Rob Taylor lives in Vancouver, BC. He is the co-founder of the poetry magazines High Altitude Poetry and One
Ghana, One Voice. His poems have appeared or will be appearing in a number of magazines with the word "review" in their
titles, including Vancouver Review, White Wall Review, and Nashwaak Review. More of his poems can be read on
his blog: spread it like a roll of nickels.
the rocky mountains were formed
through the compression folding of
two colliding tectonic plates
monstrosities of rock that drag
their limbs from place to place,
the weight of our planet laid
across their broad frames
their footsteps measured in millimeters,
their destination always just around the corner.
270 million years ago they lived under one roof
where they gathered around the dining room table,
Europe out on the porch having one last smoke.
they stayed up late into the eon
drinking and laughing together
under the cover of an eternity of evenings.
now those memories dwindle
as they march silently forward
shoulders aching from the load.
so it's no surprise that
when two of them finally meet again
they stop long enough to look to the sky and
rumble a prayer to their brothers and sisters
out there somewhere, walking,
trying to find their way back home.
a Vancouverite throws
Toronto a bone
this place is far from
the centre of my country
but on this January day
with the power down
and children in thin
white skates laughing
and dancing in front
of City Hall i have to
admit that this is the
centre of the myth of
Canada, the burial grounds
for the spirits of men and
women who dragged
their dreams here in
burlap sacks gripped
tight in their thick
European Asian African
fingers, who believed
in the heat buried in
the core of stones, who
envisioned this day
twenty-five below with
wind squalling and
heaters resting still
and cold and children
in thin white skates
laughing and dancing,
who knew this city could
fuel a nation's aspirations
and warm the pockets
of our minds with possibility.
Contemporary Poetry With An Eye Towards Resistance
Copr. 2007-08 The Centrifugal Eye - Collected Works - All Rights Reserved.
