 8, 2017 1:28 PM | Last Updated: November 8, 2017
2017 CBC Poetry Prize longlist
Swati Rana has made the 2017 CBC Poetry Prize longlist for Raising Canada.
About Swati
Swati Rana was born in India and has called Ontario, New Hampshire and California home. Her work has been published in The Asian American Literary Review, Wasafiri, The Dalhousie Review and the Berkeley Poetry Review, as well as other journals. She teaches in the English department at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Entry in five-ish words
Journey north through apocalyptic landscape
The poem's source of inspiration
"These poems record human traces on an otherwise inhuman landscape, reflecting our apocalyptic present and attempting to forestall its predictions. As an imaginative space, Canada signifies one horizon of this project, where the speaker journeys in hope of safety and absolution. The log represents a record of this journey as well as a name for the people who are searching for a sustainable future."
First lines
Log, sun broke down and here are
We alone for night. Strange hour
Dimming mirror of wave keeping
Company, dour pelican in flight,
Its train of fellows already passed
At noonside moving north, north.
We alone for night. Strange hour
Dimming mirror of wave keeping
Company, dour pelican in flight,
Its train of fellows already passed
At noonside moving north, north.