Book Awards 2023: What is a poem you turn to for comfort or joy?

May 2, 2023

We asked the longlisters and shortlisters of the 2023 Book Awards, What is a poem you turn to for comfort or joy?

Winners will be announced on May 4, 2023. Stay tuned!

Looking for more info about LCP Book Awards?

Read the 2023 Shortlists

Read the 2023 Longlists

“Perfect Song” by Heather Christle
Manahil Bandukwala
MONUMENT by Manahil Bandukwala (Brick Books) – Gerald Lampert Memorial Award Shortlist

“Love After Love” by Derek Walcott
Adebe DeRango-Adem
Vox Humana by Adebe DeRango-Adem (Book*hug Press) – Raymond Souster Award Shortlist

“Won’t you celebrate with me” by Lucille Clifton
Sylvia D. Hamilton
Tender by Sylvia D. Hamilton (Gaspereau Press) – Pat Lowther Memorial Award Shortlist

“A light store in the Bowery” by Christian Wiman
Skylar Kay
Transcribing Moonlight by Skylar Kay (Frontenac House) – Gerald Lampert Memorial Award Shortlist

“Untitled” by James Baldwin (“Lord, / when you send the rain…”) and “Parliament Hill Fields” by Sylvia Plath
Annick MacAskill
Shadow Blight by Annick MacAskill (Gaspereau Press) – Pat Lowther Memorial Award Shortlist

“When I am Among the Trees” by Mary Oliver
Cecily Nicholson
HARROWINGS by Cecily Nicholson (TalonBooks) – Pat Lowther Memorial Award Shortlist

Water and Light– Ghazals and Anti Ghazals by Phyllis Webb
Lisa Robertson
Boat by Lisa Robertson (Coach House Books) – Pat Lowther Memorial Award Shortlist

I have a well-loved collection of poems by e. e. cummings. I usually flip to a page at random and delight in his language. Let’s try that now … Poem 42: “here’s to opening and upwards,to leaf and to sap.”

Gillian Sze
Quiet Night Think by Gillian Sze (ECW Press) – Pat Lowther Memorial Award Shortlist

“Salt and Vinegar” by Nancy Jo Cullen — everything she writes is sheer brilliance and so, so funny.

Sarah Yi-Mei Tsiang
Grappling Hook by Sarah Yi-Mei Tsiang (Palimpsest Press) – Raymond Souster Award Shortlist

Raoul Fernandes’ “Goodnight Skirt” is so uplifting to me. My undergrad classmate and fellow poet Spenser Smith brought Fernandes’ Transmitter and Receiver to class some years ago and I continue to appreciate how this poem cherishes small details in the everyday — it reminds me that love and joy exist in the quiet spaces too often overlooked.

Délani Valin
Shapeshifters by Délani Valin (Nightwood Editions) – Gerald Lampert Memorial Award Shortlist

“Small Kindnesses” by Danusha Laméris
Sanna Wani
My Grief, the Sun by Sanna Wani (House of Anansi) – Gerald Lampert Memorial Award Shortlist

I love spoken word performances. Listening to poems by people like Titilope Sonuga or Hanif Abdurraqib, always make me feel so full of life and those big emotions can bring a lot of comfort and joy.

Matthew James Weigel
Whitemud Walking by Matthew James Weigel (Coach House Books) – Gerald Lampert Memorial Award Shortlist, Raymond Souster Award Shortlist

On May 4, 2023, the League of Canadian Poets announced the annual winners of the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award, the Pat Lowther Memorial Award, and the Raymond Souster Award. Learn more about the 2023 awards and celebrate the poetry of 2022: