poetry

My friend Paula is competing in the CBC's ``poetry face off`` this week. She has to go to Regina and read her poetry into the faces of four other poets. And they read theirs back into her face. Each province has a competition, and the winner goes into the national face off, and the winner of that is the Canadian Poem of the Year. It's a big deal.

As I can't get there to cheer her on - being on the other side of the planet and everything - here's good luck to Paula. Get in their faces, face them down and Face. Them. Right. Off.

Stopping in Regina on a Snowy Evening

Whose pomes these are I think I know.
Her words are in Regina though;
She will not see me come to hear
Her face-off in the studio.

My body clock does think it queer
`Cos in NZ, the summer`s here
While by Regina`s frozen lake
Are read the Poems Of The Year.

Her voice is steady, without a shake
For there is surely no mistake
That Paula's pomes aside will sweep
The others, and the prize she'll take.

Her words are lovely, dark and deep.
But I must to New Zealand keep,
With miles to go before I sleep,
With miles to go before I sleep.