Saturday, December 1, 2018
9:10pm
5 minutes
Is It Possible to Love a Ghost?
Erin Kang
When I think about leaving
I think about leaving the ocean
This
Body
of water that has grown me up
and out and in
I make you promise that we’ll
go to the lake often
and to the house in the woods
This
Body
needs water
We are sixty percent water
and I am more now
growing life in water
my rivers more visible
pulsing and hot
readying for
the arrival
Saturday, November 24, 2018
10:14pm
5 minutes
Braving the Wilderness
Brene Brown
The stanza of your body is an edit
these weeks and I make food and listen
to music and hope for the best even
though you are the verse I want
to sing along to
I tell you that I have had to learn
about soothing myself and saving myself
and being myself in the quiet of evening
in the quiet of morning I tell you
that this is the silver lining
Swelling with pride over who
we have become to ourselves to one another
the stanza of your body is here
in the absence because you are here
in my body in my heart in my spirit
twirling smoke into future
Friday November 23, 2018
11:20pm
5 minutes
A Whale of a Tail!
Illustrated by Jo Moon
I’m going to shake the dreams from my ears and watch
as they fall out into the bathtub with a PLOP.
I’m going to greet the Whale with a bow and a song as
she knows so much more than I ever will.
I’m going to ride the Seahorse across the purple prairies
and listen to his breath through his body through my legs.
I’m going to dance up to the treetops and find a branch to swing from
where all the babies and children can see me and laugh and laugh.
I’m going to tell the Narwhal that I’m sorry for all the times
I’ve forgotten she was sleeping and turned on the twinkle lights.
I’m going to skate across the Milky Way and settle in a galaxy
beyond here where there is a field big enough for my hope.
I’m going to tell the Crab that it’s safe to come out even though
it doesn’t always feel like it is.
Thursday November 22, 2018
9:02pm
5 minutes
White Fragility
Robin DiAngelo
I want to know what to say
in the face of your ignorance
in the face of your pain
sat across from me at my
kitchen table.
I want to be able to make space
for your heartache and misinformation
but really I’m just haunted
by the way you see it
by your blindness to your privilege.
The conversation plays over and over
in my mind and I’m checking myself
my disconnections my rearview mirror
I’m wondering if I let myself down.
It’s not about being politically correct
It’s not about denying this kind of conversation
It’s about leaning in
Which I did not do because I was scared.
White supremacy
the tentacles reaching
backwards and forwards in time
“That’s not what this is about”
But it is yes oh yes.
Friday November 16, 2018
11:03pm
5 minutes
Universal Soldiers
Andrea Warner
My mother is beautiful
in the thickness of grief
My mother
bless her ravaged heart
her oatmeal-making
her devotion
People don’t talk
about how it smells
(salty wet acidic)
about how it looks
(pale shrunken)
about how it feels in the bones
(heavy empty ragged)
I awaken with clenched teeth
and a prayer between them
Glory Bound
sweat on my forehead
butterfly kicks
in my womb
Monday November 5, 2018
10:06pm
5 minutes
Blushing
Daenna Van Mulligen
River playing in the living room and I’m here
now okay this is the now and then there’s skating
on the dreams of when we wore pink snow suits
and swam in blue blue water turning us into
little women turning us into mermaids
killed and kissed and freedom and water
She’s so busy now being who she needs to be
that sometimes I’m not sure about any of the choices
that I’ve made oh those seven thousand miles between us
stretching into winter and forest and grouse and
oh scaling the chasm of forgetting
Let’s go back there to the place where we
would sing in the backseat of the white Nissan of the
truth and all that floral stationary telling our
secrets telling our futures reading our open
and outstretched palms
Friday November 2, 2018
7:22am
5 minutes
More Than Cooking
Marla Cimini
Light a candle
on the alter, where you
are, where we are,
Animal forms and a few
green things and rocks
from the woods.
Pray to the highest
cosmic force, pray
to love.
It’s always
something, isn’t it?
It’s then quake of the
heart in the face
of a call to arms.
It’s the gentle calling
towards softness towards
release towards relax
towards slow.
Morning brings
something new
now, an anointment of honey
on the third eye,
ash on the lips, a mantra
of let go
let go let
go let go.
Thursday November 1, 2018
11:40am
5 minutes
A quote by José Andrés
This morning I woke up with a pain in my side the size of your body
And now I’m carrying you along side me unable to move or breathe
I’ve never had trouble sleeping til now and now I can’t sleep past
Sunrise something about the light creeping through the cracks and
I’m ready to feel the flutters and kiss the surrender and get into
A hot shower
We talk about the power of water sitting on a couch across from
Each other and I know now more about listening and being listened to
Than I did only half a year ago mark the difference in feeling in my
Throat in my heart in my guts when I’m being really listened to
Saturday October 27, 2018
9:20pm
5 minutes
Golf Nouveau
Conan Tobias
Yesterday yesterday
yesterday yesterday yesterday
five yesterdays equals almost
seven years right four days shy
of seven whole yesterday years
We talk about when
We talked about how and now we’re
here and now where there and now
You are the you you dreamed into being
I am the me almost me full me coming soon
We are the you and I that we loved and
love now and will love and what
about when I’m eight-four and my back
hurts and my feet need lotion
what about then
Yesterday yesterday will feel so misty
maybe or so fresh too
Saturday October 20, 2018
8:02pm
5 minutes
A quote by Gordon Campbell
Avocados ripening in a ceramic bowl
next to butternut squash
a lemon
Regretfully
I have everything I want
and still I want more
It’s natural right
these bananas ripening
too quick these bananas
that will likely become
bread become stomach
become sweet become shit
Guzzling water standing
over the sink I can’t get
enough I can’t have enough
Enough
Rinsing lentils for soup
until the water runs clear
A handful of pecans
of potato chips
of cut up apple
These are the moments
This is the moment
Sunday October 21, 2018
11:02am at Pallet Coffee
5 minutes
Room For Passion
Fairmont Pacific Rim
I walk here in the quiet holding of Sunday morning
on the phone long distance with a beauty who can
meet all the gullies of truth and cackle at the ways
life laughs and leaks and loads and laughs.
This new neighbourhood place where I’ll bring you,
where we’ll get to know each other. It’s easy to assume
that we know each other now, with your heart
beating in my body, the truest possible knowing perhaps.
One body inside another. What kind of madness is it?
I imagine your pinky toes and little delicious fingers
and how you’ll be in on our inside jokes. I imagine
reading you all the stories that saved me and gave me
hope for what can be possible. I imagine all the hundreds
of meals I’ll make you. I imagine how you’ll need me in
a way I have not yet ever been needed. That’s such a
beautiful and terrifying in a way that
doubles the beauty thing.
Wednesday October 10, 2018
9:11am
5 minutes
Louder than Words
Starhawk
When he’s rolling cigarettes
just a little bit of weed
mostly tobacco don’t even okay
He thinks about his father
rolling cigarettes and smoking
sunrise to noon to sunset
to midnight his father in the
field hoping to keep calm
He remembers his mother beating
on his father’s chest with closed
fists with anger the colour of
blood in her eyes and how she wailed
when she told him he was gonna die
and how she wailed when she lost
another child and how she wailed
when he collapsed in the corn
Tuesday October 9, 2018
2:42pm
5 minutes
The Stray
Stephen A. Waite
We play Monopoly lying on our stomachs on the carpet
in front of the woodstove. Mom is out for a cross
country ski. We just filled our bellies with hot
chocolate, more than we’re allowed to have, more than
is good for us, but that’s okay. You put another
log into the mouth of the stove, and I jump up
because there are sparks, and fire is brave.
You know how to turn the damper. You know how to
be the banker. We hear Mom banging her skis on
the porch.
Wednesday October 3, 2018
6:37am
5 minutes
Sitting in the Fire
Pema Chodron
Silence the voices of doubt
like you would a mewing lamb
weaving between your legs
underfoot and gentle
Silence the voices of doubt
with the kindness of a lover
with the patience of teacher
with the fire of freedom
I know doubt like I know
my mother’s face
even though I go months now
without seeing her
My mother
not doubt
Doubt creeps in often
hard to say exactly how often
when I’m turned the other way
when I’m tying my boot
Sunday September 30, 2018
4:43pm
5 minutes
Waiting For My Rape
Jessica Anya Blau
My mother told us the prognosis
over the phone as we lay in our bed
your hand on my belly
my hand on your heart
The rain came today and it feels
right a cleansing a weeping
a shedding and you’re cleaning
the house of all the summer sand
My mother astounds me every day
with her willingness to feel the truth
with her ability to meet the mystery
with her strength in the breaking
It’s good to have stillness
amidst the flurry the fury
the unfurling the fraying
It’s good to have a Sunday like this
Jolie eats an apple on FaceTime
and we laugh at the determination
the squeals the sweetness
the surrender
Thursday September 20, 2018
9:13pm
5 minutes
Crystal
Gillian Wigmore
Before we moved to the land of mist drops
and mountain tops before we came where the rain
lasts and the leaves change colour in slow motion
We were clear only on the passion and ambition
needed to leave where we’d always known
H-O-M-E that four letter word that’s so sacred
We knew it was something that we had to do
“Go West” the wind whispered
“Go West” called the pines and cedars
And bless us that we listened
bless us that it’s been four years
and all these joys and fights and loves and aches
Friday September 7, 2018
5:11pm
5 minutes
F*** Face
Amber Dawn
She died before age forty
and it’s okay don’t be sad about it
she was ready she’d lived
a full life
she’d fucked
and fled
and funned
and stayed
and stopped
and loved
She died before she turned forty
right but she lived more in those
years than most people live in
their eighty two or seventy six
She called her sister
before she died
because her sister couldn’t be there
she was the only on
she had two new babies
two new babes
and she called her sister
and her sister cried and cried
her nipples dripping milk
the twins sleeping beside her
she rocked them with her foot
Monday September 3, 2018
5 minutes
7:41am
FtM
Kierst Wade
You asked for this when you were in your mother’s womb
You asked to be wrapped in colts foot and birch bark
You asked to be burned and wrung out and lifted high
You asked for the stars to be in Aries
the moon to full
You asked for twelve trusted women to flank you
when you emerged
naked and screaming and howling at the Gods
You asked to be tested
to be tried
to be true
You asked for all of this by choosing them
and then you asked again when you chose him
and here you are asking this newness
this dawn
and you asked again for the grace to
rise
Sunday August 26, 2018
8:22pm
5 minutes
Here Be Monsters
Lisa Foad
Light becomes me
like blue does
and rest does
even now when
everything is
upside down
and changing
Light becomes you
like a white shirt does
and rest does
even now when
you aren’t getting
very much
and you feel
like you’re failing
I’ve never loved
you more than the
moment I fell into
your arms near the
bookshelf that saturday
that morning I’ll
always remember
I’ve never loved
you more than now
watching you sleeping
watching your face
change with the dreaming
Here we are
on the edge
this new jump
it’s higher than
we’ve ever gone
and I know there’s
a peak of doubt
and a plunge of faith
but all I can
hear is all the
ones who have come
before saying
You’re ready
You’re ready
You’re ready
Monday August 6, 2018
7:02am
5 minutes
The Law of Success
Paramahansa Yogananda
The thing is, we’re never sure
And we leap anyway
Off the edge
Whatever that looks like for you
It’s often a dock
like the one at Knowlton Lake
Sometimes it’s a cliff
something I would never do
Every big decision
doesn’t come from a place of sureness
It comes from an inkling
like the loons calling at dusk
Did you hear that?
Was that their song?
Is it time?
Is it now?
We’re never sure
or maybe I’m never sure
But I am on the other hand
My gut whispers “Go”
Friday August 3, 2018
9:33pm
5 minutes
From an Enbridge ad
It’s a million dollar
three point two
seven point nine
three and half
oh my word
it’s dollar symbols
and decimal points
and I can’t even
count that high
They are building a
new skyscraper and
every new story
makes me
every new story
gives me
I joke about
going down there
and getting a tour
dressing up
I’ll wear heels and
you’ll wear a three
piece suit
Two million
down payment I can’t
believe I ever thought
owning a house with a
garden and a bird bath
was going to be
Oh wait
here are the angels
in blue
Oh wait
we’re getting
somewhere
Tuesday July 31, 2018
9:31pm
5 minutes
From an e-mail
Typing into Google (the all mighty 8 ball of this century)
“Why am I so tired?”
“How do you know you’re pregnant?”
“How far away is space?”
All these kittens in their bedrooms
Nirvana posters and twinkle lights
condom wrappers and Fruit by the Foot
belly button lint and a card from a grandmother
Searching for God in a screen
little or big same difference
searching for connection alone
little or big same difference
You’re tired because you don’t sleep enough, peanut
You’re pregnant when magic happens and blood doesn’t
Space is here
God is here
Let’s spoon until it’s winter
and make soup
and sing anthems
Sunday July 29, 2018
6:24pm
5 minutes
Snark Tuner Instructions
You must be able to read the language of your personality with care
Know how to take the truth and swallow it
Understand how to protect yourself
how to avoid swallowing too much air along with it
You must get good at asking yourself the right questions:
Am I hungry?
Am I Lonely?
There are others
They can work for all of us
You must be able to determine which thing is occurring
You must be able to listen to the answer as if it were a
new born baby crying with reckless abandon
As if it cannot be ignored
And then don’t ignore it
Pick up your baby (You)
rock your baby (you) with love
Kiss your baby’s (your) cheeks
And wait there for a miute
to be informed
Sunday July 29, 2018
3:05pm
5 minutes
Snark Tuner Instructions
Today I scrubbed the glass
of the sliding door and thought
Oh this is spiritual practise
as prayer is
Oh this is prayer
Sweat beading on my forehead
squatted and smelling of
newspaper and vinegar
In May when we’d get
the cottage ready for
a summer of rentals
it was my job to wash
the glass of the sliding doors
and while I probably procastinated
I loved doing it
giving to this home that held us
through the joy
and the madess
giving to this mother
who gave everything to us
I’m glad that we know the
clarity of clean space
that the act of clearing
dust from the surface of the altar
sends a smile to my lips
Saturday July 28, 2018
4:42pm
5 minutes
Rhinocerotic
Ellie Sawatzky
Truth rambles out open pores
and I smell goodness on your skin
drink it in
maybe that’s why I like to bury
in your armpits
I’ve never known a love
with these peaks and valleys
When someone I enjoy
asks me about the first year
of marriage
all I can say is
“Yes
it’s different
Yes
it’s the hardest thing
Yes
it’s all a beautiful mystery”
“The roots went down
that day and they spread
wide always reaching always
ready”
all I can say is
This is how I
want to be
Wednesday July 25, 2018
11:03pm
5 minutes
Come Away With Me
Norah Jones
I’m not sure about this peanut butter sandwich
or the pink kissing the clouds french and open mouth
this taste of clumsy fat of oil fake of ok ok I’ll surrender
All the hours wasted honey it’s ok it’s ok
Lie down so the breath can go low so the stomach can relax
all tight in pants all day all sat all day all held all day
cradle the baby that is you in these loving arms in these
knowing arms stroke the baby that is you and tell her
it’s ok
it’s alright
it’s ok
There’s a lot of rules that are implied about womanhood
and I like how we’re poking them in the belly button
like is this
Monday July 16, 2018
6:44pm
5 minutes
Quoted by Rumi
the water of this wears me
this sweat and longing and heartbreak
and love and trust and dreaming and collision
of past-present-future
there are less edges to my loving now
that we sleep naked in the glory and mud
i set the same intention a million
times over set the timer for five minutes
twenty minutes
three days
as a marker that maybe then i’ll be
ready maybe then i’ll be healed
the words help they always do
the forest helps it always does
water helps it always
does
too
the fluid nature of love
can’t be explained can it
just as you can’t explain
the etches on the walls of
the heart
this heart
beating in my mouth
this love
this heart
fireworks in the aeorta
ventricle to ventricle
we reach towards
the now
Friday July 13, 2018
9:21pm
5 minutes
Cujo
Stephen King
I was bred to say yes
Keep my head down
Eyes have power I learned
too young
Waiting for the train
I accidentally look up
and he’s leering and
cat-calling and
asking how much
Taught to nod
Use the delicacy
of the clavicle
for broccoli and wine
I was bred to open
to suck
to receive
to mm-hmm
to reveal
to tempt
to oblige
Waiting at the gas station
whistles and waves
How far we’ve come
from how it used to be
my grandmother says
When women were lauded
were bowed to
were worshipped
Tuesday July 10, 2018
8:31am
5 minutes
http://www.johnmcalpineart.com
I used to draw for hours
sat at the kitchen table
lost in purple and blue
Pastels worn down to nubs
and the rounded edges of
beeswax crayons
watercolour pools
paintbrushes left unwashed
and hardened
Somewhere along the way
I stopped
Was is when I started
writing songs?
Writing stories?
Performing?
Somewhere along the way
I stopped
Why does it feel
as though there isn’t
enough space
for all the creativity?
Sunday July 8, 2018
11:13pm
5 minutes
From a text
A woman
asks me why
I’m so happy
like how could I possibly be
so entitled to joy
Isn’t this
our birthright?
Now to convince
the masses
The forest
knows how to
bend and sway
This woman
looks skeptical
like I must be
on something
That was a time
when I was riding
without a helmet
That was a time
when I was kissing
a lot of people
Monday July 2, 2018
10:54pm
5 minutes
From a quote by Rachel Carson
She longs to live in a place
with the sea all around
An island not too far
from the mainland
but far enough
that she’s
unleashed
far enough that
her spirit can surf
in the hazy moments
between
dawn and day
day and dusk
She longs for the buzz
of the city
the ambition of
traffic
the hum of
pavement and people
public transit
live music
possibility
Sunday July 1, 2018
4:30pm
Woman Code
Alisa Vitti
Your body will always be there for you
Throughout this life that’s the constant
That’s the change
This body
Your body
My body
Worshipped and loathed
Fed and starved
Your body will always know the truth
So listen to your gut
The smartest part of your anatomy
We prize the brain only because some man told us too
Only because it’s safer
More or a box than a garden
Your body will always be there for you
Until it isn’t
Until it drops and wavers and bends and snaps
Until the doctor says there’s nothing she can do
Until the stitches rip and the hands shake
Until you find a lump in your breast
Until you spend a night in the ER listening to other women screa
Your body will always be there for you
Even when it isn’t
It is
Sunday June 24, 2018
10:03pm
5 minutes
Practicing
Marie Howe
This is for the girls I’ve kissed
Tulip breath and hummingbird tongue
All softness and goodness and truth
All sour and breaking and everything
Seventh grade was a strange year
Overalls to hide breaching breasts
Smile to hide unasurredness
I am alive but I am afraid but I am electric
Girls kiss different than guys
But sometimes you find a guy that kisses
Like a girl and that’s one you want to hang on to
That’s one I want to hang onto
Beeswax and cinnamon
Coffee and salt
Pineapple and peach
Gin and playing cards
Friday June 22, 2018
10:49am
Daddy
Sylvia Plath
From the sky this place is blue
over green all tumbledried
Yawning fresh mountain peaks touched with the toes
From the ground this place is home
even though that’s hard to say sometimes
Even though my this and that tries to tell me otherwise
From the trees this place is salty
the ocean breathing her seasons into hue
The rainy months giving way to this immeasurable beauty
From where I am
the mantra of thirty two is
Tell the truth
Tell the truth
Tell the truth
Tell the truth
Why choose any other
Monday, June 18, 2018
10:47am
5 minutes
A Visit from the Goon Squad
Jennifer Egan
Mama cries alligator raindrop tears cuz things are changing
“Why do things always have to change?”
She cries and cries and the house fills with salt water
Papa doesn’t laugh much anymore because he’s got a belly ache
And Mama is real worried
Danny’s going to firefighting school and leaving home
“We’re empty nesters!” She wails
And the tears spill out the windows
“Vivian! You’re going to drown the whole neighbourhood!”
Says Papa and I tell ya, I think he’s right
Thursday June 14, 2018
11:32pm
5 minutes
The Queen Of Hearts
Kathleen Hawes
I’m not sure when I started playing dumb
started dumbing down
started acting a little stupid
started laughing when things weren’t funny
started seeing how far I could get
on eyelashes and witty words
How many drinks
how many drinks
how many drinkssss
Please
Was it when I needed an excuse for my body
needed to explain the sudden newness
needed a reason for all this extra?
Was it when I realized I could wield it
but it wasn’t power it was giving over
it was giving up
it was giving
Giving
Nostalgia turns the edge of memory up
flips the corners so that I’m just
not so sure about anything
not so sure about everything
Sunday June 10, 2018
9:25am
5 minutes
The Communion of Strangers
Brian Jay Stanley
When we met
you were smoky eyed
luscious and tempting words
wearing green is what I remember most
the bigness of your youness
is what I remember most
before surgeries
a joint bank account
a daughter’s name chosen
and waiting in the bank
of where our hearts meet
a promise made under September sun
before two summers of waiting up
three fights where one of us broke something
four winters in the rain
five trips on highways and planes
six days a week of being ships crossing now
and priase be
seven whole years of this biggest love
In sleep our bodies know no boundaries
except when you’re snoring
or I’m too hot
or one of us is sick
In sleep we do become one
boundless being of newness
Nowness
Toes touching
Your arm under my head
cradling my dreamscape
My leg over your leg
hoping that you go so far
knowing that you’re home
when you’re here and when
we’re here
exactly like this
Saturday June 9, 2018
9:14am
5 minutes
Victory
Charlotte D. Staelin
I’m not sure what to say about victory
or probiotics or the smell of the seat
in the back left corner of the bus
I’m not sure about jaw clenching
or the apartment across the alleyway
with the constantly changing people
and the lights going on and off
I’m not sure about eggs or dairy
and it no longer seems appropriate
to say that cheese is delicious
I’m not sure about the squirrel
digging up my parsley and the birds
that I’m feeding do you think
that will get in the way of them
getting their own food
in the future if I happen to move
Thursday June 7, 2018
11:13pm
5 minutes
From a text
Driving along the country road
The paved ones before the gravel ones
I stick my arm out the window
and play with the air
You’ve never been to Knowlton Lake before
and I am already excited about waking up tomorrow
The way that the quiet hugs
The way that the birds know
the tune to the songs in our hearts
I can do no wrong with you
except when I do and then it’s bad
And then I cower in the corner
and you use your size
And I say that this isn’t what I want
and you cry until we go to the bedroom
James Taylor on the tape deck
I realize that I don’t know if
corn is in season
if we have to turn on the water
if there’s a French press
Tuesday, May 29, 2018
9:32pm
5 minutes
Northern Ireland: The Case Of Bloody Sunday
Carole-Anne Upton
Cookie cutter carbon copies
all in a row
Lawns mowed no rose
out of place
no birdseed on the porch
The sound of the ice cream truck
A little off time
A little nostalgic
Huff and puff and blow the house down
Mother gets up and fries bacon and eggs
Father gets up and makes lunches
(bread, salami, mustard, mayo, lettuce, bread)
Child gets dressed
Three eat together around the table
Trade pleasantries like baseball cards
Trade love like obligation
Child brushes teeth
Child kisses Mother and Father
Mother puts dishes in dishwasher
Schoolbus!
Father walks child to schoolbus
Huff and puff and blow the house down
Monday May 21, 2018
3:18pm
5 minutes
From a text
I still get texts from you
three years after I knew you
After I took your words
in my mouth
sloshed them around
Spit out teeth and tar
With the gin and tonic
With the water and lemon juice
With the salad dressing
I still hear from you sometimes
When I’m least expecting
When I’m with my shiny prize of a lover
When I’m lonely
When I’m full
There’s nothing that sorry can’t buy
At least with me
But the fact that you don’t say it
That you never will
Is apple cider vinegar
Bath overflowing
What the fuck do you want from
Me on a Monday
So far in the future
I don’t respond
I never do
I imagine blocking your number
But then how will I know that
You need me
How will I know
That hundreds of kilometres away
Someone is reaching for
The past
Sunday, May 13, 2018
1:53pm
5 minutes
From a quote on by Lao Tzu
Manifest plainness
the starling that eats
from the feeder on the porch
the hummingbird cooing
into sugar water
Manifest brilliance
the purple blooms
on the balcony
you’ve never bought
a hanging plant before
Manifest the unknown
talking about things that
there’s no way to predict
talking about the big things
that we can’t ever
know for sure
Manifest beauty
the sweetness of beloved
morning breath
footsteps
tree leaves
Friday May 4, 2018
1:34pm
5 minutes
From a Caitlin Press newsletter
You walk by the water when you need the noise of the waves
Volleyball further down the beach
That’s okay
Those people are having fun and that’s okay
You walk the same stretch of beach and it knows
The cadence of your footsteps
That’s okay
It’s come to know when you’re alone and when you’re firing
Today was the same as most other days
People pissed you off and it had nothing to do with you
Why are there so many assholes?
You whisper it under your breath and wonder if it’s possible
That the sand smiled knowingly back
She understands assholes
Cigarette butts and glass bottles
She understands
Sunday April 29, 2018
6:15pm
5 minutes
The Address Book
Louis Phillips
How could I predict the
shade of grey your hair
would turn
and mine too
every day a new
one near my temples
I don’t pull them out
like I used to
I say a prayer
for them
little warriors
little fuckers
little beauties
they are the milage
and the turning season
Every time I see you
I see the shimmer of
myself in you
around the eyes
the mouth the shape
of the face
the shade of grey
vessels to the time
before leading us
back there leading us
to now
We laugh like lions
staring down the barrel
of the gun
we nod and recognize
and know and surrender
Saturday April 28, 2018
12:58pm
5 minutes
http://www.independent.co.uk
crouching behind the counter tears staining wood
neko case on the stereo my favourite thing about
this place is that i can play my own music
pretty things on the patio ha ha ha caw ha ha
woman nursing in the third booth at the back
a party coming in thirteen minutes and i’m
all mascara stream all chest breath and salty lips
we grow to know the taste of being fucked over
because of our woman-ness only 24 and we know it
the lilt of our voices the tonic of our smiles
the cup size maybe or the calf muscle from walking
back and forth from kitchen to patio to kitchen
twelve minutes and twenty people who don’t get it
who think that maybe i’ve just had a bad day
pretty thing they think maybe her boyfriend dumped her
more like this place this man upstairs says his wife
doesn’t like me doesn’t like me doesn’t like pretty thing
more like the loyalty turned bad orange juice
oops fuck oops i’m sorry i never meant to
oops i’m sorry i didn’t mean to be
too alive for this hierarchy of buttered toast
he always did like the pretty things but i didn’t
think i was one of those i thought i was something
else a good conversation a killer joke a knack
for smoothing over the discontent of cold eggs
Wednesday, April 18, 2018
5:02pm
5 minutes
june 20th
Lucille Clifton
she will not live long
this bloom rising ripe on the table
amidst rose quartz and stone
she will fall
as we all do
as you have
as i will
she will go back to the earth
as we all do
yellow petals
sister to rose
sister to the magnolia tree
across the street
exploding confidence and
beauty
i change her water
every other day
more than i floss
more than i call my mother
Saturday, April 14, 2018
2:14pm
5 minutes
E 9th Street
Ricky Cantor
Bubby wraps rice and meat in cabbage
sucks on a Werther’s
keeps them in the fridge
away from the Florida heat
away from reaching fingers
Bubby sends boxes of oranges
to us in Toronto
sweet and juicy
legs draped over the edge
of the tub I gorge
on citrus must be
the vitamin c
Bubby didn’t want
another child
at least that’s what
Mom says barely
gained any weight
when she was pregnant
barely even noticed
Mom was there
Bubby makes food
for the freezer
at Knowlton Lake and
when the house is broken
into one winter
the thieves steal
the tupperwares
wrapped in tinfoil
wrapped in a plastic bag
Monday April 9, 2018
8:13am
5 minutes
Lonely
Z. Da Costa
That summer that will always be sepia toned
according to you
For me it’s florescent and hungover and
smells like coffee and stinky sweaty bedsheets
That summer is immortalized in my body now
That summer is an infection
a joy
a trechory
a thing I couldn’t possibly have done
was that me?
That summer is a fit body
a cloudy mind
a wailing spirit
a whole
a fill
a scream
toes curled
mouth wide
here
there
okay
YES
That summer is a shame
a cushion
a burning room in a hell place
a soaring bird
in cumulus skies
Saturday April 7, 2018
11:18pm
5 minutes
Grammar School
Megan Fennya Jones
I have always been in love
with life. That is a truth
as sure as laugh lines,
as sure as chapped lips,
as sure as your voice singing,
as sure as the horse’s grey mane,
and the rising sun,
as sure as magnolia blossoms,
as sure as my mother’s knowing.
Even when I’ve lost faith
like a bus pass,
like an irreplaceable ring,
like a lover in another city,
like the name of someone
who I’ve met once in passing,
like the sound of the crickets
in the woods at Knowlton Lake,
like the tune to a song I wrote
as a teenager,
Even when I’ve lost faith,
I’ve always known that
love
is the
language
is the
religion
is the practise.
Monday April 2, 2018
11:46pm
5 minutes
Planetarium
Adrienne Rich
A woman appears and she’s shaped like you are
monster and beauty and witch and malachite
She’s got the face of someone I knew
someone I know is that me there she’s you she’s staring
A woman appears and she screams in my face again
rages and rages again
Wants candy and Prada and new shoes again
Doesn’t care for please again
A woman appears and she never says sorry
she fights back with nails and tongue
she makes shapes with icicles and toast crusts
she sharpens herself with vodka and sleep
A woman appears and she’s dying
as we all are
she’s living
as we all are
Tuesday March 27, 2018
11:10pm
5 minutes
On Being
it’s a being human problem
slump of the shoulders
puff of the chest
rise of the belly
imagining the world
without us
that’s the thing
the world will continue
it’s us who won’t
another species extinct
makes a low down
low down headline
(lowline) shows the priority
when it’s us
no one will report
or will they
trying to carve hope
out of despair
belief out of devestation
trying to hold the future
the anger
the explaining that of which
there’s none
it’s a being human problem
one moment the rapturous joy
of love and a slice of orange
the next moment
this
Saturday, March 24, 2018
9:14am
5 minutes
Three Dollars A Day
The note accompanying a photo series by Amlan Sanyal
We talk about getting a car sometimes and I
imagine all the gas all the money all the crumbs
in the creases of the back seat
all the stickers on the windows
all the parts
I imagine finally getting a license
and feeling all the adult
driving from there to home
here to there
here to everywhere
I plant wildflowers on the balcony
of my city apartment
that attract bees
I eat mostly plants
but when I do open a can of salmon
I see all the fishing nets in the gyre
I ride a bike but even then
Never quite enough
I’m not on Burnaby Mountain
this weekend
I’m here at my kitchen table
Writing
and later
I’ll sing in a room full of people
with a room full of people
We talk about getting a car
and the songs we’ll sing on roadtrips
I imagine all the open roads
all the open windows
Sunday, March 18, 2018
2:21pm
5 minutes
A Marriage
Michael Blumenthal
I lost myself in the swirling water
imagining blood
imagining placenta
imagining screaming
ripping loving crying
I found myself in the sky
hanging onto a crow’s foot
high high up and not at all afraid
you on the ground below
cheering me on
you can do it
you say
you can do it
I lost myself in my own body
sick and bloated
racing heart even though I
haven’t moved all day
I found myself in my own body
the same
but different
I know you so well
I say
I just met you
I say
Talking to myself
romancing myself
alone
together
Thursday, March 1, 2018
10:07pm
5 minutes
No Idea
Dana ID Matthews
The only thing I can come up with is
us dancing in the kitchen in the country
getting drunk and making a fire
The only thing I can come up with is
taking a bath in the clawfoot tub
and you sneaking photographs
I wonder what happened to those photographs
I wonder if they are under your bed
or if they are dead in a hard drive somewhere
or are they just negatives in a memory
somewhere between then and now
you and I
The only thing I can come up with is
you running into a friend
of a friend at Lee’s Palace
friend of a friend says my name
and you tap her on the shoulder and say
“She’s one of the loves of my life”
Monday, February 26, 2018
9:16pm
5 minutes
Wake The Dead
Julia Pileggi
saw the visions this afternoon
their heads blurred gold
knew what was going on
but didn’t trust myself again
stumbled home through icy skulls
you caught me as i fell through the door
straight to the toilet
all of lunch
swirl down
rub back
head split
visions gone
dark room
quiet now quiet please
slept like a ghost
spinning wool out of dreams
you fed me pills
my mother said to take
“get on top of the pain”
“what did she eat?”
“maybe it’s hormonal”
“cranio sacral”
“chiropractor”
okay okay hushhhhhh
as a child i’d come home
to my sister
dark room
quiet now quiet please
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
8:42pm
5 minutes
Nest Filled
Kim Stafford
When the kettle boils
I make a cup of tea
too late for black but
I do it anyway
I sit down at my desk
and tonight that means
the kitchen table
sweet with rounded corners
the tea
and the table
my body becomes a tent
chair legs
and my legs
fingers typing
toes tapping
tea steaming
you on my mind
you in the bones of
so many of these poems
I’ve written three lines
of your birthday card
my heart hurt
sunrise to sunset
my heart hurt
the first year in
many that I haven’t
sung to you
written to you
loved you from close up
loving you from far away
is teaching me about
womanhood
courage
softness
time
Our language is this
five minute stories
I’ll set the timer
force myself to keep going
even though now
with this
then
with this
words don’t ever seem to be
enough
always seem to be too much
too little
too late
that always seems to be the problem
Snow falls outside the window
Monday February 12, 2018
8:31am
5 minutes
Mannequins
Emily Davidson
Bellies full of unborn air
we reach for stars
we have no concept of.
How far away is venus?
How close is the new moon?
Where exactly is the north star?
Hearts full of
bubbles and pebbles
we crouch in the fire
hope we
don’t get burned.
Yes
you know more than me.
In my unknowning
though
I am wiser than
the octopus
with her smirk
and her paws.
Contort this body
into origami cranes.
Shake your head
at the grey
at the red.
Make failures
and love
in equal measure.
Yes
you are the tallest
mountain.
Playing piano
with our noses
we shake our fat
until the crows
laugh.
Saturday February 10, 2018
1:21am
5 minutes
Who Says I’m Not a Romantic
Fernando Raguero
I’m saving myself for the race
to the centre of the earth
saving my “sorry’s” for all
the broken-hearted children
saving my strength for you
when you get home tired and
hungry and lonely and angry
The whole world is singing
to a drum beat
singing to a heartbreak
singing quiet then loud
then quiet
My girl we’ve gotta stop this
too many boys with bullets
I don’t even know about hope today
What’s that man with a rifle in his hand
gonna say to us with our saving and our singing
World’s gone mad
Shoot me in the head
World’s gone mad
I’m saving my sadness
I’m saving my ears
I’m saving my pennies
Too much saving and not
enough doing
It all seems petty
these grievances between us
your eyes brimming
my eyes brimming
something in common
Wednesday January 31, 2018
5:20pm
5 minutes
Seen
Pia Tafdrup
Back when the lake would freeze solid
or at least it felt like that
or at least I was a child and trusted safety still
We would lace up skates too tight
double layer of socks
double layer of love and comfort
My sister and I
all girlhood glow
all wonder and piano fingers
all stir-fry bellies
all blue eyes
Dancing swirls and future
carving the ice
carving the present
carving ourselves
Cheeks rosy
sweaty underneath layers of sweaters
pink jackets
snowpants
Darkness coming in
over the horizon
across the lake
time to get up
to the house
Monday January 29, 2018
7:12am
5 minutes
Bad Hand
Mallory Tarses
It was fireworks when Alma was born
It was poetry when she looked up at Judy
“Poetry” Pete says when he’s telling the story
He loves to tell the story
even now
seven years later
“It was the coldest night of the year,” says Judy
stroking Alma’s soft downy fawn hair
“How cold?” Alma asks
“Thirty six below,” says Pete
as he puts another log on the fire
and it sparks
Alma giggles
The old dog Mutt opens one eye
“Where were the fireworks?” Alma asks
She knows the answer
but that’s the quiet comfort of
childhood
asking anyway
“Right here,” says Pete
tapping on his chest
knocking on the door of his heart
“It’s bedtime now,” says Judy
and she’s right but they all hope
that maybe tonight she can stay up
just a little bit longer
Mutt farts in his sleep and
they all laugh and laugh
and laugh
plugging their noses
Saturday January 27, 2018
1:43pm
5 minutes
The Duel
Thomas Brasch
When it’s late
and I’m alone
and nothing’s really wrong
but right is around the corner
smoking a joint
hat pulled down
When it’s late
and I’m alone
the glow of this
putrid light burning
I can’t help but
search for you
I know where to find you
Buried in my inbox
scattered in my outbox
what we used to say
makes my heart race
I imagine you rocking
your baby to sleep
so peaceful
so good
I imagine you thinking
about me
getting hard
getting soft
getting a drink of water
None of these ghosts
can compete with what I’ve got
I know where to find you
Singing out of a tinny speaker
Singing words I wrote for a
melody we already knew
Monday January 15, 2018
1:48pm
Fetters
Madeline Sonik
Would you give me grace if I asked
nicely and gave you spice mixtures,
ran you a hot bath, took out
the recycling?
What if I promised to love you through
this storm?
What if I called you every day
and told you something funny,
or irreverent, or sad?
The greatest gift I’ll ever receive
is forgiveness.
For days and days
and days
I thought that it was you
who would give me this.
I thought that it was me
who would leave voicemails,
roast sweet potatoes, make
angel cards and golden milk.
And then today
as I walked in the coldest cold
it struck me –
the giver and the receiver
are one and the same.
Forgiveness
like honey and cinnamon,
like the end of a fire,
like dew underfoot.
Here it is.
Right here.
Friday January 5, 2018
11:02pm
One Part Plant
Jessica Murnane
Make no mistake
the break the break
The toe sticks
the tongue that licks
Mix it up
Measure a cup
Turn on the heat
Give it a beat
Flour and milk
Velvet and silk
Music on loud
Light as a cloud
Catch the lift
Flour to sift
It’s cold at night
But you feel alright
Rhymes are cheap
Avoid the leap
Make no mistake
the break the break
Follow the words
Lemon and curds
Clean out the sky
Me oh my
Wednesday January 3, 2018
7:02am
5 minutes
the woman who married a bear
Anne Haven McDonnell
“It’s better to have”
shaken and stirred
quelled and broken
ripped and sewn
laughed and wailed
“loved and lost”
curled and stretched
ran and sat
screamed and raged
smoked and burned
“than to have never loved”
really?
really?
okay…
mhmm…
I know you’re reading
have you woken yet?
“at all”
empty and overflowing
courage and grace
risk and risk and risk and risk and
Friday December 29, 2018
4:12pm at JJ Bean on Cambie
5 minutes
Hidden Fruit
Madhur Anand
when you wish upon a star
wish you could be proud of your generation
zombies marching towards the end of the world
radical in their distraction tendencies
worshipping dollar bills and black amex and celebrity dieties
seagulls calling some hymn of the moment
or is that a jingle
no one knows the difference anymore
no one knows the difference
when you run through the forest
wish you weren’t so afraid to be alone
maybe it’s cuz we all are
maybe it’s cuz you learned trust and then mistrust
house of cards
huff and you’ll puff and you’ll blow the house down
diseased and itchy and tired and broken
put the deck back together but the joker’s missing
and the queen of hearts
what a love affair
what a love
when you rise out the brainwashing
honey from your ears and dried flowers from your nostrils
Monday December 18, 2017
9:02pm
5 minutes
The Essential Enneagram
David Daniels and Virginia Price
I don’t have anything to say
Everything hurts
Go away
I turn into a needy kid when I’m ill
That’s a fact
You’re name’s not Bill
I’ve gone through three boxes of tissue
And that’s not all
There’s a bigger issue
My brain is mushy slimy mud
I don’t have a nurse
I don’t have a bud
This really is a poem of pity
I hope no one read’s it
It’s a terrible ditty
I don’t have anything to write
My head is throbbing
Turn off the light
Sunday December 17, 2017
4:59pm
5 minutes
Tao Te Ching
Translated by Stephen Mitchell
I’m going to bring you a jar of soup for every day I’ve left you limping
Sunday will be tortilla with black beans and chipotle
I’ll pick off the coriander leaves and let you dollop the cream
Monday will be red lentil with lemon and rosemary
I’ll give you extra of that one because it’s my favourite
Tuesday’s soup will be white bean and pesto
so aromatic that you’ll smell it from the other side of the world
Wednesday will be roasted butternut squash with cumin and cinnamon
I’ll leave out the chilli pepper because you’re sensitive to spice
Thursday will be chicken and barley
Friday potato leek
Saturday roasted cauliflower with parmesan croutons
made from freshly baked bread
I’ll leave each jar on your doorstep so you won’t have to see me
You’ll taste how much I love you in each bite
Friday December 15, 2017
7:46pm
5 minutes
Calvin and Hobbes
Bill Watterson
I must’ve done something right when I was a blue whale
I must’ve shared my fish and breastfed other whale’s babies
(I don’t know very much about whales so am not sure if that is a thing
they do but)
When I was a blue whale I wrote a column in the seaweed newspaper
about love and injustice and gave away the secret chords to songs
no one could ever find
I cleaned the seafloor with my tail
and not for the glory or the high fives
but because it was crowded and messy
I comforted strangers when they were sad
sleeping into the day
crusty-eyed and moaning
a cousin caught in a fishing net
oh sweet Cecilia
day by day by day
Sunday December 10, 2017
6:07pm at Matchstick Coffee Roasters
5 minutes
From random.org
Big wide open sky is what she needs
Bird song and gopher’s popping up like an inside joke
She contemplates running away
Going to Alberta
Big wide open sky is in her blood
She used to joke about things that aren’t funny
She’ll pack only one sweater
One pair of wool socks
Brown boots
A pair of jeans
A black tank top
She’s never travelled so light
If it wasn’t 2017
If it wasn’t winter
If she wasn’t a woman
She’d hitchhike
She’ll take the train
Counting cornfields
Counting blessings
Counting failures
Which one will come out on top?
She’ll make a friend in a seatmate
An old woman going to meet her grandchild
For the first time
The old woman will have beautiful wrinkles
And will say all the right things
Which means something wrong occasionally slips out
She likes that
Friday December 8, 2017
10:53pm
5 minutes
The Four Agreements
Don Miguel Ruiz
I thought I was doing the right thing
After the wrong thing stuck it’s hands
on the small of my back
I thought I was doing the right thing
The space of years
of silence
Gaping wide and scabbed over
Empaths are sensitive to crowds
Light
Sound
We don’t like malls
We like driving our own cars to parties
Or knowing the bus route
So that we can leave whenever we want
I roast a chicken
Stuffing my hand up it’s emptiness
I’m always scared about what I’ll find
Heart?
Neck?
I cut my index finger
chopping carrots
Shit
Blood’s everywhere
And it feels good
Sunday December 3, 2017
10:14pm
5 minutes
The Humans
Matt Haig
You’re waiting for me to join you at the table.
You have been hungry since yesterday.
I am busy finding old books with the right message.
“There’s an answer in one of these.” I tell you.
“I don’t think you’re going to find what you’re looking for.” You say.
On the table is a feast and you were sweet enough to go pick it up.
I am hungry too, but maybe not for rice or salmon.
I am hungry for answers. I want to know so many things.
I think that’s why sleeping has been hard.
I keep trying to turn over old concepts in my brain
without getting any new information.
You’re waiting at the table and you do not make me feel bad.
You don’t ask me to hurry up like you usually do.
Eventually we will both have to eat and I will have to wait.
I can’t remember if the message is in a book or in a dream I once had.
I flip through the pages without looking.
I knnow there is some guidance here if I trust it.
“What are you doing?” You ask.
“Praying” I say.
“What are you praying for?” You ask.
“For me. For you. For us.” I say.
Friday November 24, 2017
10:47pm
5 minutes
Hallelujah
Leonard Cohen
Love knocks you around
Especially when you’re young
You throw yourself at every blue eyed Casanova
Love scoops you up
Carries you for awhile
And then drops you
Sound of a cracking egg
Sound of a sizzle
Sound of morning
Love requests nothing
That’s not what you’re used to
Love ruptures
Love rips
Love heals
Love leaks
Love laughs loud
Open mouthed
Love grabs you hard
Hand on the small of your back
You’ve never been touched like this before
You’re breathless putty
Sunday November 19, 2017
11:08am
5 minutes
Apples
Andrea Albin
My mother makes baked apples
And I’m sad that dessert is something
With more sugar
More sweetness
Baked apples are glorified apple sauce
And she thinks it’s exciting that there’s oats
Sprinkled on top
A dusting of cinnamon
My mother bakes the apples in the toaster oven
It’s how she makes baked potatoes too
She puts raisins in too
I don’t know yet that betrayal is a spell
That will take lifetimes to break
I don’t know yet that dreams won’t come true
And they will
I don’t know yet that there will always be something
About this time of year
When my mother makes baked apples
I close my eyes and imagine it’s chocolate
Sunday November 12, 2017
9:31pm
5 minutes
Communion
Bell Hooks
One night
walking home
I felt shadow on my back
I don’t need to turn around
I know what’s there
I’m sixteen
One night
walking home
keys gripped between my fingers
I played the piano today
and that was nice
I get home and
I eat the shame
Gliding down a throat
that’s closed
Don’t ask me how that works
One night
waiting for the subway
a man in a grey coat
asked me
How much
One night
Here we are again
Tonight
I’ll walk home in the rain
I’ll consider how to use my umbrella
as a sword
Thursday November 9, 2017
11:27pm
5 minutes
The Task
Jane Hirschfield
Across the bed she laid herself bare
Gloves to invite play
Boots to indicate business
Okay to invite play
Her hair curled into a jungle cat
That’s what he asked for
He called her his lion
She wanted to make his birthday a special one
Remember when she had those
Sexy photographs taken when she
was twenty-five and newly off the hormones
She kept it a surprise for him
and then one day decorated the entire house with her in lacy underwear, his plaid shirt, her
Sam Edelman knee highs
She thought it was for him
Years later she knows that it
was always for her
