Skip to content
poets.ca circle logo black transparent

League of Canadian Poets

  • About
  • Programs & Services
  • Awards & Contests
  • Microgrants & Bursaries
  • Poetry Community
  • Join
  • Support the LCP
×
  • About
  • Programs & Services
  • Awards & Contests
  • Microgrants & Bursaries
  • Poetry Community
  • Join
  • Support the LCP

beneath the birches by Norma Kerby

By League of Canadian Poets | July 15, 2022

Poet name: Norma Kerby Poem name: beneath the birches Poem: should this wind stop and whirling white devils of late snow diminish i will take your body and walk to the meadow to the birches i will carry you paper white bark stark against sweeping cedars branch noises chattering through hissing squalls no flowers bloom between cold snow patches splattered across sodden ground we go to where groundwater melts ice in tiny rivers to our birches old friend you will like it there body buried deep in rich black soil birches and skunk cabbages and memories melding here where you hunted voles pouncing through piles of ruffled leaves here where we sat in speckled sun dozy and dreaming white birch trunks silky white fur cat merged forever into a fecund world End of poem. Credits and bio: Copyright © Norma Kerby Norma Kerby lives on the traditional territories of the Tsimpsean First Nations in northwestern British Columbia. Published in e-zines, journals and anthologies, her writing emphasizes life in rural and northern Canada. Her chapbook, Shores of Haida Gwaii (Big Pond Rumours Press), explores the poetic interface between ocean and land for those rugged shorelines.

Posted in Poetry Pause
Support poets and poetry in Canada. Donate today.

Established in 1966, the League of Canadian Poets is a National Arts Service Organization dedicated to supporting poets, building poetic communities, supporting inclusive and equitable free expression, and promoting Canadian poets and poetry. 

Site Links

  • About
  • Programs & Services
  • Awards & Contests
  • Microgrants & Bursaries
  • Poetry Community
  • Join
  • Support the LCP
Member Hub

Get In Touch!

  • League of Canadian Poets
    C/O Centre for Social Innovation
    720 Bathurst St
    Toronto ON
    M5S 2R4
     

  • (416) 504-1657

  • [email protected]

  • The League of Canadian Poets operates remotely; in-person office hours are by appointment only. 

"Poetry means having the courage to forage the depthsof what makes & unmakes us."

–Adebe DeRango-Adem, Author of Vox Humana, 2023 Raymond Souster Award Winner

Donate Today
Poetry needs superheroes. A donation to the League of Canadian Poets supports poets and poetry from coast to coast.

The office of the League of Canadian Poets is situated in the land of Tkaronto which is the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.

Footer-logos-resized-new

© 2023 League of Canadian Poets

GoDaddy Web Design
Scroll To Top