A LIGHT SNOWFALL ON THE SIDEWALKS
It is the time,
the Times,
to be writing
about…
the place I visit
as often as
Time allows–
Canada, to be
the place I write
about–
I know you
my country–
damn the politicians
and all the time
lies use their mouths,
to fool the clock,
fool us, fool the fools.
It is time,
the place I find
is my country–
Canada, I want
better for you–
can I speak of you
like you are a you?
Canada,
you allow me to know
travels, many times away,
as someone calls it–
“a time away”– I will
take it, Canada,
I want to write
about you–
damn the Liars!
All the time
it has taken me
to become, to merge
into the Times,
right here where we
can easily touch
something…or somehow
someone real close…
very real…please.
GIVE SOMETHING BACK
When a song is written
may the rocks of the Earth
move a bit, when I long
to be a human full
of hating songs being
written to mislead,
I say don’t let the beat
take you astray, don’t
let the planet you feel
under you become
part of a barter, part
of anything
you can’t pronounce–
give something back,
feel the music
and drums, give now,
give something back,
hold yourself close,
hold yourself close,
do you now know
how good you feel,
the drums have been
your leader, keep going,
keep everything in,
let nothing steal the beat
from you, move to it,
understand the seasons
have all the say.
Ok?
THE EQUATION
How can you
not disturb
a spider
in a daisy?
Equals:
go around
or
step over
them.
THE FULLEST CIRCLE
The wood
from the boards
once nailed together
to form plots
known as
our family garden
became rotten enough
to now become
the boards
cut in
correct sizes again,
only this time
they will fit
in the wood-stove
to feed us
warmth,
on a day
the winter
offers the cold
as nourishment,
as a reminder
of our reliance
on other than
ourselves.
IN THE DOORWAY
for Brian T.
McGill
poems have led me
to you,
or allowed me
to gain entrance
into you,
poems I will share
in a room
I am curious about,
a room I am sure
won’t be the same one
I shared poems in
twenty years ago,
when a young prof
provided the opportunity
to read there
much like
twenty years later
I gladly do again–
the same kind man
in love with Poetry
almost as much
as I am–
in the doorway
when I am to leave,
McGill,
in my mind,
in my heart,
my being touched,
a touch felt
throughout the thrill
I already managed
to handle, somehow
led by it, and
my memory already
fitting you in,
such a blend of thanks
as the camera caught
a hint of the smile
a reading of poems
can leave across
the face of
this grateful poet.
Montreal, Oct. 25, 2017
Chad Norman from Nova Scotia in 1992 won the Gwendolyn MacEwen Memorial Award For Poetry. His new book, A Life Between The Brackets, is out Winter 2025/26 with Shadow Script Publishing (Ireland). His poem, The Shoulds, in the Lunar Vagabond Collection, went to the moon Feb. 26, 2025.
