Apart from her collections of poetry, Urquhart has also published several novels, including Away, which remained on the Globe and Mail's National Bestseller list for 132 weeks - the longest of any Canadian book. Urquhart is known for artful storytelling, and evocative descriptions of Canadian landscapes. To tide you over until your next trip to the bookstore, here is her poem Shadow.

Shadow
The sun decides to
enter from the garden

moving on the carpet
he touches all your furniture
crawls under your closet door
investigates your wardrobe

moves his arm across
your memories
substituting light
heat and silence

he erases last year's
conversations with the stars
changes the contents of your mirrors
invents an alternative
palette for your crystal

scrapes his nails across brocade
revealing tangled threads
like contours on a map

he polished your tables
his brilliance clings to cutlery
till spoons become large
bright incisions
all across the grain

a weight of gold and heat
he stops      burning
at the flesh of your neck

you are the only shadow in the room.

Copyright: Jane Urquhart
Available in: The Little Flowers of Madame de Montespan, Porcupine's Quill, Inc., 1995.