Canada, (b. 1954)
Personal Myths
- Pig, I was wrong. You were not tall,
- not a man. It was a myth I fabricated.
- In you the metamorphosis
- has been arrested. I have studied
- the charts of evolution.
- I can tell you something.
- Man is a country, a government.
- Man is a faculty that ignores its students.
- You are of some sub-species, I believe,
- just bundled in with the group.
- Yours is the incomplete, the unaccomplished
- Darwinian dream.
- I am guilty of such name calling!
- Pig-latin, Pig-greek,
- Pig-german, Pig-indonesian,
- Hawaiian-pig, Uncle Sam’s piggy, Ontario pork.
- You and I, dear pig, have not come so far
- as great men and their theories.
© Sharon Berg. The Body Labyrinth. Toronto: Coach House Press (1984).
About the Poet:
Sharon Berg, Canada (b. 1954), is a poet, publisher and educator. She had a long association with Phoenix: A Poet’s Workshop, in Toronto and The Axle Tree Coffee House, one of the longest running literary performance venues in Canada. Berg was also the founder of Big Pond Rumour, a small literary press devoted to supporting new and established Canadian poets. She has also been an elementary school teacher.
Berg’s poetry often explores relationships between men and women and the roles each assumes. She does this without dogmatism and combativeness, recognizing the need of both men and women to take risks, to be vulnerable without being naive and to be both radical and innocent. [DES-01/13]
Additional information:
- For more about Sharon Berg: https://sharonbergauthor.com/
- Personal Myths: a video poem by Sharon Berg