Tag: Todd Swift

  • A poem for National Poetry day by Todd Swift

    Today is National Poetry Day and so we’re honoured to publish an original poem by Canada’s greatest living poet, Dr Todd Swift. 

     

    When we see

    the schoolgirls of Iran
    not playing but acting
    as unafraid as any tree,
    we know that poetry
    is an idea whose time
    comes in actions
    not words alone; standing
    up for a thing taller
    than beauty, to be heard
    and seen, to fan true
    flames of history, to grow
    a garden, an arbour, green
    as every blade of grass,
    to bring far fairness to pass.

  • In Memoriam: a new poem by Todd Swift

    In Memoriam

    The storm has taken down
    the tree, which stood
    seventy seasons by four,
    to leave the arbour restless,
    without a roof’s rising crown,
    almost without a floor,
    so skittering leaves flood
    about, revealing lost acorns;
    the forest is aghast, forlorn;
    a tossed tempest grown out;
    it is horrible emptiness.
    There is a legacy that lasts
    past loss, the quick torn apart –
    roots only deepen to be flown.