“Silence of Järvenpää” by Bridget Huh
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Silence of Järvenpää” by Bridget Huh.
Silence of Järvenpää
By Bridget Huh
Must empty in order to be rung.
I could give up bathing in cold water.
There are days to empty.
There are days I must.
The oak is cracking the sky black.
Night yolk streaking down the middle.
Inside of some pianos there is a pool.
Plinking into which are my ghost notes.
Winter makes you hungry to eat at the piano.
Fingers slipping on the old grease.
Keys like fat buttersticks.
Like a mouthful of oats like a groan of honey.
Winter makes you unstick the violin.
Coax the drawer from the hinges.
What will fit in the violinlung.
Thoughts in the shape of coins.
Sand in the shape of salt.
Any hour of water.
A bow trembles like a folded wing.
A bough whistles in the iron wind.
A bough is meant to be leaned on.
A bow is a beautiful crutch.
Steadies the cold water nerves.
Tongues of ice elating the trees.
Copyright © Bridget Huh
Previously published in Fugue Body (Signal Editions, 2025).
Bridget Huh is currently an MFA candidate in poetry at Cornell University, and she holds a BA from Concordia University. Her poetry and criticism have appeared in The Walrus, The Ex-Puritan, Maisonneuve, Arc Poetry Magazine, Canthius, and elsewhere. She is the winner of the 2023 Vallum Poetry Award, and was shortlisted for the 2024 CV2 Foster Poetry Prize. Her debut collection of poetry, Fugue Body, was published by Véhicule Press in March 2025.
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