notes on praying by Tina Do
CBC Books | Posted: November 10, 2022 1:00 PM | Last Updated: November 10, 2022
Tina Do has made the 2022 CBC Poetry Prize longlist for notes on praying.
The shortlist will be announced on Nov. 17 and the winner will be announced on Nov. 24.
If you're interested in the CBC Literary Prizes, the CBC Nonfiction Prize opens in January and the CBC Poetry Prize opens in April.
About Tina Do
Tina Do is a Vancouver-based poet, living and working on the unceded traditional and ancestral territories of the Səlil̓wətaɬ, Skwxwú7mesh, Kwikwitlem and xʷməθkwəy̓əm Nations. In her downtime, she is an unashamed dinosaur aficionado and MA student at Simon Fraser University. Her work has been published with The /ttƐmz/ Review and featured in Best Canadian Poetry 2021 and in an issue of Canadian Literature. These days, you can catch her reading up on whether spinosaurus was fully aquatic and trying not to over-love her plants.
Do previously made the CBC Poetry Prize longlist in 2020 for & this too.
Entry in five-ish words
"A love letter to holding on."
The source of inspiration
"This poem was written in response to Hieu Minh Nguyen's stunning poem notes on staying. I played off of that idea and wanted to explore what it's like to physically hold onto the things in our lives that we tuck into pockets or store away in boxes, like it's a reminder of something bigger. Of something we believe in."
First lines
notes on praying
(after Hieu Minh Nguyen)
(after Hieu Minh Nguyen)
all my life i've watched mẹ be afraid,
hovering between a conversation & a doorway.
her sleep fitful & uncertain. i imagine in her dreams
her smile stretches wide & tall enough to reach the sky.
i feel most like her daughter when I am lonely — dragged
by her to a gathering of people I loved, then stopped loving.
in our present, mẹ unwraps the relics she brought from
vietnam & hands me the small jade figurine of a god
hovering between a conversation & a doorway.
her sleep fitful & uncertain. i imagine in her dreams
her smile stretches wide & tall enough to reach the sky.
i feel most like her daughter when I am lonely — dragged
by her to a gathering of people I loved, then stopped loving.
in our present, mẹ unwraps the relics she brought from
vietnam & hands me the small jade figurine of a god
About the 2022 CBC Poetry Prize
The winner of the 2022 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 2023 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January. The 2023 CBC Poetry Prize will open in April.