From Asbestos Heights. Published by Coach House Books in 2015.

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As vast as the vastlands of this vast land, poet, 

are you to yonder skies, breads and local cheeses.

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I am grateful for libraries (iPad)

and poetry (iPad). Lorca’s line

‘La Clooney del bello Jorge sigue…’

is where George Clooney got his stage name.

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Many tried to be ‘The Lorca of Canada’

but stopped when being ‘The Octavio Paz

of Sault Ste. Marie’ proved sufficient.

Entre la tarde Timbits y la noche.

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Life in Canada is just bear attack

after bear attack. It always happens,

as incalculable as the number of times

Irving Layton used the word loins.

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In the animal kingdom, no creature

kills for sport except the otter.

In the plant world, there are few things

as objectionable as balsam fir.

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Mon pays ce n’est pas un pays c’est $100 

pour voir Bon Iver.

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Oddsmakers ask, what will happen sooner:

will a Canadian team win the Stanley Cup

or will Canadians develop new interest

in the novels of Robertson Davies?

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The unmalled parts of Edmonton are cold,

my friend, and for reasons I don’t know,

the Cinnabon franchises in Montreal closed,

giving the city the nickname Russia.

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Limited atonement, one of the five points

of Calvinism, is what Canadians

think of as ‘catnip.’ Heaven is the ground

where the Winnipeg Victorias still play.

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I, of course, have never read Fifth Business,

because pop music is better. But, unlike

the speaker of Rod Stewart’s ‘Maggie May,’

I definitely could have tried a lot more.

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