Main and Hastings by Duncan Shields

Duncan Shields has made the 2018 CBC Poetry Prize longlist for Main and Hastings.

• 30 writers make longlist for the 2018CBC Poetry Prize

About Duncan

Duncan Shields is a computer games animator, spoken-word poetand flash fiction writer living in Vancouver, B.C.He was a 2009 CBC Poetry Face Off competitor, a Vancouver Poetry Slam team member 2013 and 2014 a two-time Vancouver Haiku, Ghost Storyand Nerd Poetry Championand the only poet to complete the Vancouver Poetry Slam Century Challenge twice. He was the Vancouver Poetry Slam Master for two terms. He was recently published in Nine Lives Later: A Dead Cat Anthology by Dee Dee Chapman. His flash fiction work can be seen at 365tomorrows.com.

Entry in five-ish words

A walk through extreme poverty.

The poem's source of inspiration

"I was walking late one night through the intersection of Main and Hastings in downtown Vancouver and, as always, was struck by the poverty there."

First lines

The people down here have unfinished crossword puzzles for smiles. Their eyes are like the empty place at a table. Their days are numbered but they're all out of order. They cause Death to stutter. Atlantis comes to them in seizures.

They've dug down, way past the depth of a grave. They're scraping foxholes out of the bedrock now.

Trying to hold onto too many fireworks has left holes in their sign language. They are swimming rabbits in flooded warrens, dark bellhops from demolished hotels.

About the 2018CBCPoetry Prize

The winner of the 2018CBCPoetry Prizewill receive$6,000 from theCanada Council for the Arts, will have their work published onCBC Booksandwill have the opportunity to attend a writing residency attheBanff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from theCanada Council for the Artsand have their work published onCBC Books.