Sue Sinclair

I discovered Sue Sinclair in an anthology of Newfoundland (Canada) anthology, and thus went looking for more…. how wonderful that she just happened to have a new book out, a collection of poetry chosen from her five previous collections. Great stuff. Here is just one of my many favorites:

Green Pepper

Glossy as a photograph, the bent
circumference catching
the light on its rim. Like a car’s
dented fender, the owner desperate
to assess the damage, unable
to say, like the sun, it can’t
be helped.

Conspicuous and irregular
all its life, born
with its eyes shut tight,
as though there really were a collision
it was trying to avoid. But it hasn’t
happened yet—there is only
the impact of light: it has never

been in love, never drifted apart,
never fantasized about another
fragrant vegetable, never
been flattered, never been denied,
never wanted more than it has.
A life governed by absence:

the gleam of white
on its hollow body.

"Sue Sinclair grew up on the ancestral homelands of the Beothuk in Newfoundland and Labrador and is currently an uninvited guest living on Welastekwiyik* Territory, where she teaches creative writing at the University of New Brunswick. She holds a PhD in philosophy and wrote her dissertation on the intersections of beauty and ethics. She is also a poetry editor for Brick Books and is also editor of the Fiddlehead, Canada’s oldest literary journal." (from the back flap)
*the “e”s in this word should be upside down and backwards… (more)