Hannah Main-van der Kamp has published two previous books in the St. Thomas Poetry Series: With Averted Vision (2000), out of print, and According to Loon Bay (2004). Here is the title poem for her third title in the series, Slow Sunday on the Malaspina Strait (St. Thomas Poetry Series $15)

Slow Sunday on the Malaspina Strait

Mist, old friend, welcome.
Though most October mornings you offer
a taste of ease, today you fill the windows.
Old acquaintance, again you dissolve islands.

You were expected, though nasturtiums on the deck
still hold up their heads and the scrub willow is not yet
completely spent. Valued tutor, you teach
gazing. Grant us a day for not trying out recipes

or list making. Thank you.
On unseen islands out there
do others also laze and cease from labour,
languid on sofas, idle as moist air? But "lazy"; and "idle";

give the wrong impression; we are
engaged in slowness training. A day that hums
without motors, a day set aside
for some crying, soft

without dramatic heaving. Hours stand still
and also pass. The weeping relieves,
ceases without shakiness.
At sunset, low clouds lift, reveal

the ferry's languid traverse of the strait.
Island lights regain clarity
and the willow by the door is still not ready
to shed its last, bright shards.

www.stthomaspoetryseries.com

[Slow Sunday on the Malaspina Strait (St. Thomas Poetry Series $25) launched at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, April 25, 2012 in the parish hall of St. Thomas's Church, 383 Huron Street, Toronto.]