By: Alex Traynor, SFU Student
On May 10, I ventured down to SFU Harbour Center in Vancouver for the first time to attend the official book launch for Elegy for Opportunity, written by the award-winning poet and SFU English alum Natalie Lim. I knew I couldn’t miss the event as soon as I read the question Lim explores in her work: “How do we go on living and loving in a time of overlapping crises?” As someone grappling with the philosophical dread of how I can continue functioning as if nothing is wrong in the world, I hoped Lim’s poetry would provide some insight and validation. I wasn’t disappointed.
Upon arrival, I quickly realized that this event was more than a celebration of Lim’s debut book. It was a testament to her profound impact on a vibrant and connected community. The room was packed, the energy warm and uplifting. Friends, family, colleagues, fellow writers, and academics filled every seat, eager to celebrate the esteemed poet and her work. The event opened with Mallory Tater, a four-time author and lecturer at UBC’s School of Creative Writing, who described Lim’s poetry as an expression of community kindness. This simple description resonated with me, and became evident as I read her works. Despite feeling a distinct lack of community during my time at SFU, this event gave me a glimpse of what a supportive creative circle looks like. I’ve generally felt helpless in finding any semblance of community since becoming an adult, watching neoliberalism invade social reactions — encouraging individualism, isolation, and meritocracy. In a political and economic climate where it’s everyone for themselves, building strong communities is a direct act of resistance to the systems that benefit off of us feeling detached.
Stephen Collis, the chair of SFU’s English department, took the stage next. He recounted reading Lim’s first ever published poem arrhythmia, a piece that explores her identity as a Chinese Canadian, and how it impressed him so much that he encouraged its publication. She would go on to win the CBC Poetry Prize for the piece in 2018. Following Collis, Isabella Wang, author of Pebble Swing, read a poem dedicated to Lim, referencing a line from arrhythmia to connect their shared experiences. The tribute was emotional, making it clear that the afternoon was as much about celebrating Lim’s work as it was about honouring her connection to those around her. Lim’s long-time friend and Vancouver-based poet Tina Do also shared a piece written for her that left Lim in tears. By then, I’d already decided to buy a copy of Elegy for Opportunity. I had promised myself to engage with more art this year, and the authenticity and vulnerability of Lim’s prose felt like the kind of art I needed to support.
Elegy for Opportunity intertwines love poems with tributes for the deceased NASA space rover Opportunity. After being overtaken by a sandstorm on Mars in 2018, the robot’s 15 year service to human scientific research came to an end. Lim was struck by the collective mourning for this machine that had been programmed for the very purpose of permanent exile — this paradox spoke to her about humanity’s capacity for love and grief. Initially titled Everyone I Love is Now, Lim’s love poems in the collection explore love in its multifaceted nature, including familial love, companionate love, love for environment, and even love for non-living objects, like that we reserve for machines. During the discussion and Q&A facilitated by Mallory Taylor, Lim spoke about the duality of love and grief, describing how grief can deepen our understanding of love, especially in those moments when love seems most fragile. Before reading the first poem in her book Love Poems Don’t Win Contests, she shared how self-doubt almost kept her from publishing work that felt too vulnerable. But in the end, Lim chose to lean into that discomfort, allowing her rawest, most honest reflections to emerge.
For Lim, Elegy for Opportunity is a book for this particular moment in time, a time marked by fear, loss, and uncertainty — all the while eliciting endless moments of connection and tenderness. Created during the start of COVID-19, Lim grappled with how joy and connection can blossom in times of lockdown, and how young people increasingly fear the future due to climate crises, active genocides, and threat of facism. Despite such bleakness, the resilience of the human spirit is undeniable, and I love how this book illustrates the tumultuous burden and joy of the human experience in this age.
I feel honoured to have been in that room and to have experienced those couple hours. The event reminded me that paying attention to space and time by allowing yourself to be fully present in the moment comes with the most rewarding results.
