This summer I’ll be on the Dust Blown Side of the Journey with a book launch on August 6 at Lexicon Books in the beautiful town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
Music
For those of you reading the poem “Music” in Dust Blown Side of the Journey this is an image of the nature reserve. The poem is about the anticipatory wait as a composer finishes writing a score. The books comes with beautiful French flaps and “Music” is printed on the extension of the front cover.
Beachcombing
Beachcombing
the net you cast
is never a trap:
it is the hammock
where I rest my
thoughts: the welkin
and the forest-wild
that you weave
together for me:
your blue-
green threads:
the trim
on the shore
that I strive
toward
from Wavelengths of Your Song (McGill-Queen’s University Press)
Outlined by Lamps
A few strangers step
out from the shadows, but
they too remain silent; everyone
is blind and they walk
forward by feel to the upward
slope of sand that will lead
them to their bicycles…
From “Outlined by Lamps” in Dust Blown Side of the Journey
Breathing
in the Balinese
jungle the tigers are real
but only as breathing
ghosts: in their hard-bodied
energy they once prowled
beneath the swing
of the vines…
From “Breathing” in Dust Blown Side of the Journey (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2017)
When I reach
Dust Blown Side of the Journey (McGill-Queen’s University Press) has arrived! The images are spilling out from the pages. You can obtain your own copy from your favourite independent bookstore. Or if you are in remote parts of the globe where there are no bookstores you can order (plus preview poems with the look inside feature) from amazon.com
Paradise Evacuated
My print copy of Magma (UK) arrived in the mail with my poem “Paradise Evacuated”. From the editorial: “Throughout the issue, we have scattered poems that made us think, feel or laugh and often all of those at once. They raise words which connect bone with breath and dance across the razed, airless spaces in which we are otherwise left inarticulate.”
Migrations
You can listen to Canadian composer Emily Doolittle’s music Migrations based on my poem of the same name.
Missing
the signs have
fallen and only
the frames
remain: they
contain within
their limits
the sea and sky
and an occasional
snail: missing is the
warning about
cliff edges
From Dust Blown Side of the Journey (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2017)
