Tuesday poem #287 : Madeleine Stratford : UNDERSTANDING

To  under-

stand is to stand

      under

not below

      Bodies touch

When I stand under

          you

withstanding your weight

I grasp your ankles

and hold on

As you stand on my shoulders

neither of us falls or feels

unsteady

But sometimes I can’t stand

          under

I must         crouch

sit

lie down

          crushed

          under

Then

I need

to gather

my strength and stand

          up

and lift you

          up

over my shoulders

so I can stand

under and under-

stand you

once

more

Madeleine Stratford is a poet, literary translator and professor of Translation at the Université du Québec en Outaouais. Her first poetry book, Des mots dans la neige (éditions anagrammes, 2009) was awarded the 2009 Orpheus Poetry Prize in France. Her poetry has also appeared in various journals, including Corresponding Voices, carte blanche, and Pøst. Her French translation of Ce qu’il faut dire a des fissures by Uruguayan poet Tatiana Oroño (Paris, L’Oreille du Loup, 2012) was awarded the 2013 John Glassco Prize by the Literary Translators’ Association of Canada. Elle nage (La Peuplade, 2016), her French version of the novel Swim, also by Marianne Apostolides, was shortlisted in 2016 for a Governor General award (Translation into French). In 2017, Me Tall You Small, her English translation of Lilli L’Arronge’s Ich groβ, du klein (OwlKids Books, 2017), was shortlisted for the Kirkus Prize.

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan