Rosemary Sullivan

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Rosemary Sullivan
Rosemary Sullivan (born 1947) is a Canadian poet, biographer, and anthologist. Born in Montreal, Quebec, she studied at McGill University, the University of Connecticut, and the University of Sussex. Sullivan's first collection of poetry, The Space a Name Makes (1986), was awarded the Gerald Lampert Award. Her biography of Gwendolyn MacEwen, Shadow Maker (1995), won the Governor General's Award. Sullivan teaches at the University of Toronto

the universe is as close as the veins in your neck
The angle seemed askew,
an enigmatic grin hanging
at the end of the highway,
a last o... [read poem]
your idea of embracing horror
Your idea of embracing horror
was overwhelmed by the horror:

... [read poem]
lost content
You couples lying
where moon-scythes and day-scythes reaped you,
browning fruit falls and ... [read poem]
one with the sun
Child
one with the sun
in trackless fields
of yellow grass and thistle, scent
of... [read poem]
the little walls before china
A courtier speaks to Ch'in Shih-huang-ti, ca. 210 B.C.

Highness, the former walls... [read poem]
on distinction
We won't pretend we're not hungry for distinction
but what can ever distinguish us enough?... [read poem]
business
Stiff, thick: the white hair of the broad-faced father,
who leads his shambling son along
... [read poem]
what is impossible
About the age of twenty, when the first hairfall
signals that nature is finished with the organ... [read poem]
home again home again
Your parents had reached a long slow time,
as animals do, the great center of their lives,... [read poem]
native woman
Her hair back from the wide round face
flows, almost a girl's, so thick,
caught back in co... [read poem]
conversation with a widow
Uncle Johnny died after rigid years
of cutting hair in his shop downtown.
Toward the end h... [read poem]
the list
It occurred to me that we should write down the names of the dead.

Then it was necessary... [read poem]
on the preserved body of an inca child frozen to death as a sacrifice to the sun
The priests collected your teeth,
all your cut hairs from the ground,
the parings of your ... [read poem]
uninvited reader
She notes in the poem she’s reading where the disembodied
voice speaking encounters “an ugl... [read poem]
orpheus
He glanced around to check if the treacherous gods
had really given him the reward promised for... [read poem]
capriccio of roman ruins
We, the living ones, are distinguishable
from those we move among, people of stone,
by the... [read poem]
the erotic civilization
The infinite erotic civilization we created
is declining now. Breast and penis wag in public... [read poem]
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