Skip to content
poets.ca circle logo black transparent

League of Canadian Poets

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

The sparrows that mate on wires by Carole Giangrande

By League of Canadian Poets | November 7, 2022

Poem name: The sparrows that mate on wires  Poet name: Carole Giangrande Poem: will never roost in trees again.  Having struck claws to dry bark  		and fled, they have grown restive,  electric.  They’ll never ascend to heaven,  never return 		from the taut perch humming under two tails fanning sky.  Watch them — they are like no others, held as they are 		in the love of earth, their claws tight to the wire,   while Spring throws the switch   juice pumping the air blue  as under their thrumming bodies,  	high-voltage current flows  and all the lights in the world go on. End of poem.  Credits and bio: Copyright © Carole Giangrande Previously published in People, Places, Passages: An Anthology of Canadian Writing (Longbridge Books, 2018). Carole Giangrande is a novelist and poet and the author of eleven books, including the award-winning novels All That Is Solid Melts Into Air and The Tender Birds. Her novella, A Gardener On The Moon won the Ken Klonsky prize, awarded by Quattro Books. Her poetry has appeared in Canadian and U.S. journals (Grain, Queens Quarterly, The New Quarterly, Spiritus, Prairie Fire, Mudlark and Braided Way) and her poetry chapbook, The Frailty of Living Things, has just been published by Aeolus House (2021). Her first poetry collection, This May Be The Year, is forthcoming from Inanna. She’s also an essayist (and Pushcart Prize nominee) and a children’s writer. Born and raised in the New York City area, she now lives in Toronto where she spends a lot of time photographing birds and enjoying nature in the city.

Posted in 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
  • Microgrants & Bursaries
  • 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