Summer is literally around the corner! It's a time of rest and vacations and fun in the sun! And post cards!

(Kids: ask your parents what post cards are. They're like paper emails!)

So we can think of no better way to celebrate this Poetry Friday than with Claire Harris' "This is a Post Card" (from The Conception of Winter).

Please enjoy! And send us a card! 

While summer is fast approaching, this Poetry Friday, something about the dark appeals to us. And is there a creature that better encapsulates the concept of "dark" than the raven?

Probably, but that wouldn't help us here, so please keep it to yourself.

From Angular Unconformity — the first comprehensive collection of pre-eminent Canadian poet Don McKay —here's a tribute to that darkest of dark animals, "Song for the Songs of the Common Raven."

Spring isn't only about the world heating up to tolerable levels again. It's about clear nights, where one can go outside and enjoy the wonders of the universe beyond our planet.

Or, you can stay inside and read about them.

This Poetry Friday, let's split the difference; go outside tonight, but prep yourself through the lovely imagery of Dorothy Roberts and her poem "A Marvel" (from her collection In the Flight of Stars).

Have you been outside lately? It's Spring! We're pretty sure it's here to stay this time!

And with spring comes renewal, and growth, and, yes, more work when it comes to farming and gardening. But that, too, can be a blessing, and an impetus for poetry.

So, for today's Poetry Friday entry, we celebrate the season and the work that goes with it with Yvonne Trainer's "Planting" (from her collection Everything Happens At Once).

Now, don't waste the season away. Go plant something, and let it grow. 

The baseball season is in full swing! But for some, poetry holds an allure that organized sports cannot compete with.

This Poetry Friday, we turn our gaze to the fairly rare intersection of childhood, literature, and sports.

Please enjoy Michael Estok's sensitive exploration of growing up poetically inclined in a childhood community of sports enthusiasts, "Out in left field for the Canadian poets' baseball league," from his 1987 collection Paradise Garage.

Now go outside and enjoy the day. And bring some poetry along, just in case.