Editor's Note: Each day from December 1 -21, Halifax' poet laureate Sue Goyette will write a new poem to share with the city on The Coast's website and social media. "If I need this, I bet other people need this," she told us on day one—and we think she's right. In a year that's felt like a months-long dusk, this will be some light we can carry forward, together, until the days begin to grow again.
Here is her poem for December 20:
Here is her poem for December 20:
Can you picture that empty lot on Quinpool at the corner of Vernon? Not in the “development” stage of its transformation but still in the potential incubation of “progress.” A field in snow haunted by the scared swagger and excruciating shyness of its former high school. Desire lines are paths made by our walking that curve across the shortest way, moving from the paved to the grass and mud of uneven ground. We made that path across it by ignoring sidewalks for the brief pilgrimage of in between and on the way. We know the power of words: those old umbrellas, those respirators. What if we created a force of care as we walk through that field for the future teenagers who are growing towards the world as it is? What if we utter a kind and loving word for them that could syrup and energize the bright lights that they are? What kinds of city space will they need to converse and animate each other that don’t run a tab for their time, don’t check their I.D.? Imagine being fifteen, walking through a field that leaves you feeling glittered? And loved? That’s what I’m talking about.
