10/27/2006

hook

after
we'd freed
the pelican
from the hook
snagged in
its mouth
we gathered
over the
body of its
partner -
who had
flown too
close, been
tangled in
the fishing
line and
drowned.
the first
of us
to speak
offered that
maybe it
had died
trying to
free the
other and
though we
all knew
that was
preposterous
we said
nothing,
our wings
folded, our
mouths
aching.

from the winter 2006 issue of One Cool Word

10/17/2006

is the hardest part

just as an update, because i haven’t posted anything in quite a while:

a poem of mine is coming out in feathertale around the end of the month. it’s about ted william’s cryogenically frozen head.

in november, those fine folk at One Cool Word will be printing a poem of mine, too. this one’s about pelicans. (they’ll also be printing a poem by liam ford).

then, in november, also, The Green Muse will be doing a profile thang on my chapbook, featuring four of its poems. they are about china, the country (though one of them does have a reference to dinnerware, also).

in other words:

1. november will be neat.
2. i write poems about strange things.
3. tom petty was right.

meanwhile, i have to figure out how to come up with a halloween costume in a country where they don’t celebrate halloween. so far i have a scraggly white beard which i extracted from a pill bottle…

10/08/2006

the legacy

as i noted a few posts ago, i am currently living in Accra, Ghana, playing doting housewife to my partner, Marta, who is working here on a CIDA internship. my writing is coming slowly, but my reading and appreciation of Ghanaian poetry is rushing along. while it is endlessly difficult to find books in this city (beyond harlequin romances), whenever i come across a good shop the percentage of its shelves devoted to poetry always astounds me.

so far, the Ghanaian poet I encourage one and all to read is Kobena Eyi Acquah. his “In the Navel of the Soul” is taught to secondary school students here, and sweet god - if only we could have been so fortunate in high school. check him out, if you can find his work anywhere. if not, i’ll be back in March with a couple of his books (and i’d happily take orders for further copies, as books usually go for 1-3 bucks around here).

Marta and i spent much of the day yesterday at the University of Ghana, Legon, which has an excellent bookstore and library (where i read an issue of The Dalhousie Review featuring HAP contributor Jesse Ferguson). i mostly went to the library to attempt to discover whether The Legacy, a student-run lit journal that operated out of Legon in the 70s, was still functioning. short answer: heck no. in fact, the librarian was only able to find one dusty issue of The Legacy in the stacks. it was a bit crushing, but that one issue certainly was worth the effort put into the search. the poem below was pulled from it (with apologies from the author for not achieving prior approval, but damned if i can find you), and is representative of the high quality of the entire publication.

Hopefully, thirty years from now, people will be able to look back on what we are producing today with as much admiration.


We Are The Meaning

(To Nanaa)

Another day another world and
To live with dignity, to understand
That it is not easy to fly when
We have put our wings up for sale,
      So treat me warm, gentle presence:
There is no greater sadness here
Than the lonely life
A wholeness within, these longings
For a dim freedom, a just place -
      So where is this the choice, the essence?
Another day, other ways to
Mutter trembling apologies for
Nothing, for this tortured charade
Made of discarded bits of us all.
      And so we lean before the spell
Of the evil eye shaking our hands
Unbelieving, that this life is a dream
      That we are the meaning.

- Eugene Opoku-Agyeman
from The Legacy: A Student Literary Journal, University of Ghana, Legon
(Volume III, No. 2: September 1977)

10/02/2006

a poem

eclectica magazine just came out with a new issue, featuring a poem of mine called "the silence is worse".

if you're interested, you can read the poem here, or the whole issue here.