In keeping with a quirky tradition of posting a poem at the solstice and equinox, Canadian Writers Abroad is pleased to offer you “Awareness of Creation,” by poet Chad Norman, from his collection Parental Forest (AOS Publishing, 2024). It touches on a recurring theme for Canadian writers abroad: home.
Awareness of Creation
Our planet, our uproarious Earth,
where Bert protected the swallows’ nests
in such a simple way, asking one day
in the granary where grandsons played
with the rings hanging from the roof,
all of us pretending to be Olympians,
being clear about no throwing stones.
All day over the pastures insects
became the food both parent birds
gathered as the cattle slept and ate
grass full of clover, or began to move
toward the gate leading back to barns,
the swallows among them for the flies
aware like all of us until he saw the end
of those selected nests we attacked, we
left behind, not old enough to remember
his request, unable to love the little bird
the years sent soaring over safe & quiet acres.
In the granary we went on playing
the day after our disregard, he found us,
told us about homes, how important
a nest becomes as eggs need to be left,
how a stone turned into a weapon we chose
to prove we were savage, we forgot,
or perhaps were about to learn by error
how much a man’s hurt took over his eyes.
How he scolded the boys we were
filled with cheeping and a sight
his finger pointed to, the ruined nests
being flown to, regardless of the eggs
gone, the eggs we ended, we cried for,
how he forgave with an unforgettable hug.
Chad Norman’s poems have appeared for nearly 40 years in literary publications across Canada, as well as a number of other countries around the world, and have been translated into Albanian, Spanish, Polish, Chinese, Turkish, Italian, Czech, Vietnamese, and Hungarian. His collected works include Squall: Poems In The Voice of Mary Shelley (Ganonoque: Guernica Editions, 2020), Simona: A Celebration Of The S.P.C.A. (India: cyberwit.net, 2021), A Matter Of Inclusion, (Zimbabwe: Mwanaka Media And Publishing, 2022), and Selected and New (Oakville: Mosaic Press, 2017). A new collection, Parental Forest, came out in April 2024 with Ace of Swords Publishing (AOS) in Montreal. Norman’s poem, “The Shoulds,” was selected to be included in the Vagabond Lunar Collection, part of the time capsule scheduled for a 2025 launch to the moon.
In October 2016, Chad Norman was invited by the Nordic Association for Canadian Studies to give talks on Canadian poetry and read from his books at Borupgaard Gym in Copenhagen, and Risskov Gym in Aarhus, as well as other readings in both cities, and Malmo, Sweden. In October of 2018 he read at various venues, from universities to cafes to pubs, throughout Ireland, Scotland, and Wales; the tour included a celebration of Canadian poetry.
Chad Norman lives in Truro, Nova Scotia, where he volunteers for 12 local crow families.
Further
- Michael Escoubas reviews Parental Forest at Quill and Parchment.
- Norman’s poem, “How to Stay Alive,” at the League of Canadian Poets’ Poetry Pause.
- Two poems at Borderless Journal.
- Three poems at Rochford Street Review.
- Ace of Swords Publishing for Chad Norman’s latest book, Parental Forest.
Header photo: Barn Swallow Eggs; photo: Muséum de Toulouse, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
