These poems each have a set of guided questions, related videos that allow for deeper investigation, and suggested writing activities. We'll be adding more poems here soon! Insomnia A dark, playful twist on what someone would do if they could only sleep… Sonoma A dreamlike sense of the uncanny hangs over this poem of an encounter on a coastal highway. Beat! Beat! Drums! With rich bombastic language and Whitman's trademark sprawling lines, this poem rallies troops for war. From One and Half of You Trying on traditional clothing and finding how it fits. Or not. The Problem With Being a Box Too Small for Its Contents Misch expounds the unbearable work needed after a breakup: to separate from your lost love and “rejoin yourselves…even when you don’t want to.” I Have Something to Tell You In this surreal poem, a man made of cameras brings his unexpected concerns into sharper focus. Opus 75, Sestina in B-flat for the Glockenspiel A silent glockenspiel plays out a teenage girl’s anxieties about growing up and fitting in. World Town Layers of memory paint a moving, vibrant portrait of one man’s time spent in a seaside town with his father. Where There’s a Wall Both beauty and violence are just on the other side of the wall. I Feel the Sun This poem articulates the poet’s intense feeling about the sunlight after going through a long winter. Community Garden Seeking to escape internet trolls the speaker turns her eye to the garden From Red Doc In this poem-as-a-conversation, a man and his mother consider how the past lives on in the present. My Poem Without Me in It Imagining herself removed from her own poem, a poet realizes how poetry gives her the space to create herself. Echolalia Exploring the tension between desire and satisfaction, this is “a poem that you have to kiss your way through without being kissed,” says Williams. aubade for the BPD subreddit user who wrote can people with BPD love? The stunningly cruel comments of an internet forum reverberate throughout a sleepless night The Bow What flows through a name, and a name, and a name? La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad What would you ask a knight if you found him alone and palely loitering along a barren path? Application Form Identity is elusive. Maybe it doesn’t exist at all. April 30, 2014 One spring day, dreading an afternoon appointment that will dredge up all kinds of terrible memories, the speaker of the poem focuses on the natural world around her. Chemo Side Effects: Memory The stop-start, grasping form of this poem mirrors the speaker's struggle to reconcile herself with one of the side effects of cancer treatment. Reluctance Even after you’ve jumped all the fences, climbed all the hills, and looked at the world, it can be hard to accept how you feel… Late Prayer Erin Robinsong delivers a quiet and fierce prayer for life on Earth in an age of ecological destruction and oligarchical domination We Wear the Mask We Wear the Mask is a resilient and entrancing tug-of-war with external perceptions of self. I’ve Tasted My Blood In this thunderous poem, the speaker proclaims his rage, anguish, and hope in the face of war and oppression. Mantra of No Return It is possible to travel home when one has never been there. This poem does. Tide Both stark and tender, this poem is about Reena Virk, a BC teen of South Asian descent who was assaulted and murdered by her peers in 1997. How Not to Spill Do you hold your hands shut, or do you let everything spill out? One Art When loss feels inevitable, sometimes the only thing to do is write it down… dont worry yr hair Having a bad day? This uplifting poem about the power of our inner potential should light a spark. Five Postcards from Jericho Postcards to regret, to time, to anyone at all Fear of Snakes The life of a snake and the memory of girlhood trauma are told in sinuously entwined language. The Tyger In the woods at night, the speaker talks to a magical animal… susiya Music binds and refreshes community I saw a perfect tree today Lillian Allen praises the rampant diversity of trees in Northern Ontario and asks us to see perfection in difference. 400: Coming Home You can’t help thinking about your life on a long stretch of highway. Planet Earth P.K. Page sings the praises of planet earth through extended metaphor and delightful constraint. Not the Music In Not in the Music, Crozier explores the inviolable: the sacred parts of ourselves that we cherish as personal sanctuaries. The Powwow at the End of the World Sherman Alexie slams the environmental destruction of settler-colonialism as we travel on an upstream course towards the powwow at the end of the world. The ABG (Able-Bodied Gaze) The abled-bodied gaze is an intrusive force in this poem, making a spectacle of a disabled body and attempting to reduce them to their impairment. I’ll Teach You Cree By sharing with us the untranslatable aspects of Cree culture, Scofield immerses the reader with the sensorial experiences that deepen the bonds of community. Pagination 1 2 3 4 Next › Next page Last » Last page Language English