Chimwemwe Undi discovers the importance of looking in life's rear-view mirror in new poem

CBC

24-02-2025

The First Year is an original poem by Chimwemwe Undi. It is part of Mirrors, a special series of new, original writing featuring work by the English-language winners of the 2024 Governor General's Literary Awards, presented in partnership with the Canada Council for the Arts.
"The theme of mirrors conjured for me the experience of looking at yourself in the mirror and noticing more clearly something that was behind you. From there, I was drawn back to a pre-existing preoccupation of mine, which is the role that personal, family and world history have on a person's ability or willingness to contend with the world as it is today," Undi told CBC Books.
Undi won the 2024 Governor General's Literary Award for poetry for Scientific Marvel.
The First Year
In the first year
that those years could be called the past the past
still bloomed at the borders
and in the graveyards
and the graveyards were the streets
where my uncles died like dogs.
In that first year, that first
blush of history, I was born,
scaled, unscathed, aspiring
to nuance.
I took my Gogo's name and a lamb was slaughtered in the world
and in the name of god,
and the name meant lamb.
In that first year, that first blush of history, I was born, scaled, unscathed, aspiring to nuance.
In my dreams, my screens are windows.
Even here, where I pass my tassel
and into the new school of unmaking.
Taught to peddle in precedent & abstraction
(what has happened should happen) (what exactly do you mean by happening?)
Here, in the Black I was born unto,
newly history,
the new and hollow sound,
Even
in my dreams
I learn the truth is something that you sigh.
I learn to loosen fists
and lower quiet hands
to hold myself to let knit fingers slip
pause pointer
over empty sentiments
left unrepeated
all my questions in the other room.
The word apartheid is in Afrikaans so when I say it, it reminds me what it did.
The word apartheid is in Afrikaans
so when I say it, it reminds me what it did.
It was a long war, and it is still going.
You can taste it in the fruit.
About Chimwemwe Undi
Chimwemwe Undi is a Winnipeg-based poet, editor and lawyer. She was recently announced as Canada's 11th parliamentary poet laureate and was the Winnipeg Poet Laureate for 2023 and 2024. Undi was longlisted for the 2020 CBC Poetry Prize. She won the 2022 John Hirsch Emerging Writer Award from the Manitoba Book Awards and her work can be found in Brick, Border Crossings, Canadian Literature and BBC World, among others.
The English-language books that won the 2024 Governor General's Literary Awards demonstrate how stories help us reflect on our lives, understand ourselves more deeply and see the world in new ways.
CBC Books asked the winners to further explore the power of reflection in original works. The special series, themed around the theme of mirrors, challenges how we see ourselves and our society — unearthing hidden truths, exploring alternative identities and blurring the lines between reality and fantasy.