“My goal,” writes guest editor John Barton of his long career as a literary magazine editor, “was always to be jostled awake, and I soon realized that I was being jostled awake for two—myself and the reader … I came to understand that my job description included an obligation to expose readers to wide varieties of poetry, to challenge their assumptions while expanding their taste.” In selecting this year’s edition of Best Canadian Poetry, Barton brings the same catholic spirit to his survey of Canadian poems published by magazines and journals in 2021. From new work by Canadian favourites to exciting new talents, this year’s anthology offers fifty poems to challenge and enlarge your sense of the power and possibility of Canadian poetry.
“My goal,” writes guest editor John Barton of his long career as a literary magazine editor, “was always to be jostled awake, and I soon realized that I was being jostled awake for two—myself and the reader … I came to understand that my job description included an obligation to expose readers to wide varieties of poetry, to challenge their assumptions while expanding their taste.” In selecting this year’s edition of Best Canadian Poetry, Barton brings the same catholic spirit to his survey of Canadian poems published by magazines and journals in 2021. From new work by Canadian favourites to exciting new talents, this year’s anthology offers fifty poems to challenge and enlarge your sense of the power and possibility of Canadian poetry.
Content Note
Foreword --Introduction -- Adjusting the psychotropics / Triny Finlay -- Alert / Stephanie Bolster -- Angels: 215<, 1820-1979 / Louise Bernice Halfe (Sky Dancer) -- Attention deficit / Tawahum Bige -- The big dark / Patrick Grace -- Calling it back to me / Laurie D. Graham -- Cancel culture / Penn Kemp -- Choice / Sarah Yi-Mei Tsiang -- coitophobia / Sarah Hilton -- Consider the peony / Helen Han Wei Luo -- Coyote (Canis latrans) / Jordan Mounteer -- Dear ranchers, wolves are kind / Eva H.D. -- Dérangement: Île Saint-Jean / Adrian Southin -- The enemy / River Halen -- Event coordinator moving into project management / Jake Byrne -- Far from Rome / Jan Zwicky -- Father Pier Giorgio di Cicco enters into Heaven / Tom Wayman -- Fathers Day homage to Robert Kroetsch / Karl Jirgens -- The grannies in dew dresses / K.R. Segriff -- i elitere lyric poetry / Helen Cho -- He thinks it's their first book / Susan Braley -- I thrust my left arm forward while thinking of the past / J.J. Steinfeld -- interior, 1986 / Christina Shah -- James / Lise Gaston -- kiskatinaw interlude / Samantha Nock -- The last thing I'll remember / Michael Dunwoody -- Late / Sandy Shreve -- A mirror of Hieronymous Bosch / Elee Kraljii Gardiner -- nobody cums rat poison anymore / Sophie Crocker -- A note on the use of the term genocide / Randy Lundy -- Observed and observing, that's him / Armand Garnet Ruffo -- On homecoming / Jeremy Loveday -- Oxblood / Susan Gillis -- Parts of the Needle, Manitoba, Canada 1870 / Michelle Porter -- Pet names / Lucas Crawford -- Pistil pumping / Conyer Clayton -- Poem after group text anticipating next millennium's sushi date / Eric Wang -- Potato / Rebekah Rempel -- A red brick / Tyler Engström -- Release / Richard Sanger -- River boys / Mobólúwajídìde D. Joseph -- She takes me deep / Moni Brar -- Soil / Bertrand Bickersteth -- tattoo ideas / Evelyna Ekoko-Kay -- Thigmomorphogenesis / Kathryn Nogue -- Tinnitus / Colin Morton -- To the woman with him now: / Leslie Joy Ahenda -- The tragedian / Billy-Ray Belcourt -- Why did we bury the ashes? / Nedda Sarshar -- You are story / Beth Goobie -- Contributors' commentaries and biographies.
