• My Mother Joins the Resistance

My Mother Joins the Resistance

by Richard Harrison

April 7, 2026 | ISBN 978-1-998408-40-5 | 88 Pages

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All there is, is light and darkness and wonder.
And in that moment, there is no difference, either,
between love and the memory of love. – “Up Above the World”

In this latest collection Richard Harrison has created a companion to his Governor General Award–winning collection On Not Losing My Father’s Ashes in the Flood. In My Mother Joins the Resistance, Harrison considers his mother’s life – from her time as a child during WWII’s Operation Pied Piper, up until its end, in 2017, when terminally ill with cancer, she chose MAiD – with elegant, deeply felt poetry. These are beautiful poems, ones that piece together a person, a life and a family over generations. These are poems that examine the wounds passed down through a family, alongside the love, and see the echoes of both – the wounds and the love – in the world around us.

“I was taken by a riptide, allowed my body to be still, held my breath so I wouldn’t drown. Then a tsunami slammed me against the shore and I gulped with pain. A sudden awareness, a philosophical, spiritual awakening. This is Richard’s story, sorrow, grief, the openness to truth. I love when poetry touches me to the core. This is what makes an entry to the soul. Read it until the pain subsides. And cry as the water heals you.” – Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer, Canada’s Ninth Parliamentary Poet Laureate