By Karen Solie, from a manuscript in progress. Solie is the author of several collections of poetry, including, most recently, The Road In Is Not the Same Road Out (2015).

Where should we find pleasure,
dwelling in the north? Amid the stunted,
perverse, desperate plant life clinging
to its edges, animated by atmospheric
animosity or neglect, of two moods,
fragile and invasive, gaze out to sea

but character bent inland?
Why defend our poignant attempts
at agriculture, our futile
…