Postcard Poems

Summery Summer

Right on schedule, the peonies were pummelled by great gusts of wind and rain on the weekend. But this morning, their pinky froth still grins at the sky.

The poet, Rilke, wrote that it takes courage to love the things of this world. I get that. But sometimes even shadows dance. In southwestern Ontario in summer, they definitely do.

If only for a few hours, I ditch the sprawl of appointments and to-do’s. I linger with the birds. I fly kites with kids. Right now I am coming to you from the great white sail of my home office (actually a desk chair) and, fresh from the Griffin Poetry Prize ceremony, I am simultaneously in the Yukon waiting for a bus (the trip by way of Dawn Macdonald’s debut, Northerny).

The first time I heard the phrase postcard poem, I was in a summer writing workshop with the poet, Catherine Graham. I had been obsessing for many weeks over Noah Warren’s poem, Calendar. It confounded me in the best possible ways. Still does. How he paints his words. How he knows I (the reader) know. Rereading it now, I feel as if I am peering over his shoulder. We have become old friends, he and I.

Sometimes I think all my poems are postcards. I read them over my own shoulder. You were there, they tell me.

This one, chronicling a walk along the North Sea, is now more poem than memory. I’m glad I have it.

ITINERARY

At the fietpad where Bertus dropped us, a corridor of bridal wreath took us to the dunes and from there to the intertidal beach, to jellyfish as still and clear as glass. Here was the low boom of the sea. Here was the ebb and flow of the tide. The world opened and closed. Opened. Steps away on the lees side, a café was propped on the sand. Patrons huddled in deck chairs under a trim of coloured flags. Gulls circled. We were in no hurry but our table was quickly set: silver spoons, sugar and chocolates wrapped in foil, a single tulip in a small, mounted bowl, coffee in delft cups. We drank slowly, gazing out at the brightly-jacketed children turning cartwheels on the beach, at the curling waves, at the boundless, cloudless sky.

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If you are in the Toronto area and fancy an outdoor poetry workshop, the Dormer Window Writing Studio is ready for you. Another season of their Poetry in the Gardens begins on Saturday, June 28, 2025 from 10AM to Noon at 53 Thorncliffe Park Drive (behind the building).

Wishing you many summer poems.