Poem of the Week: Marjorie Poor, “The Haunted”

Tags

16:2, POTW

THE HAUNTED

not the house. not abandoned. not the drapes. shivering. not the stale air.
chill. not the stairs. creaky. not the shadows. dark.

not the barn. not the dust. not the hooves stamping. not the smell of leather.

not the alley. not the doorway. not the stench. not the debris. echo.

not the shed. sliver. not the shovel. not the coil of rope. not the malevolence.

not the seashore. not the fog. not the damp. not the rush of waves.

not the forest. not the rustling. not the twigs crackling underfoot. not the bright eyes
in the dusk.

not the lake. ice. not the drifts. not the wind. not the howling.

not the whispers. not the knowledge. the sigh.

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Marjorie Poor is a publications editor for Manitoba Education, the editor of Prairie books NOW, and a fiction editor at Prairie Fire. Her poetry has appeared in Prairie Fire, Vallum, Contemporary Verse 2, and at Theatre by the River’s annual fundraiser, Wine & Words. She lives in Winnipeg.

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This poem was originally published in Vallum issue 16:2 Fear.

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: Ashley Hynd, “One Shot Over the Line”

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16:2, Ashley Hynd, One Shot Over the Line, POTW

One Shot Over the Line

— after Kevin Carter

Necklacing: the act of hanging a tire soaked
in petrol around a person’s neck then
lighting it on fire

It gets heavy after a while and they always fall over
crumpled into a pile of human remains in the sand
the smell stays in your clothes
you wash and wash
and wash them
clean

then you never wear them

In twenty years time they will make shrines to me
accumulate all my worldly approximations and
claim I saw more than there was to see
in twenty minutes he’ll stop screaming
and I can start to wash my clothes
clean

 

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Founder and facilitator of Poets & Pancakes, a monthly brunch for writers, Ashley Hynd believes in building and fostering community. She sits on the editorial board for Canthius Literary Journal & Textile KW and is a Poetry Mentor with Textile KW’s Mentorship Program. She was consecutively longlisted for The CBC Poetry Prize (2018 & 2019), shortlisted for Arc Poem of the Year (2018), and won the Pacific Spirit Poetry Prize (2017). Her work has appeared in many publications across turtle island and her debut chapbook Entropy was released with GapRiot Press in 2020. Ashley lives on the Haldimand Tract and respects all her relations’ relationships with the land.

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This poem was originally published in Vallum issue 16:2 Connections.

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: “Ah” by Émilie Kneifel

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16:2, ah, Poem of the Week, POTW

ah

 

red lips
red buttons
eyelash well-trimmed.

google myself
once a blue afternoon.

the cannon call
foot to ball
a black flock instead.

woodpecker.
nail.
an eyelash shell.
blue.

14 is the night version.
you and me, bent.

what do
they call it,
parsimony?

the harmony,
parsing?

the harm in me,
parsing?

the harm in me,

the harm in me?

 

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em/ilie kneifel is a sick slick, poet/critic, editor at The Puritan/Theta Wave, creator of CATCH/PLAYD8s, heartworms/blueberries, and also a list. find ’em at emiliekneifel.com, @emiliekneifel, and in Tiohtiá:ke, hopping and hoping.

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This poem was originally published in Vallum issue 16:2 Fear.

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: “Dig In” by Christina Shah

Tags

16:2, Christina Shah, Dig In, poem, Poem of the Week

Dig In

learn to become lignin
living, but stiff
the interdependent men
will talk 
over you
at you
about you
object, topic

nascent agent

put your roots down 
and pretend;

the storms are normal

your tissues will become inflamed by
the fine salt spray
of casual abrasions

you will be scarred by lightning indignities

the fight’s a grind
each quiet ring
each arthritic old limb
a lonely, lovely victory

 

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Christina Shah was born in Ottawa, lives in Vancouver, and works in heavy industry. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in various journals– including Arc, Vallum, The Fiddlehead, Grain, EVENT, and PRISM international. She recently completed her first full-length poetry manuscript. On hot days, you’ll find her at a good swimming hole.

 

 

 

 

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This poem was originally published in Vallum issue 16:2 Fear. 

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

Tags

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

Tags

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.