By Madeline Bassnett
I’ve been thinking lately about Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” It fits the current Fredericton landscape perfectly: the snow lies two feet thick on the ground and I have to strap on snowshoes just to feed the backyard birds. But I think about this poem for another reason too: it’s an old friend, the first poem I fully memorized.
By Madeline Bassnett
My life is all about revision — and that’s not just a metaphorical statement. It seems I’ve ceased writing anything new: my only task is to complete and repair the old. As if I’ve suddenly entered the field of furniture restoration, sanding the scratches, oiling the bumps, replacing worn nails — a deceptively satisfying comparison. As if revision were simply a matter of priming and primping, of returning to some earlier and idealised state.
Richard Cumyn’s most recent fiction collection, The Young in their Country and Other Stories, contains two stories that were first published in The Fiddlehead: “In the Wash” (no. 232 summer 2007) and “The Goddess Throws Down” (no. 240 summer 2009)
The Fiddlehead is a proud auction donor in support of Margaret Atwood in Vancouver, a fundraiser to benefit the Writer's Trust of Canada. Check out the Online Auction of Literary Collectibles, which runs from January 26th at 12:00 a.m.
