Nothing Bothers to Remain by Ross Belot
CBC Books | Posted: October 31, 2018 8:14 PM | Last Updated: November 1, 2018
2018 CBC Poetry Prize longlist
Ross Belot has made the 2018 CBC Poetry Prize longlist for Nothing Bothers to Remain.
About Ross
Ross Belot is a poet, photographer, documentary filmmaker and an energy and climate change columnist. He previously worked for a major Canadian petroleum company for decades. Now he writes eco-poetics and diatribes about government climate change inaction. Ross was a finalist for the 2016 CBC Poetry Prize and his first collection, Swimming In The Dark, was published in 2008. His second collection, Nothing Bothers To Remain, was just accepted by Wolsak and Wynn for spring 2020 publication. In 2017, he completed an MFA at Saint Mary's College of California. He frequently lives in Hamilton with his longtime cat companion, Vince.
Entry in five-ish words
Please save our planet now.
The poem's source of inspiration
"I wanted to deal with the cognitive dissonance of being aware of the advantages of living in a fossil fuel society while knowing truly terrible things result from that fact. The poem also deals with another cognitive dissonance, looking out on beautiful scenery while also knowing the land was brutally taken from others and there is ongoing brutality associated with those historic actions. And also highlighting our political leaders will not resolve this dissonance for us, perhaps even thrive on it."
First lines
9 cormorants skim English Bay's surface, in a line stretching. 9 ocean going freighters parked a mile out, wait to be summoned past First Narrows to offload cargo, spread across English Bay's mouth, weight not just in holds, but in tonnes of carbon to get here. That harbour seal spinning in the water. Then under and gone. Captain Vancouver landed in 1792, not first, that was José María Narváez a year before. Back before any Europeans: so good later it had to be clear cut.
About the 2018 CBC Poetry Prize
The winner of the 2018 CBC Poetry Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, will have their work published on CBC Books and will have the opportunity to attend a writing residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and have their work published on CBC Books.