Poem: Squamish Storm

I stand in the dark
shake ice from  my hair
and walk beneath the moon
to a neighbour's house for matches.
Snow up to the top of my thighs,
each gunshot footstep,
scatters owls
through the black silk night.
I hear the deer snapping fallen branches,
their faces emerge like knots from a pine wall.
The cold winds round me
and my laboured breath freezes on my face
Icicles hang from the trees,
their dim shadows impale the drifts.
Head bent low,
I butt against the frigid night
Each whip of wind,
each flake,
each patch of frozen ground,
is claimed by winter
and this bone-chilling Squamish storm.

Meet Jude at Coming Events

  • Book launch for
    Water Forgets Its Own Name
    :
  • Bowen Island, BC • Nov. 25 2023, 7pm • Collins Hall, 1122 Miller Road
  • Vancouver, BC • Dec. 3, 4pm • Canadian Music Centre, Murray Adaskin Theatre, 837 Davie St.
  • Book launch for The Flaw, at the Canadian Music Centre BC on November 6, 2022 at 3:30-5pm.
  • PREVIOUS EVENTS

  • Jude read from Naxos Greece on Saturday September 17 @ 1:00 pm-2:00 pm. PDT time. The event included Jude Neale, reading from The River Answers (Ekstasis Editions) | Shani Mootoo, Cane Fire (Book*Hug Press) | Alan Hill, In the Blood (Caitlin Press), all speaking from different places on Earth.
    For information: bit.ly/3d3h3AZ
  • The Bowen Island launch for Inside the Pearl was on October 1, 2021, 7:30pm, at the Hearth Gallery.
  • Guernica launched on Zoom Sep 12, 2021 - 12:30 Pacific
  • Launch at Joy Kogawa House, Vancouver on September 19, 2021 at 4pm. Jude read several poems from the book with photographs.
  • Jude will facilitated a workshop on Sunday, August 8: "Impromptu, Poetry Writing from 1-2pm on Bowen Island. Register
  • In the afternoon, Jude read from A Blooming, Impromptu, The River Answers and The Flaw, from between 2:30 and 5pm on Bowen Island. She was one of several Bowen writers performing at that time. More Info

Jude Reads Poetry