Pandemic Poems

Pandemic Poems includes poems composed between March and June 2020 by forty-nine Canadian poets reflecting on the first four months of the pandemic. Edited by Alberta literature professor Kevin Solez, the collection captures the reality of COVID-19 in Canada, with contributions from Christian Bök, Jenna Butler, Rob McLennan, Jude Neale, Nisha Patel, Lisa Shatzky, and Thomas Trofimuk. The anthology explores themes such as the appreciation of nature, which provides relief in its ability to maintain familiar patterns despite the upheaval of the pandemic, as well as the question of how social privilege, or the lack thereof, influenced pandemic experiences. Poems like Cobra Collins’ “Bannock at the Last Supper” address pre-pandemic concerns, such as the crisis of clean water in Indigenous communities. Other works, like Nisha Patel’s “Things I Do Between Naps,” meditate on the quotidian stagnation and transformation of life during the pandemic, while Jason Shine’s “I am Becoming My Dog” asks, “Is this a pandemic / or a metamorphosis?” Ultimately, the collection serves as a poetic time capsule of Canada’s first wave of COVID-19.