Poem of the Week ( View Archives )
April 5, 2020

My mother was a white sheet drying on the line

Eve Joseph

While we await the announcement of the 2020 Griffin Poetry Prize shortlist on April 7, 2020, let's explore again the intriguing emotional effects of another of the softly surreal prose poems from the 2019 Griffin Poetry Prize winning poetry collection Quarrels by Eve Joseph.

Poem of the Week ( View Archives )
March 29, 2020

Mimi

Gerald Stern

Gerald Stern is obviously fascinated with the opera La Bohème, especially the main character whose name forms the title of this poem from his 2003 Griffin Poetry Prize shortlisted collection American Sonnets: Poems. It appears that fascination even predates the poem that appears in this collection ... and we also know that his abiding interest in this classic is shared by many others.

Poem of the Week ( View Archives )
March 22, 2020

The Banal

Elaine Equi

Not unlike our previous Poem of the Week, this week's poem, "The Banal" from Elaine Equi's 2008 Griffin Poetry Prize shortlisted collection Ripple Effect takes as its starting point the differences or perceived differences between two words that signify similar things. Equi's poem scrutinizes the words "everyday" and "banal".

Poem of the Week ( View Archives )
March 15, 2020

Kingdom Come

Rowan Ricardo Phillips

How wonderful that "Kingdom Come", a poem from Rowan Ricardo Phillips' 2016 Griffin Poetry Prize shortlisted collection Heaven considers the differences - if any - between Heaven and Paradise.

Poem of the Week ( View Archives )
March 8, 2020

Citation for Raymond Antrobus’ The Perseverance

the 2019 Griffin Poetry Prize judges

If you've followed the Griffin Poetry Prize Poem of the Week feature for any amount of time (this is week 422 in our uninterrupted presentation of work from or associated with the prize's shortlists), we regularly take as our cue the observations of our judges about the collections from which these poems came. These citations are thoughtful, well-crafted tributes that are regularly creative and poetic mini works unto themselves.