Did I Miss Anything?
Question frequently asked by students after missing a class by Tom Wayman The Astonishing Weight of the Dead. Vancouver: Polestar, 1994. Nothing. When we realized you weren’t here we sat…
poetry
Another Archy Poem
Most of Don Marquis’ Archy pieces were written in lowercase. The literate cockroach, we learned, would stand on the typewriter and dive, head first, onto the keys. But this way,…
To My Alien Abductor
To My Alien Abductor Life sucks, life is awesome. Lucky. Didn’t ask to be born. But writing bad poetry. Makes this shit. More fun than a barrel of Monkeys. I’ve…
To My Alien Abductor
To My Alien Abductor Life sucks, life is awesome. Lucky. Didn’t ask to be born. But writing bad poetry. Makes this shit. More fun than a barrel of Monkeys. I’ve…
The outlaw love and godless gospel of roots rocker Rodney DeCroo
Albumn review, “Campfires on the Moon”, by Michael Nenonen. Rodney DeCroo’s latest album, “Campfires on the Moon,” reveals hidden faces. I’ll say more about that in a moment. “Campfires”, released…
National Poetry Month
April is National Poetry Month in Canada. I don’t know if this gets widespread acknowledgement much less appreciation among the public and in the schools, but it should. Poetry is…
Politics, Re-Spun 2015-01-12 09:59:43
Bed-Sized Universe In the liminal state Between yesterday’s deluge of logistics and over-stimulation And tomorrow’s hopefully more meditative study Of deep river shore line, I lie in bed Between clay…
Poems That Make You Cry
I cannot read Dylan Thomas’ poem, ‘Do not go gentle into that good night‘ without a lump in my throat. I read it at my father’s funeral, several years ago,…
Paused Gravity
Paused Gravity The silent accord Between the tidal bore and the falling backward Off the cliff The fire red maple leaf Giving up clinging to the twig Which itself is…
Larry & Jerry’s Inferno
I had forgotten about this book until recently when I came across a reprint. I read it originally in the late 1970s when I was reading a lot more sci-fi…
Cold Mountain Poems
I first became aware of the Tang dynasty poet, Han Shan, in the late 1960s, when I was engrossed in reading the poets of the earlier Beat generation. It was…
A Gift of the Prairie
THE BOOK THAT MY POEMS ARE IN IS HERE! THE BOOK THAT MY POEMS ARE IN IS HERE!! Extra points if you can name the reference there. It’s called A…
The Hunting of the Snark
I’ve always wondered why Lewis Carroll’s wonderful poem, The Hunting of the Snark – an Agony in Eight Fits – has never been redone, rewritten in a modern version, with…
Community
My generation from Verdun grew up With Fathers who worked in factories and Mothers who, if they worked were in retail or service low paying respectable jobs. To do better…
Community
My generation from Verdun grew up With Fathers who worked in factories and Mothers who, if they worked were in retail or service low paying respectable jobs. To do better…
“I’m speaking with you as a human being and you’re talking at me as a politician.”
"I'm speaking with you as a human being and you're talking at me as a politician."— Melissa Fong (@internationalmf) April 21, 2014 When you ask me to open up
The difficult art of reading poetry
Synecdoche. Metonymy. Not exactly words that trip lightly off the tongue. Unless, I suppose, you’re Harold Bloom. Those are two of the four fundamental tropes in literature, Bloom tells us.…
Spoon River: Smith, Goodman and Masters
VERY well, you liberals, And navigators into realms intellectual, You sailors through heights imaginative, Blown about by erratic currents, tumbling into air pockets, You Margaret Fuller Slacks, Petits, And Tennessee…