The Bones by Patricia Young
CBC Books | | Posted: October 29, 2020 1:00 PM | Last Updated: November 3, 2020
2020 CBC Poetry Prize longlist
Patricia Young has made the 2020 CBC Poetry Prize longlist for The Bones.
The winner of the 2020 CBC Poetry Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, have their work published on CBC Books and have the opportunity to 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. 5 and the winner will be announced on Nov. 12.
About Patricia Young
Patricia Young has published 14 collections of poetry, most recently Amateurs at Love. She has won the Pat Lowther Award and the Dorothy Livesay Award twice. She has also been twice nominated for the Governor General's Literary Award for poetry. Her collection of short fiction Airstream won the inaugural Rooke-Metcalf Award and was named one of the Globe and Mail's best books of the year. Baseline Press, a poetry micro-press, published a limited edition chapbook, Consider the Paragliders in 2017. She lives with her husband in Victoria.
Entry in five-ish words
"Random experiences drawn from life."
The poem's source of inspiration
"There was no single inspiration behind this group of three poems. Each one was inspired by a particular event: uncovering a cache of deer bones with a small boy, visiting the bell tower in Seville with my husband and the almost telepathic communication between a long-married couple."
First lines
The Telepaths
We're tired of talk and the chittering of birds speech
has grown heavy cumbersome we're impatient
with long-winded theories and pointless digressions
words flare then burn out our tongues are troubled
the rain is troubled beneath the skylight
we consider every explanation why the long arc
of history keeps bending in the wrong direction
for years we argued into the small hours you with sweet
logic me with blunt incoherence now
when we pass on the landing we nod but don't speak
has grown heavy cumbersome we're impatient
with long-winded theories and pointless digressions
words flare then burn out our tongues are troubled
the rain is troubled beneath the skylight
we consider every explanation why the long arc
of history keeps bending in the wrong direction
for years we argued into the small hours you with sweet
logic me with blunt incoherence now
when we pass on the landing we nod but don't speak
About the 2020 CBC Poetry Prize
The winner of the 2020 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 the 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 2021 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January. The 2021 CBC Poetry Prize will open in April.