Ken Cathers

home town

                        1

they are villages
made of words

a house
once lived in

an emptiness
you can never
      leave behind

 

                        2

how poorly
the words fit

roughcut edges
the cardboard stained
      swollen

not even
a clear image

pieces missing
burnt shacks
torn down

a child’s puzzle
abandoned

a place

where everyone
gave up
      moved away

 

Born (1951) and raised in Ladysmith on Vancouver Island, Ken Cathers has a B.A. from the University of Victoria and a M.A. from York University in Toronto. He has been published in numerous periodicals, anthologies as well as seven  books of poetry,  most recently Letters From the Old Country with Ekstasis Press. He worked in the forest industry for much of his life and lives in the country with his family and his trees.