Don McKay’s poem “Neanderthal Dig” begins with the discovery of an ancient, child-sized skeleton placed on the wing of a swan and then takes flight, showing us how love and death are riddled with paradoxes — mixing the earthbound and the sacred, the personal and the universal, the time-stamped and the never ending.Don McKay is the multi-award-winning author of multiple books of poetry, including <a href="https://onbeing.org/programs/don-mckay-neanderthal-dig/#media">Lurch</a>, <a href="https://onbeing.org/programs/don-mckay-neanderthal-dig/#media">Paradoxides</a>, <a href="https://onbeing.org/programs/don-mckay-neanderthal-dig/#media">Strike/Slip</a> (winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize), and <a href="https://onbeing.org/programs/don-mckay-neanderthal-dig/#media">Camber: Selected Poems</a> (finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize and a Globe and Mail Notable Book of the Year). McKay has taught poetry in universities across Canada. He currently lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland.<a href="https://onbeing.org/programs/don-mckay-neanderthal-dig/#transcript">Find the transcript</a> for this show at onbeing.org.We’re pleased to offer Don McKay’s poem and invite you to subscribe to <a href="https://poetryunbound.substack.com/">Pádraig’s weekly Poetry Unbound Substack</a> newsletter, read <a href="https://linktr.ee/poetryunbound">the Poetry Unbound book</a>, or listen to past episodes of the podcast. We also have two books coming out in early 2025 — <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/kitchen-hymns/21131749?ean=9781556597107">Kitchen Hymns</a> (new poems from Pádraig) and <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/40-poems-on-being-with-each-other-a-poetry-unbound-collection-padraig-o-tuama/21077256?ean=9781324086161">44 Poems on Being with Each Other</a> (new essays by Pádraig). You can pre-order them wherever you buy books.

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Don McKay — Neanderthal Dig

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