Merrifield

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AWAY #5

Karla Linn Merrifield

Godwit

Poems of Canada

In love with Canada since developing a crush on a visiting Canadian Cub Scout years ago (we were both 7), it's no wonder to me that Karla Linn Merrifield's captivating Godwit snatched at my heart---I identified with her covetous attachment to things and places Canadian early in the introduction---and it wouldn't let go, the last empathetic beats of me continuing to resonate in the northern needles, cones, native elders, butterclams and roe inhabiting the final poems.

---Eve Anthony Hanninen, poet and editor,

The Centrifugal Eye

Karla Linn Merrifield may not be an ex-patriot, but her literary sense of Canada-its landscape, its people, its essential there-ness-is as acute as though she had spent her entire life above the 49th parallel. Or perhaps more acute, because, as with anything seen from the outside, her focus is sharpened by distance, honed by reverie, and described by detailed poetic sensibility. For Canadians and non-Canadians alike, this book is a treat to read-unrivalled by even the tastiest bite of cod cheeks . . . or Tim Horton's.

---Alisa Gordaneer, award-winning poet and editor of

Monday Magazine, Victoria, B.C.

From the book:

thereness:

only cold water, me naked in October at dusk

diving in, surfacing up, stroking out

toward the mauves and pinks of Canada,

to a horizon fresh and crisp, my bracing goal

to be more fish or loon, even a zebra mussel

clasping some small existence with this ubiquitous

sky and breeze, near silence, near sunset, nearer

the rising full moon and her wide Milky Way.

so my dark hair tangles like seaweed when I pause,

my nipples address the barest rippling waves

as my toes dip deeply, touch stone after stone, tipping

me into the horizontal, the floating, the resting

between shore & shore, this today & that tomorrow.

suddenly, willfully, I submerge

then spring into the cooling evening air-

there, all there, positively there.

Witnessing the Canadian Shield

I think it perhaps wise to travel

lightly in this weighted country,

if only in homage to its granite.

It is honorable to be a curl

of goose down, a curl of lichen,

in essence, easily carried away

on spirited winds & waters while

all that is mute, stern stone

abides, withholding every secret

of time as spruce needles blow

or float away with the dry curls

of birch skin, dry curls of fern.

It is a form of bowing down,

this bending over before that rock

of ages, born of Earth's ancient

core, cooled, compressed over eons,

& resurrected, come to light, become

the bared solid bone of North America.

Cable Cove Time Zones

Nature takes some time

to make her Pacific tide come in,

but a human can sit still long

enough to watch, albeit patiently,

less than half a bright day or half a clear night

& see kelp or rock or cove

covered, uncovered, in cold briny water.

Nature takes some time

to create soil from stone:

Lichen yield two centimeters

of sweet earth every century.

I can see the antediluvian gray-green

fastened to basalt or schist, but never

in a lifetime detect a particle of

anything friable to my fingers.

Nature takes some time

to get up speed for glaciers

or volcanoes or tectonic plates moving

into one or another mountain peak or range-

here the modest Mackenzies of Vancouver Island,

there deep snow & ice-bearing Rockies-

that may give me, if I am listening

to her seismic tumult & tumbling,

a scant tremble in my eardrums

of how her time passes

as it passes through, goes on

past my nascent senses into eons.

Karla Linn Merrifield has been widely published in journals and anthologies throughout the U.S. She is the author of Dawn of Migration and Other Audubon Dreams (RochesterInk Publications) and Midst (FootHills Publishing) as well as editor of the environmental anthology THE DIRE ELEGIES: 59 Poets on Endangered Species of North America, also from FootHills. She is poetry editor for Sea Stories, the literary-artistic journal of Blue Ocean Institute and teaches writing at SUNY Brockport.

Godwit

is a 92 page hand-sewn book with spine

including color photos and notes on poems - $18.00

TO ORDER ON-LINE

To order through mail click here.

To see Karla's FootHills chapbook Midst go to:

http://foothillspublishing.com/pre-2005/id74.htm


	FootHills Publishing \| home Submitting to FootHills \| 2007 Books \| Zazulyer \| James \| Spiers \| Hoogestraat \| Lochridge \| Lehmann \| Gittings-Dalton \| Bashkirew \| Good \| Rivera \| Calhoun \| Deer Cloud \| Wright \| Miller \| Milby \| Bird \| Quetchenbach \| Gordon \| Riche \| Richardson \| Brown \| Schwartz \| Rossiter \| Graser \| Owens \| Merrifield \| Thomas \| Krok \| Jennings \| Stelzig \| Faurot \| Costanzo \| Ordering by Mail \| Contact FHP AWAY #5 Karla Linn Merrifield Godwit Poems of Canada In love with Canada since developing a crush on a visiting Canadian Cub Scout years ago (we were both 7), it's no wonder to me that Karla Linn Merrifield's captivating Godwit snatched at my heart---I identified with her covetous attachment to things and places Canadian early in the introduction---and it wouldn't let go, the last empathetic beats of me continuing to resonate in the northern needles, cones, native elders, butterclams and roe inhabiting the final poems. ---Eve Anthony Hanninen, poet and editor, The Centrifugal Eye Karla Linn Merrifield may not be an ex-patriot, but her literary sense of Canada-its landscape, its people, its essential there-ness-is as acute as though she had spent her entire life above the 49th parallel. Or perhaps more acute, because, as with anything seen from the outside, her focus is sharpened by distance, honed by reverie, and described by detailed poetic sensibility. For Canadians and non-Canadians alike, this book is a treat to read-unrivalled by even the tastiest bite of cod cheeks . . . or Tim Horton's. ---Alisa Gordaneer, award-winning poet and editor of Monday Magazine, Victoria, B.C. From the book: thereness: only cold water, me naked in October at dusk diving in, surfacing up, stroking out toward the mauves and pinks of Canada, to a horizon fresh and crisp, my bracing goal to be more fish or loon, even a zebra mussel clasping some small existence with this ubiquitous sky and breeze, near silence, near sunset, nearer the rising full moon and her wide Milky Way. so my dark hair tangles like seaweed when I pause, my nipples address the barest rippling waves as my toes dip deeply, touch stone after stone, tipping me into the horizontal, the floating, the resting between shore & shore, this today & that tomorrow. suddenly, willfully, I submerge then spring into the cooling evening air- there, all there, positively there. Witnessing the Canadian Shield I think it perhaps wise to travel lightly in this weighted country, if only in homage to its granite. It is honorable to be a curl of goose down, a curl of lichen, in essence, easily carried away on spirited winds & waters while all that is mute, stern stone abides, withholding every secret of time as spruce needles blow or float away with the dry curls of birch skin, dry curls of fern. It is a form of bowing down, this bending over before that rock of ages, born of Earth's ancient core, cooled, compressed over eons, & resurrected, come to light, become the bared solid bone of North America. Cable Cove Time Zones Nature takes some time to make her Pacific tide come in, but a human can sit still long enough to watch, albeit patiently, less than half a bright day or half a clear night & see kelp or rock or cove covered, uncovered, in cold briny water. Nature takes some time to create soil from stone: Lichen yield two centimeters of sweet earth every century. I can see the antediluvian gray-green fastened to basalt or schist, but never in a lifetime detect a particle of anything friable to my fingers. Nature takes some time to get up speed for glaciers or volcanoes or tectonic plates moving into one or another mountain peak or range- here the modest Mackenzies of Vancouver Island, there deep snow & ice-bearing Rockies- that may give me, if I am listening to her seismic tumult & tumbling, a scant tremble in my eardrums of how her time passes as it passes through, goes on past my nascent senses into eons. Karla Linn Merrifield has been widely published in journals and anthologies throughout the U.S. She is the author of Dawn of Migration and Other Audubon Dreams (RochesterInk Publications) and Midst (FootHills Publishing) as well as editor of the environmental anthology THE DIRE ELEGIES: 59 Poets on Endangered Species of North America, also from FootHills. She is poetry editor for Sea Stories, the literary-artistic journal of Blue Ocean Institute and teaches writing at SUNY Brockport. Godwit is a 92 page hand-sewn book with spine including color photos and notes on poems - $18.00 TO ORDER ON-LINE To order through mail click here. To see Karla's FootHills chapbook Midst go to: http://foothillspublishing.com/pre-2005/id74.htm