Life upturned.
Stuffed into boxes labelled
LIVING ROOM
in unfamiliar upper case
someone else’s hands wrap
all the artefacts of my previous self
in printless paper.
Box contents reveal odd juxtapositions –
a ball of paper blooms into: a key,
a rusty screw, a paperclip,
and 2 dead AA coppertops.
We explore our new return address
a coat stiffened into a stranger’s shape
shrug our shoulders
stretch the sleeves for awhile
until our lives fit comfortably.
~ Stephanie Werner
Stephanie Werner is a mother of two originally from Montreal, who is currently living in the Edmonton area. Her work has been published online at www.4and20poetry.com and www.thewritersblockmagazine.ca, and in print in the Home and Away Anthology and NorthWord.
Read more of Stephanie Werner’s poetry:
- Environmental Impact
Filed under: Stephanie Werner
by akublik Date 18 March, 2010
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They arrive like ghosts
in the early-morning darkness
a line of shadows stretches the length
of the sidewalk
from the corner to my driveway.
Their faces are invisible
behind toques, hoods, and scarves
clouded by fogs of their breath
either from the cold or from the cigarettes
that collect themselves on my lawn
like seeds, they appear when the snow melts into mud
rake them up after the thaw
through grass mussed as if it went to sleep with wet hair.
Some sip liquid heat from travel mugs
fight the cold air,
huddle themselves around the steaming cup
like a campfire.
They all face the same direction – away from me
towards the corner where
the Diversified Bus –
the 5 AM one –
will turn with a dull roar, a squeal, and a sigh
the lights within promise warmth
exhaust whisked up from the backside
into the cold, black sky
the bus swallows them up
only to spit them out an hour later
at the Suncor or Syncrude plants.
I close the curtain
pat the baby on my shoulder
hear the furnace rouse itself.
~ Stephanie Werner
Stephanie Werner is a mother of two originally from Montreal, who is currently living in the Edmonton area. Her work has been published online at www.4and20poetry.com and www.thewritersblockmagazine.ca, and in print in the Home and Away Anthology and NorthWord.
Read more of Stephanie Werner’s poetry:
- Environmental Impact
Filed under: Stephanie Werner
by akublik Date 15 March, 2010
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blue skies poetry is looking for new poetry submissions. blue skies poetry provides a forum for emerging and established poets to find a wider audience for their work, with a particular emphasis on writing by Canadians. blue skies poetry publishes more than 100 poems a year and boasts more than 500 visits each month.
Email up to 3 poems in the body of an email message to akublik@blueskiespoetry.ca. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but previously published material is not considered. Please include a short bio with your submission.
Filed under: News
by akublik Date 13 March, 2010
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The ragged edged concrete slab lay tilted
uneasily on the dusty rubble.
Above it heavy layer squatted,
inert but filled with malice,
“don’t mess with me” it sneered.
The young woman stood statue-like,
elegant in her form-fitting black dress
soiled, with a single streak of dusty mud,
a slash from the earthquake’s rape.
My gaze followed her quivering finger
pointing at a bruised dusty bloodied arm
poking lifeless from the crushing concrete jaws.
I can barely hear her quivering voice
above the helicopter’s battering sound,
“My sister, my lovely sister” she pleads,
but what can I say to comfort her.
~ David Reid
David Reid was born in Belfast in 1940, was awarded a PH.D. at Queen’s University of Belfast in 1967, and emigrated to Canada with his wife in 1968 to take a position in the Department of Biology. In 1976 he became a Professor of Botany (and a Canadian) at the University of Calgary and Head of the Department of Biological Sciences 1999-2005. His teaching, research and publications (about 160 published papers published in international refereed scientific journals) dealt with matters pertaining to plants and in particular how they survive nasty and ever changing environments. In 2009, David wrote three 900-word op-ed pieces for the Calgary Herald on global warming.
Filed under: David Reid
by akublik Date 11 March, 2010
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We try to tell them
but their ears are blocked
with the cotton wool of consumer dreams,
their children and their children’s children forgotten.
Images of a drowned tropical village flicker across the plasma screen.
Sodden walls and tumbled chimneys
strive vainly to keep above the rising tropical sea.
A child’s thin awkward naked body,
drifts past face down on an uncaring oily current,
that carries the forgotten plastic flotsam of her pauper’s world.
But earlier TV pictures of that new Audi,
the stylish fast one,
surrounded by admiring well-groomed, sleek women,
slide with opiate ease into his mind
as he presses the remote off button.
“Fuck off little brown girl,
I don’t want to see.”
~ David Reid
David Reid was born in Belfast in 1940, was awarded a PH.D. at Queen’s University of Belfast in 1967, and emigrated to Canada with his wife in 1968 to take a position in the Department of Biology. In 1976 he became a Professor of Botany (and a Canadian) at the University of Calgary and Head of the Department of Biological Sciences 1999-2005. His teaching, research and publications (about 160 published papers published in international refereed scientific journals) dealt with matters pertaining to plants and in particular how they survive nasty and ever changing environments. In 2009, David wrote three 900-word op-ed pieces for the Calgary Herald on global warming.
Filed under: Daniel N. Poitras> Uncategorized
by akublik Date 8 March, 2010
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