National Poetry Month : Juliane Okot Bitek,

 

 

you’re pointing at the stars & me at you

 

like stars we’re made of nothing
like stars we’re headed to nothing but the journey
to this the most sublime of moments
this is our fondest path yet

you at the stars
& me at you pointing at the stars evolution & revolution
you said this morning
time like an errant sun
& yet we know
we know we’re not headed anywhere

is this what it means to be a star

you’re complete
you’re complete but we’re flaming out we’re flaming out

is this what it is to belong in the country of stars

us spinning us stars us telling stories that bind us on & on & on to nothing

 

 

Juliane Okot Bitek is a poet and scholar. Her collection of poetry, 100 Days (University of Alberta 2016) was nominated for several writing prizes including the 2017 BC Book Prize, the Pat Lowther Award, the 2017 Alberta Book Awards and the 2017 Canadian Authors Award for Poetry. It won the 2017 IndieFab Book of the Year Award for poetry and the 2017 Glenna Lushei Prize for African Poetry. From the fall of 2020 to the spring of 2021, Juliane had the privileged positions of being the Ellen and Warren Tallman Writer-in-Residence, and one of the SFU Jack and Doris Shadbolt Fellows. She has recently just moved to Kingston, Ontario, to live on the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe people. Juliane is an assistant professor at Queen's University, in Kingston.