subUrban Legends

By Joan Crate

Joan Crate's much-anticipated third book of poetry is equal parts revision and reverie, offering a mid-life view of childhood influences and expectations that is stirring, startling, and wise. Deliciously invoking the iconic figure of Snow White, subUrban Legends considers what lies beyond youth and the trite promises of "happily ever after," transporting readers to a land of complexity and nuance from which few cultural officiados report.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Freehand Books
• Release date: Apr 1, 2009
• ISBN: 9781988298245

Joan Crate

Joan Crate was born in the Northwest Territories at Sǫǫ̀mbak'è on Chief Drygeese territory, traditional land of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation. After finding homes in various places, she now lives in Calgary - Mohkinstsis - and the rural Okanagan on the unceded territory of sqilxʷ/syilx (Okanagan) peoples. She writes both poetry and fiction and has won several writing awards over the years, including the W.O. Mitchell City of Calgary Book Award for Black Apple, which was also shortlisted for the Frank Hegyi Award. The band U2, of whom she's a big fan, featured her poem "I am a Prophet" on screen in their last Canadian tour. She lost her partner of almost four decades at the beginning of the pandemic. Since then, she has had work appear in five anthologies and on CBC Radio. She continues to explore writing in all its forms, visual art and is even dabbling in acting.

Book preview

Cover: Sub-Urban Legends, poems by Joan Crate.

subUrban

Legends

Joan Crate

Logo: Freehand Books.

Copyright © 2009 by Joan Crate

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or through the use of information storage and retrieval systems without prior written permission of the publisher, or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a license from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright), One Yonge Street, Suite 1900, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5E 1E5.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Crate, Joan, 1953-

Suburban legends : poems / Joan Crate.

ISBN 978-1-55111-961-8 (print)

ISBN 978-1-988298-24-5 (epub)

I. Title.

PS8555.R338S93 2009      C811’.54      C2008-906886-6

Freehand Books

515, 815 1st Street SW

Calgary, Alberta

Canada T2P 1N3

www.freehand-books.com

Book orders: UTP Distribution

5201 Dufferin Street Toronto, Ontario M3H 5T8

Telephone: [phone] Fax: [phone]

[e-mail]

utpdistribution.com

Edited by Alison Pick

Designed and typeset by Eileen Eckert

Cover art and design by David Drummond, Salamander Hill

Published with the generous assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Alberta Media Fund.

Contents

Kiss Me, Poison Me Goodnight

The Owl

Break-up

Liquid Concept

Meeting Snow White

Winter Envy

Mining the Darkness

The Black Dog’s Tail

Losing

We can’t sleep.

The Wounded

At the aquarium

Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Once We Were

The children of want

The Fairy-tale Wedding

Solitaire

Last Words: Snow White’s Mother Dies in Childbirth

Losing (2)

Night Shark

Snow White gets blue

In the Face

February

Chickadees

Snow White Experiences a Death

Charming Warts

Planning her wicked stepmother’s funeral

Chinook wind

It’s the Same Old Story

Snow flails

White Nights

Sleep/less/ness

Snow White Considers Getting a Pet

Empty Driveway

The Depression

Snow White finds herself

The New Apartment

Night Vision

Love Song for Buddy

Snow White’s Tell-all Interview

Skin Deep

Cedar Waxwings

Wednesday Night Women’s Group

I crave it

A Word of Advice

Crows

Spring Prayer

neverEnding

Forgiving Winter

Snow White Gets Homesick

In the Garden

Watch for Wildlife

The Fairy-tale Wedding #2

Snakes at the Zoo

Bee

Early August, Early Morning

’Tis an unweeded garden

Falling Star

Mangoes,

Swimming / Healing

Last Hurrah

Magpies

Moving On

Hope Island

The Space Between

In Season

Acknowledgements

Cover Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Contents Page

Dedication Page

Kiss Me, Poison Me Goodnight

The Owl

Break-up

Liquid Concept

Meeting Snow White

Winter Envy

Mining the Darkness

The Black Dog’s Tail

Losing

We can’t sleep.

The Wounded

At the aquarium

Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Once We Were

The children of want

The Fairy-tale Wedding

Solitaire

Last Words: Snow White’s Mother Dies in Childbirth

Losing (2)

Night Shark

Snow White gets blue

In the Face

February

Chickadees

Snow White Experiences a Death

Charming Warts

Planning her wicked stepmother’s funeral

Chinook wind

It’s the Same Old Story

Snow flails

White Nights

Sleep/less/ness

Snow White Considers Getting a Pet

Empty Driveway

The Depression

Snow White finds herself

The New Apartment

Night Vision

Love Song for Buddy

Snow White’s Tell-all Interview

Skin Deep

Cedar Waxwings

Wednesday Night Women’s Group

I crave it

A Word of Advice

Crows

Spring Prayer

neverEnding

Forgiving Winter

Snow White Gets Homesick

In the Garden

Watch for Wildlife

The Fairy-tale Wedding #2

Snakes at the Zoo

Bee

Early August, Early Morning

"’Tis an unweeded