“Golden Shovel after Pat Lowther” by Erin Emily Ann Vance

Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Golden Shovel after Pat Lowther” by Erin Emily Ann Vance.


Golden Shovel after Pat Lowther

By Erin Emily Ann Vance

She called it a cradle. she called it

The sun. The bodyโ€”her body, is

Ready for its final fitting

Now, let her feet sink into the sandโ€”to

Walk straight into the wind is to let the sky strangle

You. She birthed a labyrinth of violence and it is inside of me

That she burns quiet. In

The fruit bowl is a great green gourd, the

Ghost of a vegetable, stone set to mesh

Listen, the last day of

April is the pink phlox moon suspended in a crystal glass, my

Skin sparks with saltwater, she is a moon jellyfish, stranded by her own

Need to continue this burden of making.


Copyright ยฉ Erin Emily Ann Vance

Erin Emily Ann Vance is a Canadian poet based in the Orkney Islands and Okotoks, Alberta. Her work has appeared in publications such as Contemporary Verse 2, EVENT Magazine, and The Literary Review of Canada. Vanceโ€™s debut collection of poetry, A History of Touch, was published by Guernica Editions in 2022.


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