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Tributaries: Thomas Leduc + Palpitations
In his soon-to-be-released poetry collection Palpitations (Latitude 46 Publishing), Thomas Leduc reflects on his life in poems set from school days to the present. Today he shares “That Day, at the Market,” as well as a haibun from Vera Constantineau.
Read “That Day, at the Market”
from Palpitations
That Day, at the Market
That day, at the market,
when the family was still together.
We had the sun on our skin
and the wind at our backs.
We held ripe fruit in our hands,
the taste of life dripping from our chins.
You wore that dress,
the one I picked out for you,
the one you said your mother didn’t like.
I still remember the kids, running
through the grass to the splash pad.
The four of us
taking off our shoes
and washing our feet.
You always loved the water.
Your hair kept blowing in your mouth.
Beads of sweat salted the nape of your neck.
I wanted to say so much, but didn’t,
couldn’t, the time was never right.
Later, by the tracks,
we screamed as a train hurtled by.
People must have thought we were crazy.
We didn’t care, we were catching our breath.
Standing there, screaming with the trains.
An interview with poet Thomas Leduc
All Lit Up: Can you tell us a bit about your book and how it came to be? How did you come to write “That Day, at the Market” and how is it representative of your collection?
Thomas Leduc: The Palpitations collection has been with me for a long time. Many of the poems in this collection are about moments from my past like “Double Down,” a poem about the day I moved away from home or “Last Hours of High School” about the day we had to decide what we wanted to be when we grew up. The collection speaks to memorable moments like these in our lives. I wanted to remind people to be aware of every moment they are in. These were the kinds of poems I was writing before COVID.
When we were in COVID, every moment seemed important, surreal. I wanted to capture this palpitation in history, so I wrote poems like “Fifty-Seven Covid Tests” and “Weathering a Long-Term Stress Response.” Other poems like “Happy Ever After” or “That Day, at the Market” are poems that speak to the times we need to escape our everyday lives. “That Day, at the Market” is one of those days we played hooky from our chores. In the moment, we thought we were wasting time, but that wasn’t true. We needed to reset, to press our pressure release valve and scream with the trains. I don’t think we realize how important these days are. We need to notice them and give them more credit. These are the days/moments that stick with us, that palpitate through our lives.
ALU: Has your idea of poetry changed since you began writing?
Thomas Leduc: When I first started writing poetry, I was writing to figure myself out as a writer. Of course, this still shows up in my poems, but I feel I am more observant now. I am comfortable with my style and my poetry. Sudbury has an amazing, open and accepting writing community and they have helped me grow as a poet. They encourage me to be myself and this gives me confidence in my poetry. I feel that writing poetry now is more like breathing and less like a workout.
ALU: What drew you to poetry? What do you most value about poetry?
Thomas Leduc: It wasn’t until later in my life, after my grandfather passed away, that I discovered I was a poet. My grandmother gave me a piece of paper my grandfather kept in his wallet. It was a poem I wrote when I was a child. She told me my grandfather always thought I was a poet. I went back home looked at my journals and it was obvious; I was a poet. I had always been a poet. This is when I wrote the poem “My Northern Lake” for a local poetry contest. The poem won and ever since then, I feel I have found my place in the world. Poetry has given me a voice and purpose.
Thomas recommends…
“Happy Hours” from Vera Constantineau’s
Enlightened by Defilement (Latitude 46)
ALU: Why did you choose Vera Constantineau’s poem “Happy Hours” from her collection Enlightened by Defilement? What do you love most about this particular poem?
Thomas Leduc: I chose “Happy Hours” because of the haiku at the end. I love when a poem surprises me. Vera is a master at the haibun and in this poem she expertly mirrors the prose and haiku to tell the same story in two different worlds. In the prose we get lost in nature, caught up in the intimate moments between animals. We feel like we are observing something special. The haiku speaks to our world, and we instantly see how we are still connected to nature. How everything is different but the same, and I love when poetry does this.
Happy Hours
On the untrimmed grass below the kitchen window a baby bunny is chewing the tops of mauve clover blossom. A robin flies into the scene, to land nearby. At first, they eye each other cautiously. Then the bunny takes two hops toward the robin. In response, the robin hops twice away. The bunny goes back to the clover and the robin hops closer, then closer and closer still to nab a worm. The bunny’s head rises and its ears twitch. The next few minutes I watch a tableau of play between the two. Without warning a crow’s caw from the pine. The bunny runs, the robin sounds a warning and flees. The crow caws again.
bar flies
over appetizers
office workers mingle
Reprinted with permission from Latitude 46 Publishing.
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Thomas Leduc was Poet Laureate of Sudbury, Ontario from 2014-2016, and the President of the Sudbury Writers’ Guild from 2017-2021. In 2019, Tom published his first book, Slagflower Poems Unearthed From A Mining Town, with Latitude 46. Tom has published two community-driven books with the Sudbury Writers’ Guild, one titled Painted Voices, and the other titled Sudbury Superstack A Changing Skyline. Most recently his poem “The Night We Burned The Dragons Head” was published in Prairie Fire’s Burning Up/ Burning Down, April 2024 edition.
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Thanks to Thomas for answering our questions, and to Latitude 46 Publishing for the text of “That Day, at the Market” from Palpitations, which is available to order now (and get 15% off with the code TRIBUTARIES until April 30!). Thanks also to Latitude 46 for the text of “Happy Hours” from Vera Constantineau’s Enlightened by Defilement.
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