Nanaji by Avineet Cheema

Avineet Cheema has made the 2018CBC Poetry Prize longlist for Nanaji.

• 30writers make longlist for the 2018CBC Poetry Prize

About Avineet

Avineet Kaur Cheema is a student-at-law in the field of poverty law and a writer. She is originally from St. John's, N.L., but is currently residing in Toronto. As the child of Panjabi immigrants, Avineet's work explores the South Asian diaspora, displacement and the significance of preserving ancestral histories.

Entry in five-ish words

Longing for a lost homeland.

The poem's source of inspiration

"Because my mother was a single parent, much of my upbringing was by my grandfather Nanaji and grandmother Nanima. My Nanaji was and will forever remain to be the single most significant and influential person in my life. He lived through the partition of India, the largest forced migration in history, and he has passed onto me struggle and loss, but also the immense resilience of my people. My Nanaji bestowed upon me a connection to a home that only now exists through bedtime stories and crinkled black-and-white photographs. I was provoked to share this poem because my grandfather was very unwell at the time it was written and passed away shortly afterwards. These words were a cathartic release of his legacy and my tribute to a beautiful spirit."

First lines

You are Panjab before partition

Your veins flow with the fullness of
Five undivided rivers
Impregnating the bursting fertility
Of wheat-yellowed land

Your head is covered
By soft white hair kesh
The most beloved silk
Of your colonized country

About the 2018CBCPoetry Prize

The winner of the 2018CBCPoetry Prizewill receive$6,000 from theCanada Council for the Arts, will have their work published onCBC Booksandwill have the opportunity to attend a writing residency atthe Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from theCanada Council for the Artsand have their work published onCBC Books.