Author | Educator
Poet Laureate Emeritus | Speaker
Community Poetry
A selection of poems written for community during my time as Poet Laureate of Cobourg.
Hometown Hockey
Lifelong connections
rushing with calm strength
to build community
we respect the ice.
Our town Cobourg wraps
goals for all ages
winning on bended knee
for our neighbours to rise.
Synchronizing sticks
we pound encouragement
with the percussion of proud
families chanting
between sips of hot chocolate
in finger-numbing arenas.
Circling back to cover
the coaches and the lessons
cheering a life-game series
our girls in fully dressed perseverance
before sunrise and after sunset.
Our brother plays team spirit
behind him jackets fill pews
at our mother’s funeral
the accuracy of passing
friendship.
Billet sons and daughters
an international family
determining our win
in love radiating from the potluck.
Flushed faces and wet hair
swerving to target
local heroes
in stinking wet equipment
we know anything can happen in the third period
because we are defenders
in ice storms on Chapel Street
rough and beautiful
pre-schoolers on bobskates along
the frozen sidewalk
students in schoolyards with mini-sticks
as the goalie blocks the puck
like reaching for the peanut butter on the top shelf.
It’s more than a game
snapshot swish
lightning crack
all go glissade
sharp glide to joy
red light glow
penalty slam and rebound
hard adrenaline hits
we pass, we score, we shout:
we live in a hockey town.
By Jessica Outram
Crowdsourced on Facebook and Twitter
Written for January 1, 2020
Cobourg, Ontario
Mayor’s Levee
The Works
A Tribute to The Art Gallery of Northumberland on its 60th Anniversary
this art museum to the community
collected tenderly
these walls have much to say
start with memories in boats oil on Masonite
wander by the sketch of two girls
see a little daughter flies across lithograph on paper
soars beyond bright acrylic clear laminated blocks
dare to step
treasure each paper holding
slender tree spring grass signals in silence
geographic space line shape
turn to notice
a different portrait a whispering gateway
light and dark a study for safe harbour calls
here these walls of our Victoria Hall
eyes carved wide like Sam’s
get lost in fragile skies
elk touches the frame of afternoon
to leap across this autumn sunset
ask about watercolour glimpses near Sheffield
a storm rumbles in Algonquin park
finding that streetscape and road across the pond
fall into panama
these walls are not walls but portals
untitled spaces to remind us
we grow together
By Jessica Outram
Poet Laureate of Cobourg
October 2020
I’m Listening to Your Portrait
For over fifty years
your picture hung on the
cottage wall in the living room
next to Prince Philip, near
an Eno’s Fruit Salt poster
the English Monarchy,
Alfred the Great to King George VI,
designed on the occasion of the first visit
to Canada of their Majesties in 1939.
I read the Queen Mother
wore a platinum crown
without its arches
to your coronation in 1953,
Her Majesty
Queen Elizabeth II
now a platinum jubilee
seventy years’ service
presence, passing
black and white to
full colour smiles
through glass
framing generations
a view out the front windows
in the heart of our singsongs
and family gatherings,
your portrait in homes
around the world.
As a teenager I lingered
at Buckingham Palace
by the fence
to catch a glimpse,
weaving your story, my story—
What does it mean
to be a woman in the world?
Do people listen
to a Queen or just watch,
living in rooms with your portrait—
crown, castles
guards wearing hats
from Canadian black bears,
--I listen for your voice sometimes.
Seventy years of seeing
your picture as it saw us
I imagine you whisper,
let’s take a step somewhere
and then another
until we are here.
I listen to know
more about the ways
your gaze endured,
eyes wide open at the world
changing so much
stories under stories
shifting time
questions marching in circles,
you were always there.
A rare Queen, a jubilee
marking a reign longer
than all the others
a woman with a family and dogs,
sharing in our humanity.
We see you, Queen Elizabeth II
in your portrait.
By Jessica Outram
Poet Laureate of Cobourg
Composed for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Celebrations
May 29, 2022