http://www.brickbooks.ca/bookauthors/susan-elmslie/

On my author page at Brick Books, I respond to the following questions:  When did you start writing?  Why do you write? Has this changed over time?  Who are some of your favourite writers? And what do you draw from their work?  Explain a particular poem of yours from a Brick Books publication.

for Wes, and with thanks to Phoebe (age 3) for the title

Here’s to fresh starts, clearing the decks,
making it new, forgiving debts. Last year
was grim. All bets were off. Needles and pins
and sink or swim. Grist for the mill and misery
loves company, a bitter pill, a monkey-
wrench in the machinery. Tooth and nail and
a leap in the dark. When it rains it pours. Listen,
here’s to fresh starts.

slides into home plate

like a clumsy shy kid,   long after

the field has cleared.

A twinge

and the sun creeps out from behind a cloud

a doorway flasher, the half smile

smoother than Man Ray photographs, the mouth

full of don’t know.  Just enough

for the hungry snake of a heart

that gulps moments whole.

from I, Nadja, and Other Poems (Brick 2006)

Faith

I know I am foolish to hear your voice in the wind,
but summer is for you,
with its naked carelessness and infinite youth.
And I know you are somewhere
golden and brilliant,
laughing at the fragility of the world.

Susan’s reading at the Atwater Library is now online.

It’s in two parts.  Here’s the link.

And a reading from I, Nadja and Other Poems (Brick Books) is now on YouTube.  Click here to listen.