the poem as a river

The long poem has a somewhat singular history in Canadian literature. It proliferated among my generation of poets in the 70s and 80s, and Michael Ondaatje's and Sharon Thesen's anthologies of the Canadian long poem attest to its abundance. VIU's own student poet Délani Valin's Malahat Review prize-winning long poem "No Buffaloes" is evidence of its continuing popularity. There are several formal…