The Canadian Literature Centre 2022 Poetry Prize Winner is Meghan Eaker
As a contest partner, the Edmonton Poetry Festival is thrilled to announce Meghan Eaker as the winner of the Canadian Literature Centre 2022 Poetry Prize.
Meghan Eaker (she/her) is an amiskwaciywâskahikan-based poet, registered nurse, and beading artist of mixed european and nehiyaw ancestry and is a member of the Woodland Cree First Nation in treaty 8 territory. She is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Alberta studying storysharing as a practice towards miyo pimatisiwin (a good life).
Read Meghan Eaker’s winning poem below.
nitohtamok êkwa wiya manâpekiswek
on his deathbed
nimosompan asked me
do you understand?
i’m not sure, i replied
but i have been listening
when i will have need of these teachings
i know the memory of your voice
will come to me
then, i will understand
when the teachings i was not yet ready
to follow become inscribed
in my bones by the hand
of experience
then, i will know
listen to my magpie voice
can you hear the layered harmonies?
when i speak
i do not speak alone
my voice is a chorus of many generations
i cannot take credit
for this poetry alone
it is not mine
it belongs to all the echoing
voices past, present, and future
that sing it into being
—
translations:
nitohtamok êkwa wiya manâpekiswek – listen, then speak with care
nimosompan – my late grandfather/great-uncle