Welcome to Poetic Licence – a new weekly poetry forum, hosted by us, featuring words by local poets. This week? Award-winning poet and author Evelyn Lau, with “Strange Haven”.
Strange Haven
for Alan Hogg
I knew you from the start, as if from childhood.
Recognized you, as if we came from the same womb -
a mother who eclipsed the outer world, the crest
of bright sky above Cremona. You escaped
the family farm, ducklings drowned
in their shallow basin, welts that made you
toss and turn for days. At seventeen,
fled to the military, the police academy -
survived in a time before victimhood,
before PTSD, before the term survivor.
Of course, it made you strong. So hard
I bruised my fingers once, grasping your arm.
It gave you the thread of steel in your voice,
the set of your shoulders, level as the horizon.
I could brace myself against you, like scaffolding.
This is the strength I seek in the strange
haven of your bed where I crawl some days
when you’re away, cupping the small flame
of some ancient grief. Memory foam
carries me like a cradle, rises and pulses
into every hollow of my body, blankets
the distant sparks of pain. Your smell lingers
in the comforter, like lime and sea salt,
stone. Home can be anywhere, even here.
Evelyn Lau is the Vancouver author of 12 books, including seven collections of poetry. Her poetry has received the Milton Acorn People’s Poet Award, the Pat Lowther Award, a National Magazine Award, a BC Book Prize nomination and a Governor-General’s nomination. She served as 2011-2014 Poet Laureate for the City of Vancouver. Evelyn’s most recent collection is Tumour (Oolichan, 2016).
To submit your own poetry to Poetic Licence, email [email protected] with Poetry Column in the subject line. Include your poem, full name, contact details and bio. Only those selected for the column will be contacted.
