Tuesday poem #671 : Binoy Zuzarte : Margate (Golden Hour)

 

Dead algae and pheromone spice:
there’s a full circle
in the smell of low tide 

anointing arches in the throat
as Turner himself lays sun
like coins on the eyes. 

It’s quiet but for all this gold
you can’t take with you,
sky with room for just itself. 

In the foreground a towel
tied to the railing where stairs
enter the seascape— 

someone’s in the water.
For a moment before I get too close
it’s not impossibly you 

—a bell sounds seven and the spell
ends. Light unspools. I start
back toward a stuck door. 

Voices clink at Sargasso,
air purpling, the harbour’s arm
some comfort. Toast.

 

 

 

 

Binoy Zuzarte (he/him) is a writer and creative director. Recent poems appeared or will be found in Arc, Augur, and The Shore, as well as In-Between, an art show centred on the Canadian immigrant experience. He lives with his partner and their dog in Toronto, where he is working toward his first collection.

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan

Tuesday poem #670 : Nicholas Selig : Long Lake & Elsewhere

 

 

A 6000-hectare animal
clambers down the Annapolis Valley. 

When wind excuses itself,
our smoky palate dissolves. 

Copper light burrows through the sky.
Ash in last night’s lime crema 

or other worldly injustices. Even then,
it’s easy to forget until your own hill glows. 

 

 

 

 

Nicholas Selig’s poetry has appeared in Contemporary Verse 2, the League of Canadian Poets, and EVENT magazine. He was awarded Nova Scotia’s Rita Joe Poetry prize in 2023.

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan

Tuesday poem #669 : Larry Sawyer : Filled with the Memory of Your Porcelain Abandonment

 

I am your animal filled with light.

My eyes are yellow flame.

In the night I 
lurk among the flowers, 
where they lie sleeping. 

Inside each shadow there is an appointment I am keeping. 

I enter the dark and 
sit on a chair 
made only of the evening air. 

When the moon rises I reach up to touch it. Then
I chop off the summer with a hatchet.

Our train arrives at midnight, let’s catch it.

Larry Sawyer (US and Canadian) was a poet, essayist, and fiction writer. His books of poetry include The Blue Butterfly (Guernica, 2027); Daylight Hammer (mother’s milk press, 2021); Breaking Lorca (White Hole Press, 2014); Vertigo Diary (Blaze VOX, 2013); Unable to Fully California (Otoliths Press, 2010), and A Chaise Lounge in Hell (above/ground press, 2003), among many others.

An extensive collection of his poetry and correspondence has been archived at Berkeley University’s Bancroft Library, as well, his poetry has been archived in libraries at Yale, University of Chicago, Ohio State University, UCLA, and in his hometown of Fairborn, Ohio, US.

Originally from Ohio (US), Larry lived in Chicago for 19 years, and recently in Toronto, ON, Canada for 5 years with his longtime collaborator, partner, and fellow poet, Lina Ramona Vitkauskas.

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan