“Die Gartenwelt, 1987” by Marc Perez
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Die Gartenwelt, 1987” by Marc Perez, from Dayo (Brick Books, 2024), shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award.
Die Gartenwelt, 1987
By Marc Perez
The garden world. Borderland poppies, warm
red and yellow petals, stems undulating, lithe
under the memory of frost. Existing, I peer
and penetrate still at the spring which I thought
would never arrive. But here, a proof that trust
between plants and sunlight is perennial. Pages
quiver like fragile insect wings, fluttering—
consistently surprising, emotionally resonant,
and well-crafted—words I keep with my shovel
and sprinkler tin can. Like the trimmed twigs
and leaves of a wind-flushed juniper
bonsai, the poems owe their foliage
to sharp pruning shears. On my palm—
a fleeting world, a garden in bloom.
Copyright © Marc Perez
Written as a contribution to “House Anstruther Community Testimonial” by Shane Neilson (Hamilton Arts & Letters, Issue 15.1, 2022), and also a response to the cover of Borderlands (Anstruther Press, 2020), designed by Erica Smith. The phrase “consistently surprising, emotionally resonant, and well crafted” is from Jim Johnstone’s comments on the manuscript. The line “Exisiting, I peer and penetrate still” is from “To the Garden, The World” by Walt Whitman.
From Dayo (Brick Books, 2024), shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award.
Marc Perez is the author of Dayo (Brick Books, 2024) and the chapbook, Domus (Anstruther Press, 2025). His work has appeared in The Fiddlehead, EVENT, CV2, PRISM International, and Vallum, among others. Originally from Manila, he currently lives with his family in Vancouver.
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