A Poet Laureate

Saskatchewan first had a poet laureate in 2001. This inaugural poet was Glen Sorestad. Glen Sorestad was born in Vancouver, but has lived in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan for many years. He was an influential figure in literature, with he and his wife Sonia founding Thistledown Press in 1975. (The same press which has just published Kate's short story collection All in Together Girls) They retired from Thistledown in 2000, but Glen is still writing beautiful poetry. An example of such:

Aide Memoire

The world begins and ends in memory;
what I remember is what I am.

Did that blade of grass I plucked
as a boy to vibrate with my breath

really burst the air with shrillness?
A remembered world holds truth

and realities far clearer than echoes.
In the cupped hands of remembrance

the thin green reed of what we are
trembles with a sound so rare.

Glen Sorestad
From: Leaving Holds Me Here: Selected Poems. Saskatoon: Thistledown Press, 2001.