Melanie Power has made the 2019 CBC Poetry Prize longlist for Ode to the Half-Moon.

The winner of the 2019 CBC Poetry Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, have their work published on CBC Books and attend a two-week 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.

The shortlist will be announced on Nov. 14, 2019. The winner will be announced on Nov. 21, 2019.

Melanie Power's poetry has been published in The Malahat Review, Room, Southword Journal, Prairie Fire, Riddle Fence, The Antigonish Review and elsewhere. Her poem Harvest won the 2019 Glass Buffalo Poetry Contest. This spring, she attended the Writer's Studio residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity. She holds an MA in English literature and creative writing from Concordia University. Born in St. John's, she now lives in Montreal.

A poem that causes cavities.

"This poem started as an ode to the actual moon. I was doing a residency in Banff and there was such staggering beauty in every direction. But the night I sat down to describe the slivered moon hanging above the Rockies, I started thinking about Half-Moons, and how far I was from home, and how hard it is to let people know you. I was also pretty hungry."

Is vanilla or chocolate your
favourite? Vachon's Half-Moon is

a pastry you could take to deep
space. Time or gravity does not

change its perfect molecular
composition, individually wrapped

ageless. Tender and moist
forever, no, really, did you

ever see one go off?