Tanya Bellehumeur - Allatt

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in Poetry

Survival Plan – Tanya Bellehumeur-Allatt

Survival Plan – Tanya Bellehumeur-Allatt
Photo Credit: Barb Kelly

Wake up early.

Write a poem.

Let it have angst, but also,

give the poem hope,

like a sticky drop

of maple syrup.

Drink it

like an elixir.

Enjoy it

for a moment.

Let it linger

like the cinnamon scent

of cider warming

on the wood stove.

Think about

tomorrow’s poem

while you walk

along the road

with the dog.

Greet the birds,

newly returned.

Listen to them.

Gather all this

in your heart

like a round, white stone

tucked into your pocket

or a raven’s feather

in your buttonhole.

Treasure it.

And then,

tomorrow morning,

begin again.

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Related

Filed Under: Poetry Tagged With: corona, survival

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Reviews

“The writing is almost lyrical. It is a beautiful thing”
—Toby A. Welch /SaskBooks


“Her writing is on point, allowing us to travel with her. And it’s engrossing: we keep turning the pages, wanting to know more.”
—Yara El-Soueidi, Montreal Review of Books


“It’s quite a feat to couple the chaos of the Middle East with the chaos of adolescence.”
—Bronwyn Drainie, Literary Review of Canada


“In Tanya Bellehumeur-Allatt’s hands, words become anything but ordinary—from the scent of lindens along a lakeshore, the imprint of wings on snow, to her father’s last winter on earth, the serious business of living. Poems both fearless and humble. Tenderly, forcefully, they influence our lives.”
—Susan Musgrave, author of Hunger


“Tanya Bellehumeur-Allatt returns in memory to her early adolescence with her peacekeeper father in
war-torn 1980s Beirut, and with honesty and courage traces the legacy of terror in her life and the lives of loved ones and strangers. Each of these thirty-two essays illuminates the psychic consequences of trauma from a different angle, adding up to a multi-faceted portrait of a woman whose personal history won’t let her ignore the costs of societal violence. Thoughtful, compassionate, and
relevant, Carrying War is an eloquent plea for  peace, and a testament to human resilience and the
healing power of art.”
—Susan Olding, author of Big Reader

Photography credit: Emma Allatt

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