Catherine Graham

Winter Mind

after remedios varo

I read mist. Letters emerge through water.
Rain-like birds ride the dark clouds.

I harness conversion on my canvas.
Precision walks the chance tightrope.

There was a time I was paid to inflict
pain on my creations but inside that pain

the revelation, the skill. My goal
is to make motion

move through paint, to let
secrets secrete oil tears.

Matter, all matters, have two
identifiable tendencies: to harden

and to soften. Winter lifts from its field.

catherine graham’s

poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, shortlisted for the Montreal International Poetry Prize and have appeared in Best Canadian Poetry and on CBC Radio. Her eighth book, Æther: An Out-of-Body Lyric, was a finalist for the Trillium Book Award, Toronto Book Award, and won the Fred Kerner Book Award. Her sixth poetry collection, The Celery Forest, was named a CBC Best Book of the Year. Put Flowers Around Us and Pretend We’re Dead: New and Selected (Wolsak & Wynn /Buckrider Books, 2023) is her ninth book. Two collections are forthcoming. www.catherinegraham.com @catgrahampoet.