June 4th, 2014
The letter is U,
and I have chosen to tell you a little about Jane Urquhart,
a brilliant Canadian Poet and Novelist.
She is one of Canada's best loved writers and was born in northern Ontario in 1949;
the author of three or four books of poetry and seven internationally acclaimed novels
for which she has won many awards,
and has been made an Officer of the Order of Canada.
If you don't know her works it would be most rewarding to GOOGLE her name!
If you don't know her works it would be most rewarding to GOOGLE her name!
I find that I have only read her last four novels,
A Map of Glass, The Stone Carvers, the Underpainter and the Sanctuary Line
A Map of Glass, The Stone Carvers, the Underpainter and the Sanctuary Line
and so I have visited the Library online and ordered
her first three The Whirlpool, Changing Heaven, and Away.
Here is one of her poems from the book The Little Flowers of Madame de Montespan
The sun decides to enter
from the garden
moving on the carpet
he touches all your furniture
crawls under your closet door
investigates your wardrobe
moves his arm across
your memories
substituting light
heat and silence
he erases last year's
conversation with the stars
changes the contents of your mirrors
invents an alternative
palette for your crystal
scrapes his nails across brocade
revealing tangled threads
like contours on a map
he polished your tables
his brilliance clings to cutlery
till spoons become large
bright incisions
all across the grain
a weight of gold and heat
he stops burning
at the flesh of your neck
you are the only shadow in the room
It seems a pertinent poem for these first sunny days of June
For more interesting u's visit here at ABC Wednesday,
with thanks to Roger and Denise, and their hopefully ubiquitous helpers.
