Past Tree Appearances
Elisabeth Harvor
lisabeth Harvor's work has appeared in Arc, Event, The New Quarterly, The New Yorker, PRISM International, Our Generation Against Nuclear War, and many Other publications. Fortress of Chairs, her first poetry book, won the Lampert Award in 1993 while her second poetry book, The Long Cold Evenings of Spring, was a finalist for the Lowther Award in 1998. Excessive Joy Injures the Heart, her first novel, was named one of the ten best books of the year by the Toronto Star in 2000 and her first and only novella, Across Some Dark Avenue of Plot He Carried Her Body, won the Malahat Novella Prize in 2004. Let Me Be The One, her third story collection, was a 1996 finalist for the Governor General's Award. Her website is at: http://www.elisabeth-harvor.com.
From Elisabeth Harvor
A Death at the End of Winter
(at dinner with my sons, after hearing news of
the death of D. L.)
Being young
And in love
With catastrophe
They can find jokes in it.
Even though (or because)
They also fear dying.
Their excitement
Is also partly loyalty to me.
They believe that he harmed me.
Now that he's gone
They also know
I will be free of him.
But he's only been dead
For one night and one day.
A night and day that make clear
As the stars must become
Clear behind this
Evening's fog
(that isn't quite fog
and isn't quite snow)
The more that he's gone
The more he comes near.
