[Each week, since the beginning of the pandemic, I have been sharing a poem a day featuring a different short form. You can learn more about these forms here. After the poems you will find some poetry recommendations.]
Some Poetry recommendations:
Times have changed. As a teen in the 70s, isolated in suburbia, no library at my Catholic primary school, a busted library at my high school of over 4000 students, poetry was hard to find. In fact, if i recall properly, the only poetry I knew about was a slim volume of poems by Robbie Burns that my father had (and which I have still) and one of those bricks of a Norton Anthology of English poetry (and which I also still have). That was about it. Fast forward to today’s manic world and it feels like a golden age of poetry (or of at least access to poetry). I have many hundreds of volumes of poetry in my collection and, i’m pleased to say, that they get a lot of attention - i’m constantly searching my shelves for a remembered poem, a favourite author, and so on. My poetry books move around a lot. And, of course, there’s the public library of which Toronto’s is one of the best in the world. I live across the street from a branch and there are 100 branches across this fair city, so they are pretty wonderfully accessible. And the interlibrary loan system is awesome. A simple subject search of “poetry” shows that there are 47,039 items. Damn! And then there’s the internet with a seemingly endless river - or perhaps ocean, is better - of poetry - websites, archives, public domain, journals, podcasts, newsletters, etc. etc. All to say that I will add a few recommendations to my Monday poetry posts from now on. To start, here are a couple of substack newsletters that i’m particularly taken with. Check them out. Consider subscribing. Let me know what you think.
man of aran: This poet writes wonderful poems inspired by images.
tomasikaki: I love this poet’s whimsy and poignance. Have a look.
Thanks so much for your mention, Chris!! Very honoured to be part of your new recommendation feature.
I am humbled and blushed. This is a first for me - not the blushing - this I can't get rid off.
It is the first recommendation I get for my work on Substack and I am more that grateful for that.
And to be side by side with man of aran... honoured and blushed again!
Thank you, Chris. It means a lot.