Tag: cancer

Great News!

~ Lynne Burnett ~ 17 Comments

I’m thrilled to report that my poem “Ladies’ Night Out” was one of 57 finalist poems for the Montreal International Poetry Prize 2022 and will be published along with the winner and other finalist poems in a contest anthology! My poem can be read here 

I did share this news in a Facebook post a couple of weeks ago when I briefly had wifi. I am still away on our boat but at last have some consistent wifi coverage! The winner was announced yesterday and you can read her poem and the judge’s commentary here 

It’s a win-win in my book when a contest (and this was a big one with a huge purse) offers publication to the finalists as well as the winner. My poem is one dear to me, I’ve tweaked it a few times over the years and I’m so pleased it finally gets to go out into the world in such an honorable way.

Against Certainty

~ Lynne Burnett ~ Leave a comment

for Brenda

I saw you early today in the window
of your den that overlooks the street,

no doubt googling the latest treatment
options in a blur, while a Howe Sound

wind held office among the skyscraping
trees, rifling through the leaves like it

was looking for something, someone
and I dared to hope that far from the

finality of a label, written or spoken,
your body could soar in the open air

of its dreaming places and be nameless,
ageless, free again of any diagnosis, and

that behind the pane you too could hear
birds now shuffling through their notes

as if in concert with lifting the dark
sentence from that tiny cell of a word.

I am happy to say that so far, 8 years later, the birds have worked their magic! This poem is included in my chapbook “Irresistible”, coming any day now from Finishing Line Press, copies of which can be purchased here:https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/irresistible-by-lynne-burnett/