I’m actually feeling a bit nervous about debuting the poem I wrote for an upcoming publication on popular responses (as in, letters written) to Joey Smallwood in his first years of premiership. The roundtable tonight (details at the NLHS website) is going to be a blast, but I haven’t read new work in ages, so I’m feeling a bit jittery.
The poem I submitted is quite different in tone from my other work. It was a tricky one to write. In it, I talk about my eldest daughter and my grandmother. In the nearly three years since I wrote the piece, my daughter has grown up and moved away for school, and my grandmother has died (surrounded by loved ones at the age of 93 — not bad, as far as deaths go). So I’m a bit emotional about reading, which is unusual for a tough cookie like me (kidding, kidding).
The photo of the Smallwood book is here because I had a hell of a time finding the source for a Smallwood quote I use in the poem — “I am the king of my own little island.” Gwyn refers to it in the book, but he doesn’t give any kind of proper citation for it. Did Smallwood ever really say it? Does it matter? The man, the myth, the apocrypha. Either way, it’s a great line.
Andreae Callanan 