Bio
Linda H.Y. Hegland is an award-winning poetry, lyric essay, and non-fiction writer who lives and writes on a small farm in Nova Scotia, Canada. She writes the occasional short story. Born in Bath, England, she grew up on the stark prairies of western Canada, and now returns to coastal/bucolic climes in Nova Scotia. Her writing most often reflects the influence of place, and sense of place, and one's complex and many-layered relationship with it. She has published in numerous literary and art journals and has had work nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She has had previously published two books of poetry - 'Bird Slips, Moon Glows' and 'White Horses', a book of lyric essays - 'Place of the Heart', and a book of verses and vignettes - 'Remember in Pieces'. She is currently working on another book of poetry and vignettes to be published in early 2025.
Linda HY Hegland
Good Songs
Good songs have teeth,
have a tune that sticks in your throat
like fish bones;
takes your breath away
like a prairie wind.
Good songs don't need you
to stay in tune;
they embrace the
crack in your tone,
the sob in your voice.
Good songs add a lilt
to sadness;
arrange your sorrow in notes.
They can make a broken, haunting voice
a thing of beauty.