“Thy rod and thy staff” by Chantel Lavoie
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Thy rod and thy staff” by Chantel Lavoie.
Thy rod and thy staff
By Chantel Lavoie
Before the libraryโ shelves, desks, books
chairs we sit on and desks we sit atโ
was the silence of forests.
Then sawing, shouts, rumbles
hammers, pulp, ink
glue of boiled horses
to arrive at this silence.
We want the same things different:
broken-egged omelettes
sky, through a window
lights in the night.
Sometime in time
after our come down from trees
prayer sprouted or descended.
Was it cell or spirit
stirred up such stories, storied selves?
Yearning, terror, happiness
perhaps just become prayer
the way cells that donโt die
turn cancerous. Prayer happens
when moods overstay their welcome.
Live sacrifices, burnt witches, enemies nailed to trees
was getting hold of the wrong end of the stick
only if someone was holding the other end.
Copyright ยฉ Chantel Lavoie
Chantel Lavoie lives in Kingston, Ontario, where she teaches at the Royal military College of Canada. Her verse has appeared in numerous journals, as well as as in her two collections of verse, Where the Terror Lies and This is about Angels, Women, and Men. Her first novel, The Boy in the Chimney, comes out early 2027.
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