Vallum Poem of the Week: “aubade, an airport & the seas” by Marc Perez

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17:2, Aubuade an Airport & The Seas, Marc Perez, poem, Poem of the Week

aubade, an airport & the seas

I reach for you
as though for the mugicha 

we drank 
at a seashore 
teahouse in Kamakura

while you sit
on a metal bench 

losing your voice
in separate 

spaces with a brown hand
a border agent tugs 

the pen holder with a tarsier 
perched on a palm tree 
from your suitcase

didn’t you know
you’re not allowed

unaware
I bought it for you in Bohol 
on a low tide sandbar 

where we tasted salty sea 
urchins from spiny shells 

cracked in half 

by a sunned boy
who seemed to emerge 
straight from the sea

reminding you of a folktale 
about a young fisherman & a sea turtle 

as fractures mature us 

I wish for waves 
to come 

come

crashing at the airport
to submerge & claim us another 

border 

agent who could have been 
your sister tells us you need to leave 

that you have no right
to be here go back 

to the land of daybreak

across the seas
where we were born

without me

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Marc Perez is the author of the poetry chapbook Borderlands (Anstruther Press, 2020). His fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry have appeared in Vallum, CV2, PRISM international, TAYO, and Ricepaper.

 

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This poem was originally published in Vallum issue 17:2. To view other content published in this issue, look here.

Vallum magazine is also available in digital format. Featuring additional content such as: AUDIO and VIDEO recordings of selected poets, further poems, interviews, essays, and MORE! Visit our website for details.

2020 Year in Review: Part 2

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17:1, 17:2, 2020, 2021, Year in Review

To put it lightly, 2020 was a year of changes. We have all had to learn to adapt to this new way of living, yet despite physical isolation, we at Vallum feel so lucky to have been able to connect with you through the digital sphere. Thank you for helping us continue to share the art of poetry — we are truly humbled by the support of our community and send our sincere wishes of health and happiness to you and your loved ones for this year to come. 

Despite the many challenges and uncertainties of this year, we managed to launch Vallum: Contemporary Poetry issues 17:1 and 17:2, and publish four chapbooks: The Bannisters by Paul Muldoon, A Tilt in the Wondering by Nicole Brossard (re-release), It Was Treaty / It Was Me by Matthew James Weigel (1st Place in the 2020 Vallum Chapbook Award) and DC Poems by Joe Neubert (2nd Place in the 2020 Vallum Chapbook Award). Read about our new chapbooks here.

Judy Barlow won the 2020 Award for Poetry with “Walking Into East-end Toronto 2020” while Mary Trafford received second place with “Border crossings.” Honourable mentions went to Josh Feit with “Linger Factor,” Esther Johnson with “we lost ahmaud,” and Michael Trussler with “As Unnoticed as Possible.”

We also participated in virtual press fairs Word on the Street (Toronto) and Expozine (Montreal), and hosted outreach workshops with new facilitators and organizers. 

To reflect on the year, we asked this year’s contributors to share their thoughts on the books they read in 2020 and what’s in store for the year ahead.

Here’s what some of the writers published in our latest issues had to say:

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Aisha Hamid

Favorite Book of Poetry Discovered this Year
If They Come For Us by Fatimah Asghar. As a student of poetry, I found the deconstruction of form refreshing; it opened up endless possibilities for me.  

What’s on your reading list for 2021?
Calling a Wolf a Wolf by Kaveh Akbar, Living a Feminist Life by Sara Ahmed, Are you Enjoying? by Mira Sethi, If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha.

Best Writerly Advice. 
Notice the ordinary and the everyday – that’s where poetry is. And read books by womxn of color.

Vallum Poem of the Week: “Caesura” by Kelly Norah Drukker

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17:2, Caesura, Kelly Norah Drukker, Poem of the Week

2020 Year in Review: Part 1

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17:1, 17:2, 2020, Year in Review

To put it lightly, 2020 was a year of changes. We have all had to learn to adapt to this new way of living, yet despite physical isolation, we at Vallum feel so lucky to have been able to connect with you through the digital sphere. Thank you for helping us continue to share the art of poetry — we are truly humbled by the support of our community and send our sincere wishes of health and happiness to you and your loved ones for this year to come. 

Despite the many challenges and uncertainties of this year, we managed to launch Vallum: Contemporary Poetry issues 17:1 and 17:2, and publish four chapbooks: The Bannisters by Paul Muldoon, A Tilt in the Wondering by Nicole Brossard (re-release), It Was Treaty / It Was Me by Matthew James Weigel (1st Place in the 2020 Vallum Chapbook Award) and DC Poems by Joe Neubert (2nd Place in the 2020 Vallum Chapbook Award). Read about our new chapbooks here.

Judy Barlow won the 2020 Award for Poetry with “Walking Into East-end Toronto 2020” while Mary Trafford received second place with “Border crossings.” Honourable mentions went to Josh Feit with “Linger Factor,” Esther Johnson with “we lost ahmaud,” and Michael Trussler with “As Unnoticed as Possible.”

We also participated in virtual press fairs Word on the Street (Toronto) and Expozine (Montreal), and hosted outreach workshops with new facilitators and organizers. 

To reflect on the year, we asked this year’s contributors to share their thoughts on the books they read in 2020 and what’s in store for the year ahead.

Here’s what some of the writers published in our latest issues had to say:

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Archana Sridhar

Favorite Book of Poetry Discovered this Year
Cluster by Souvankham Thammavongsa

What’s on your 2021 reading list?
Luster by Raven Leilani and Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine

Best Writerly Advice
Always carry a notebook or a piece of paper and a pen – in case inspiration strikes in a meeting or on a walk or even at family dinner… I am always surprised when a poem comes, and reminded of the importance to make space to welcome it.

 

 

Roxanna Bennett

Favorite Book of Poetry Discovered this Year
Side Effects May Include Strangers by Dominik Parisien (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020) is a collection that means the world to me. It’s an intimate and insightful examination of pain written with exquisite vulnerability.

What’s on your reading list for 2021?   
Poetry-wise, I am super stoked for Khashayar Mohammadi’s Me, You, Then Snow (Gordon Hill, 2021) and for Kevin Heslop’s the correct fury of your why is a mountain (Gordon Hill Press, 2021). 

In terms of cultivating mindfulness in challenging times, I highly recommend these books to all beings:
Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain and Body (Avery, 2018) Daniel Goleman, Richard J. Davidson,
How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying (Penguin Press, 2018) by Michael Pollan,
The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living (Riverhead Books, 2009) by His Holiness the Dalai Lama,
When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times (Shambhala, 2007) by Pema Chödrön, 
Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation (Simon and Schuster, 2017) by Robert Wright. 

I also recommend reading nothing to develop a relationship with inner silence.

Best Writerly Advice. 
You don’t need advice, writerly or otherwise, you already know exactly what to do and have everything you need inside of you. 

Featured Interview: Matthew James Weigel, Winner of the 2020 Vallum Chapbook Award

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Chapbook Contest, interview, It Was Treaty / It Was Me, Matthew James Weigel

Interview by Leigh Kotsilidis

Matthew James Weigel (he/him) is a Dene and Métis poet and artist pursuing an MA in English at the University of Alberta. His words and art have been published by people like Book*Hug and The Mamawi Project, while his first self-published chapbook “…whether they took treaty or not, they were subject to the laws of the Dominion” is held in Bruce Peel Special Collections.

It Was Treaty / It Was Me feels almost like a collage. Drawing on government records, archival images and his own family history, Matthew James Weigel blends prose and poetry to look how John A. Macdonald and his government used treaties to dispossess Indigenous peoples of their lands. Weigel juxtaposes the machinations of the Canadian government with other versions of the story; official history bumps up against memories recorded in the body, exposing corruption and violence. “I wake up at 6am to a weight on my chest. / I massage it until it says the word treaty,” Weigel writes. This body memory is inextricable from land and water. “Did you know that when you wrote this down the river would remember it?” In recounting these histories, Weigel re-situates them. Under a picture of Queen Victoria’s throne, he writes: “I have acquired and used this photograph without permission. It has been digitally altered to suit my needs.” Another photo, though, remains beyond his grasp – an image of his family, held at the archives of the University of Alberta. These are not just questions of what happened, but who gets to tell the story of a past that bleeds into present. Sometimes, the most important act is to bear witness. “Dreamt I was a river again,” Weigel writes in the final poem, “2020: witness (continued).” “A thread of a glacier unwinding itself in slow motion, / slow enough to dip hands in and drink.”

Featured Interview: Joe Neubert, 2nd Place Winner of the 2020 Vallum Chapbook Award

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Chapbook Contest, DC Poems, interview, Joe Neubert

Interview by Leigh Kotsilidis

Joe Neubert was born in Georgia and is currently living in Washington, DC.

In DC Poems, the sublime is all around. Joe Neubert’s new chapbook is a collection of snapshots from everyday life, where the poet is the observer, watching and wondering from a distance. With sparse language and precise images, Neubert records the seconds of the day before they’re gone: “early March the sun / the streetlights the people / the afternoon men / playing checkers on a trashcan.” Time and space are reconfigured – we are in D.C., but also Siberia, and also rural Spain, and also the southern pole. Neubert charts these moments in a circular relation to each other. “Does the view from the roof on a monday in march / stir the cells of their unknowable individual / private universes,” he asks.

Vallum Poem of the Week: "Brief History of Mirrors" by Karen Schindler

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10:2, Brief History of Mirrors, Karen Schindler, Poem of the Week, Reflections

BRIEF HISTORY OF MIRRORS

I. Pythagoras

They say he has a magic mirror.
Held up to the moon it shows him
the future, discoveries waiting. He sees
numbers are the origin of music, music

the soul of all things.     My face is altered
by polished kitchen surfaces, the glass cabinet
at the end of the hall, my bedroom window
when night falls. In the wardrobe mirror

I follow the arc of elbow across my body
as I pull my bow against
the cello strings. Each motion a reference
to the invisible lover standing behind me.


II. Russian Village

Midnight, a girl takes a torch and a mirror
to an empty hut, sets the mirror opposite
the open door and waits for the likeness
of her future husband to appear.

I place a bowl of water at my door, set a knife
in the bowl so evil spirits will see their souls pierced
and flee. From below my open window
whispers rise like underwater music.


III. Nostradamus

He stares into a pool of water. Visions
come to him in complete quatrains.
He says, listen when I say this is true—
bind yourself to the day, the light

of the sun, the brightness of the moon.
I leave, a shadow slipping under the door,
drive to the house of a boy I used to know,
park on the dark street, look up.


IV. da Vinci, Kepler

The first believes the artist’s soul is a mirror,
taking the colour of all it reflects. The second
studies comets, thunder, falling leaves,
concludes each thing contains all others,

the earth itself is a gentle mirror, the mind
is full of windows.     I balance my left hand
with my bow, shoulders centred, wrist loose.
This is what I know—morning

on my mirror, the perfect pitch
of an open chord, ease of a shift
down the cello string like something slipping
out of its skin.

 

 

 

 

 

Karen Schindler is the publisher of Baseline Press, a micro-press in its tenth year of publishing Canadian poets in hand-sewn poetry chapbooks. In 2021, Baseline Press will be embarking on a new partnership with the recently restructured Insomniac Press, to become its poetry chapbook imprint. In 2017, Karen stepped down as a managing director of the Poetry London Reading Series after serving over ten years. Her poetry and book reviews have appeared in journals including The Malahat Review, Canthius, GUEST, and The Fiddlehead. She has also worked as a chemical engineer, a systems analyst, and a high-school mathematics teacher.

 

To view other content published in this issue, 10:2 “REFLECTIONS”, please visit Vallum’s website.

Vallum magazine is also available in digital format. Featuring additional content such as: AUDIO and VIDEO recordings of selected poets, further poems, interviews, essays, and MORE! Visit our website for details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vallum Poem of the Week: "Shock & Awe" by Michael J. Shepley

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16:2, Fear, Michael J. Shepley, Poem of the Week, Shock & Awe

 

 

 

SHOCK & AWE

it would have been
a hot holy shock
to have been some
astronaut/cosmonaut
looking out a deep
space portal at sharp
and not scintillating
pinprick stars and
suddenly have a
huge fat rainbow
Koi go swimming by


                              011519

 

 

 

 

 

Michael J. Shepley is a writer. He lives (and works) in Sacramento, CA, USA. In the realm of poetry some 60 plus small lit “sources” have published his work. In the last year his poems have appeared in/@ Vallum, CQ, Trajectory,

Tipton Journal, FineLines, Creosote, & Common Ground.

 

To view other content published in this issue, 16:2 “FEAR”, please visit Vallum’s website.

Vallum magazine is also available in digital format. Featuring additional content such as: AUDIO and VIDEO recordings of selected poets, further poems, interviews, essays, and MORE! Visit our website for details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vallum Poem of the Week: "Monoeuvre" by Frances Boyle

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16:2, Fear, Frances Boyle, Manoeuvre, Poem of the Week

Photo by John W. MacDonald

 

 

 

MANOEUVRE

Don’t pause, don’t let the momentum
fail to carry you forward. Keep rhythm,
urgency fueled by the tick-tack, thud
and reverb, metronome footstep music.
Feel of a follower, slow motion, filmic.
Movement seen from corner of your eye,

dark car pulling away, pale fingers dialing
down the light. How to know if you’re awake
or dreaming? Pinch me! they cry in movies
but you always feel the pinch; too-tight skirts
that restrict your steps so you can’t run, couldn’t
run, but you don’t know why you’d need to run.

You don’t dare disbelieve their urgent
deceit, their flippant lies but rather question
your own memory, your own sanity. Gaslight
turned low, there’s a gasp in the dark you’re sure
you heard, a silenced scream. They tell you
you’re lost, but they won’t help your feet

find the path, so you slip on scrubby grass
and loose gravel down the hillside, uproot
weeds, bend stripling branches as you grab,
afraid, for what might be the only truth you know.
You try to let go, calm your hammering heart
your seesaw breath. Find a place where your mind

feels inside itself. But you sense heavy breathing
beyond your peripheral view. Shadows
ominous, full of menace. That’s all
in your head they say, all in your
fevered imagination. Turn your head.

 

 

 

 

 

Frances Boyle is the author of two poetry books, most recently This White Nest (Quattro Books, 2019), as well as Seeking Shade, a short story collection (The Porcupine’s Quill, 2020) and Tower, a Rapunzel-inspired novella (Fish Gotta Swim Editions, 2018). Recent and forthcoming publications include work in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, Blackbird, Dreich, Prairie Fire, Event, Feral, and Parentheses Journal. For more, visit www.francesboyle.com and follow Frances at @francesboyle19 on Twitter and Instagram.

 

To view other content published in this issue, 16:2 “FEAR”, please visit Vallum’s website.

Vallum magazine is also available in digital format. Featuring additional content such as: AUDIO and VIDEO recordings of selected poets, further poems, interviews, essays, and MORE! Visit our website for details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vallum Poem of the Week: "Self-Portrait, With a Grassy Husk," by rob mclennan

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13:1, open theme, Poem of the Week, rob mclennan, self portrait with a grassy husk

Photo: Christine McNair

 

 

 

Self-Portrait, With a Grassy Husk,

1. A change of temperature in Vienna

Baroque gardens, as her father said. You take
your habit from your hat. The gardener

roams. Compose notes like pollen.


2. Meticulous uncertainty

Is the only possible site. Epiphanies,
we draw from string,

a bit of cloud. Formations
shaped in clay.


3. Moon, a beehive

A mossy phrase, the tree-line
grows. A teetering

calm.


4. Saturate,

Hard-bare soil. An arsenal of mulch.
What’s the worst we could do?

Good night, my heart.

To sample, then. To
know.

 

 

 

 

 

Born in Ottawa, Canada’s glorious capital city, rob mclennan currently lives in Ottawa, where he is home full-time with the two wee girls he shares with Christine McNair. He is the author of three works of fiction—white (Mercury Press, 2007), Missing Persons (Mercury Press, 2009) and The Uncertainty Principle: stories, (Chaudiere Books, 2014)—as well as two collections of literary essays, a tourist guide to Ottawa and more than two dozen full-length poetry titles, the most recent of which include A halt, which is empty (Mansfield Press, 2019) and Life sentence, (Spuyten Duyvil, 2019), with the book of smaller forthcoming in 2022 from University of Calgary Press. He won the John Newlove Poetry Award in 2010, the Council for the Arts in Ottawa Mid-Career Award in 2014, and was longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize in 2012 and 2017. In March, 2016, he was inducted into the VERSe Ottawa Hall of Honour.

An editor and publisher, he runs above/ground press, Touch the Donkey (touchthedonkey.blogspot.com) and periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics (periodicityjournal.blogspot.com). He is editor of my (small press) writing day, and an editor/managing editor of many gendered mothers. He spent the 2007-8 academic year in Edmonton as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta, and regularly posts reviews, essays, interviews and other notices at robmclennan.blogspot.com

He is currently working on, among other projects, a novel. 

 

To view other content published in this issue, 13:1 “OPEN THEME”, please visit Vallum’s website.

Vallum magazine is also available in digital format. Featuring additional content such as: AUDIO and VIDEO recordings of selected poets, further poems, interviews, essays, and MORE! Visit our website for details.