Lorna Crozier
Biographie
Born in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Lorna Crozier is the author of 15 books of poetry, including the Governor General’s Award–winning Inventing the Hawk. Crozier edited the anthologies Breathing Fire: Canada’s New Poets and Breathing Fire 2 with her husband, poet Patrick Lane. She lives in British Columbia.
Entrevue
I loved "The Lady of Shalott" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson and all of Shakespeare's soliloquies from Macbeth and Hamlet.
I wrote my first poem in grade one and the teacher pinned it on the bulletin board. I think that's why I became a writer. It was about my dog dying though she was very much alive, and everyone felt sorry for me. I didn't dare tell them that I made it up.
I poet's job is to see clearly and to pass that vision on to others. It is to make sense of this extraordinary world and to shine a light on the commonplace and ignored. It is to give voice to what is silent and to make it sing.
"Fear of Snakes" is based on a true incident from my childhood. I did run from a group of boys who were chasing me with a snake and I hid and watched as one of them nailed it to a telephone pole. Years later I wrote the poem because I wanted to make sense of what had happened and I wanted to honour the snake.
I would like to memorize my own and recite it as beautifully as I've heard students perform it. They blow me away.
