Jim Smith

EN EL NOMBRE DE DIOS, CESE LA REPRESIÓN SONNET

By Gandalf’s shoes cese la represión!
On alternate Tuesdays cese la represión!
Using French declensions cese la represión!
You who knew me cese la represión!
In black ink only cese la represión!
Loblaws has a sale on cese la represión!
Whoever walks down Atlantic Avenue cese la represión!
Earwigs, raccoons, dumpers of the garbage cans cese la represión!

Ocean liners shaped like dead men cese la represión!
Turning the ignition cese la represión!
My dog loves black dogs cese la represión!
And I love all dogs cese la represión!

Cese la represión is back for another season!
Óscar Romero’s cese la represión!



Jim Smith’s Back Off, Assassin! New and Selected Poems (Mansfield Press) was longlisted for the 2010 Governor General’s Award for Poetry, and hit #7 on the Chapters/Indigo 14 Best Poetry Books for National Poetry Month 2010. During Jim’s visit with antipoet Nicanor Parra in Las Cruces, Chile, in February 2012, Nicanor advised him that translation is “treason.” In 61 years, Smith has published some 15 books and chapbooks of poetry, ran a small literary magazine and press, went to law school late and litigates for a living in Toronto. His most recent book is Happy Birthday, Nicanor Parra (Mansfield Press, 2012).