Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Basking Lessons” by Marlene Grand Maître, part of the League’s Fresh Voices program.

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Basking Lessons

By Marlene Grand Maître

After The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes

The unadorned moment, so serene in its starkness.

My moments are synaptic gridlock explosions—

honking, the grinding of gears. What of calmness?

Where does a yoga and meditation drop-out go

for basking lessons? I study the basking shark

swimming, mouth wide open, near the surface,

soaking up sun’s warmth. I am still in the dark.

Bask comes from bathe. I am no water nymph

highly prizing placid waters. In my final days

I am drawn to the fertility of uproar. To cavorting

with the music of turbulence, never fully sated.

Let each of my moments be dolled-up in gyrating

layers of fire engine red garb, galvanic moods.

And may I croon song after song, out of tune.

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Copyright © Marlene Grand Maître

Marlene Grand Maître has had two chapbooks published, “Cancer’s Rogue Season” (Frog Hollow Press, 2020) and “Wild Kin” (Raven Chapbooks, 2023). Her poetry has also appeared in many literary journals and in ten anthologies. She has won Freefall magazine’s, and the Federation of BC Writers’ poetry competitions. A poem was longlisted for Best Canadian Poetry In English, 2011. The LCP chose “Vanishing Point” as a “Poem In Your Pocket” for National Poetry Month, 2022.

Fresh Voices is a publication and workshop program created by and for the League’s associate members, curated and edited by Erin Vance.

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