Sent

I sent out Bright Angel to a pal to read. I've got the skeleton of my Labrador project in another person's hands.

Last night I stayed up late watching the Griffin Poetry Prize short-listed poets read. My pal, Sue Goyette is one of the three finalists for the Canadian prize of 65 thousand and loads of cachet. It is hard not to be in hope and fear for my own ventures but a thousand times harder to hold still when a friend whose writing I adore is standing awaiting a verdict. Does it ever end? This being tested and competing and so forth I mean. There is something about it so hideous that I can't really stand it. On the other hand there were over a thousand people attending the readings in Toronto last night. A thousand! Poetry! That is so wonderful. And Sue's reading was incandescent. She gave it all to the book - not the merest slick of preciousness or ego - no - the book 'Ocean' got to shine out with her standing well back like a good and proud midwife. Wow! There were some fabulous moments last night - the reading by one of the four international short-listed poets - a lovely American poet - Carl Phillips - was thrilling as he read from his most recent book 'silverchest' . I also loved hearing the Polish poet - Tomasz Rozycki - his voice like velvet and smoke, full of sadness and life.

Tonight the two winners will be announced. How I hope Sue takes home the prize. Her book is so authentic and true and full of heart. Well, we'll know soon enough and her book will still be all those things whether she wins this or not. That was the buried ego-state of my mum speaking there. I let her once in awhile. It is so hard being dead, after all.

When it was her turn to read last night it was nearly 10:30 pm here. But as she read about the ocean it shone behind the little tablet we watched on - the light still on it so late in these northern places. And this morning, early early, I woke and watched the sun rise for a bit before falling back to sleep - rosy feather boas streamed above the horizon announcing it was a fine fine day for oceans everywhere.

here's a photo of a sunrise I took mid-winter - the rosy pink is the same!