PROJECT REBUILD


PREVIOUS TENANTS

Retrofit frm Hamill's Last

Not failed attempts at structure wood
all leaky, roof this morning
in specific rain. How it sits
my family into the chimney flashing
seeps
     through the roof joists
and drips on the land
still upright tree wood (branches?)
drifting from the floor sill
Can I afford cross-beams?
How to emulate the bark
of elsewhere, rootless timbers
stand on the front lawn,
window frames sophisticated.
All those glittering bits of glass
's ok the housewood that reminds
of wood before its felling. Once more,
this time it's appropriate, with feeling.

                our real needs
                      answer
      
me                   age
does not profit us
                      the hillside trees
leak also        
         the rain
      down to their roots

Fred Wah

RENOVATE THIS POEM

RENOVATIONS:

Sandra Ridley

Shannon Maguire

Jehan Prouvaire

 

BIO:
Since 1965, Fred Wah has published twenty-four books of poetry, the first entitled Lardeau (1965), the most recent, is a door (2009). Waiting For Saskatchewan (1985) won him a Governor General's Literary Award in 1986 and So Far was awarded the Stephanson Award for Poetry in 1992.