![]() ![]() It’s a piercing flash of life that feels like a tribute to the young woman’s spirit. Silt literally and figuratively blurs things here, but in the midst of it all is one crisp image, that of the earring/crustacean. That softening, through features such as assonance and onomatopoeia, offers a kind of comfort and lends dignity to the victimized girl. Several poetic sound devices serve to soften both the violencethe woman suffered and the shock of the discovery of her body. “Silt” brings a startling beauty to the young woman’s demise. ![]() ![]() There is much about the story to horrify and infuriate, and much that poet Soraya Peerbaye heard firsthand, as she attended the trials of two participants eventually convicted of the young woman’s murder, and pored over transcripts to distill the story into striking poetry. That tragedy is the murder of a young woman, abused and brutalized by her ostensible peers. ![]() Seven of her assailants were girls five were white. At least eight young people participated in the initial assault, while more looked on. This week, we consider the moving selection “Silt” by Soraya Peerbaye, from her collection inspired by real-life tragedy, Tell: poems for a girlhood. Soraya Peerbaye, Toronto, Tell: poems for a girlhood, Pedlar Press Reena Virk was a girl of South Asian descent who was murdered on November 14th, 1997, in Saanich, British Columbia. We continue to focus our Poem of the Week spotlight on the recently announced 2016 Griffin Poetry Prize shortlist. ![]()
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