Skip to content
poets.ca circle logo black transparent

League of Canadian Poets

  • About
  • Programs & Services
  • Awards & Contests
  • Poetry Community
  • Join
  • Support the LCP
×
  • About
  • Programs & Services
  • Awards & Contests
  • Poetry Community
  • Join
  • Support the LCP
Search

My Skeleton by Michael Penny

By LCP | September 25, 2023
Poem title: My Skeleton

Poet name: Michael Penny

Poem: walks in the middle

of my body, easy in its knowledge

it will outlive me.

 

This makes it inflexible,

even hard on the muscles

which cling to it.

 

It doesn’t know

there are parts it doesn’t cage,

a beating heart truly untouched by it.

 

Yes, it cups my brain and its high

electric notions but a container

is not as important as what it contains.

 

My skeleton would like to leave now,

make its own clattering way in the world

but I am too possessive, too attached to let it go.

End of poem.

Credits and bio: Copyright © Michael Penny

Previously published in My Chimera, (Buschek Books, 2006).

Michael Penny has published five books and in over forty journals in six countries. He lives on an island near Vancouver and pursues his interest in land use planning as a volunteer on the island’s Advisory Planning Commission
Posted in 2023, Poetry Pause
Support poets and poetry in Canada. Donate today.

Established in 1966, the League of Canadian Poets is a National Arts Service Organization dedicated to supporting poets, building poetic communities, supporting inclusive and equitable free expression, and promoting Canadian poets and poetry. 

Site Links

  • About
  • Programs & Services
  • Awards & Contests
  • Poetry Community
  • Join
  • Support the LCP
Member Hub

Get In Touch!

  • League of Canadian Poets
    C/O Centre for Social Innovation
    720 Bathurst St
    Toronto ON
    M5S 2R4
     

  • (416) 504-1657

  • [email protected]

  • The League of Canadian Poets operates remotely; in-person office hours are by appointment only. 

"Poetry means having the courage to forage the depthsof what makes & unmakes us."

–Adebe DeRango-Adem, Author of Vox Humana, 2023 Raymond Souster Award Winner

Donate Today
Poetry needs superheroes. A donation to the League of Canadian Poets supports poets and poetry from coast to coast.

The office of the League of Canadian Poets is situated in the land of Tkaronto which is the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.

Footer-logos-resized-new

© 2023 League of Canadian Poets

GoDaddy Web Design
Scroll To Top