Swimming in the pool �
my ashram
I now call it � imagining being
in the Ocean of Life
Enlightenment that I seek
most of all, but my friend
smiles as he looks at the beautiful girl
in a two-piece bathing suit
going to the other end
And he quickly goes after her,
calling out to me, �There
she is � Nirvana I�m after!�
In my youth I would sit by the sea and talk of a wedding
--Marvellous it would be
--Underthings would fly like kites
--I would dream of nothing else but love
--The waves would carry us along
--We would be loved ones always
But the sea rolled and the waves came higher
--It became something of danger
--It became a face that mocked
�A thing with eyes like sprites
--It looked back from the crest of the waves
Then I would imagine myself a dolphin
�Ready to cry out sad songs
--Not knowing what else to do
--How really to quell despair
�All I kept dreaming about
Finally I tied the knot and everything melded
�With the sea and ocean
�The wind and the waves became a song
�How it was meant to be since the beginning
�What I always longed for
�Musk of desire really
And we held hands and walked into the sea
� Taking the waves by surprise
�Swallowing the surf and ocean
--Mocking our shadows on hot sand
�Being against the sun itself
Then nothing more was said between us
�Nothing else seemed real
�The waves beating stronger
�The one voice within urging us
--To be where we were meant to be
�From the very beginning
Cyril Dabydeen is an acclaimed poet and fiction writer with nine books of poetry, five of stories, and three novels. He is a former Poet Laureate of the City of Ottawa (l984-87) and was nominated for the prestigious Pushcart Prize (US). His last novel, Drums of My Flesh (TSAR, 2005), was nominated for the prestigious IMPAC/Dublin literary prize and won the international Guyana Prize for Fiction. He is a professor at the university of Ottawa.
April 6th, 2010
Griffin Poetry prize shortlist announced
April 1st, 2010
Gaspereau Press Wins Five Alcuin Design Awards
April, 2010
George Elliot Clarke's I & I (Goose Lane Editions, 2009) nominated for the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction.
December, 2009
MTLS receives Canada Council for the Arts’ funding and begins to disburse honoraria beginning with issue 5