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pumpkin spice Toddé @toddedillard.bsky.social · 2h

since I’ve seen several of her poems shared today, let’s also account for how Louise Glück could really write the hell out of a book, and how putting these poems next to each other is such a powerful “move”

Field Flowers

BY LOUISE GLÜCK

What are you saying? That you want
eternal life? Are your thoughts really
as compelling as all that? Certainly
you don’t look at us, don’t listen to us,
on your skin
stain of sun, dust
of yellow buttercups: I’m talking
to you, you staring through
bars of high grass shaking
your little rattle— O
the soul! The soul! Is it enough
only to look inward? Contempt
for humanity is one thing, but why
disdain the expansive
field, your gaze rising over the clear heads
of the wild buttercups into what? Your poor
idea of heaven: absence
of change. Better than earth? How
would you know, who are neither
here nor there, standing in our midst?

The Red Poppy

By Louise Glück

The great thing
is not having
a mind. Feelings:
oh, I have those; they
govern me. I have
a lord in heaven
called the sun, and open
for him, showing him
the fire of my own heart, fire
like his presence.
What could such glory be
if not a heart? Oh my brothers and sisters,
were you like me once, long ago,
before you were human? Did you
permit yourselves
to open once, who would never
open again? Because in truth
I am speaking now
the way you do. I speak
because I am shattered.

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Litbowl @litbowl.bsky.social · 1d

From Ada Limón's book, The Hurting Kind: bit.ly/hurtingkind

#poem #books #writing

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Subpress Poetry @subpresspoetry.bsky.social · 1d

“Ethics” by Kyla Houbolt, from her forthcoming book, *Becoming Altar* asterismbooks.com/product/beco... @luaz.bsky.social

Ethics

Is it ethical to be a frog when the snow is on the ground? To be a frog in winter, in a sound mind and body of amphibious elegance? It isn't right! sing the bugs in their dens, we never got a chance to have amphibious elegance, we only got chitinous chic which is far far less groovy. The bugs grouse among themselves, crowding the rotting tree trunks, clicking and whirring and taking committee votes. But the unconcerned frog, who is not hungry for bug at the moment, casts no stones. There is no call to fiddle with all them bugs! thinks the frog to itself, preening in its winter mudhole. Meanwhile, Creator, in the form of Raven, listens in with amusement. None of these creatures knows what's to come, or how blessed their lives are. Though that smug frog might need to be taken down a peg or two, he thinks. Maybe it's time to send in the crows. And of course the poets are listening to all this, and each one is writing notes, and all the notes are different. This is the blessing and the curse of poetry: that it never agrees and that it never agrees. Ethics? Maybe in the spaces between.

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Coach House Books @coachhousebooks.bsky.social · 23h

This week, our spotlight is on The Long Poem Anthology (1979). We've also found its first appearance in a Coach House catalogue, from 1980! 🦫

Read more about our archive features all together over on our blog: chbooks.com/Blog/Celebra...

Book cover of The Long Poem Anthology, alongside the text: "Published in 1979, the inaugural Long Poem Anthology, edited by Michael Ondaatje, showcased the lengthier poems written by some of the Canadian Greats – poems that were too long for the usual anthologies. Featuring Kroetsch, MacKinnon, Marlatt, McKay, Blaser, Davey, Bowering, Kiyooka, and Nichol, and including statements by the poets, this collection helped make Canadian poetry what it is today."

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Alex Boyd @alexboydwriter.bsky.social · 13d

I've enjoyed (and reviewed) Fan Mail, essays and articles by Jason Guriel, new from Vehicule Press. #amreading

boydwords.wordpress.com/2025/09/27/f...

Fan Mail: A Guide to What We Love, Loathe and Mourn, Jason Guriel

There’s a reason I’ve revisited Citizen Kane (including the commentary by Peter Bogdanovitch), listened to the 1966 recording of “River Deep, Mountain High,” and enjoyed a cartoon mashup of Godzill…

boydwords.wordpress.com

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Nightwood Editions @nightwoodeditions.bsky.social · 3d

It’s time to submit your poetry collection for the 2026 Al & Eurithe Purdy Poetry Prize! Be sure to review the submission guidelines listed on the Al Purdy A-frame Association website. One outstanding poet will be awarded $10,000! 📝✨ #PurdyPrize2026 #CanadianPoetryPrize #CallForSubmissions

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Chris Banks @chrisbanks6625.bsky.social · 3d

rob mclennan writes about his latest poetry collection, the book of sentences (University of Calgary press, Fall 2025), and offers an excerpt over at the The Woodlot - Canadian Poetry Reviews & Essays.

tinyurl.com/5n79evey

"I don’t hold too much stock in ideas of the muse….”

On the book of sentences (University of Calgary Press, October 2025) and an Except

by rob mclennan I don’t hold too much stock in ideas of the muse, instead seeking the attention of craft. The working class farm-lad in me, I suppose: writing as simultaneous muscle and study, a bl…

tinyurl.com

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Nate @nfako.bsky.social · 4d

Louise Glück

Vespers
I don't wonder where you are anymore.
You're in the garden; you're where John is,
in the dirt, abstracted, holding his green trowel.
This is how he gardens: fifteen minutes of intense effort,
fifteen minutes of ecstatic contemplation. Sometimes
I work beside him, doing the shade chores,
weeding, thinning the lettuces; sometimes I watch
from the porch near the upper garden until twilight makes
lamps of the first lilies: all this time,
peace never leaves him. But it rushes through me,
not as sustenance the flower holds
but like bright light through the bare tree.

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Chris Banks @chrisbanks6625.bsky.social · 4d

Conor Mc Donnell talks his writing process when writing his 80 page long poem what we know so far is..... over at The Woodlot - Canadian Poetry Reviews & Essays.
tinyurl.com/434bpyht

Check it out!

On Writing The Long Poem: Conor Mc Donnell talks What We Know So Far Is…

by Conor Mc Donnell Bitten is not the same as eaten. Broken is not the same as worthless. ‘I think there is a particular kind of poet (again) who is bored by writing the small poems, year after yea…

tinyurl.com

Chris Banks @chrisbanks6625.bsky.social · 6d

Just heard copies of Best Canadian Essays 2026 are heading my way! Slowly putting a manuscript of poetry essays and reviews

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Chris Banks @chrisbanks6625.bsky.social · 9d

Feeling a little creative burned out so just resting up this morning. Maybe I’ll pull out Mary Ruefle’s Madness, Rack and Honey which always inspires and puts me in a good mood. Getting some nice notes from poets about pieces in The Woodlot which always feels good.

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Luke Kennard @lukekennard.bsky.social · 9d

The You’re Still Doing This? award for poets aged 45-55

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Chris Banks @chrisbanks6625.bsky.social · 9d

Thanks Rhea!

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Chris Banks @chrisbanks6625.bsky.social · 9d

Alright going to settle down and work on my own poetry this weekend. No more reviews or essays for awhile.

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Chris Banks @chrisbanks6625.bsky.social · 9d

I wrote about the perils and pleasures of the Canadian Long Poem. A daunting subject!

the-wood-lot.ca/2025/10/03/t...

"The long poem puts demands on a reader, and “the form” it chooses is one of its own design. We cannot rely on the familiar signposts of shorter lyric narrative poems….”

The Perils and Pleasures of The Canadian Long Poem

by Chris Banks The Canadian Long Poem is having a bit of a renaissance right now. Everywhere I look, I see Canadian poets churning out verse novels, or book length poems on everything from climate …

the-wood-lot.ca

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Chris Banks @chrisbanks6625.bsky.social · 10d

On Contentment.

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Nightwood Editions @nightwoodeditions.bsky.social · 10d

Thank you to @chrisbanks6625.bsky.social for this thoughtful analysis of Isabella Wang's new poetry collection, November, November: "a brave, risk-taking book pushing a reader to think about poetic structure, of love and loss, of time left..."

“For Your Safety Please Hold On” – A Review of November, November by Isabella Wang (Nightwood Editions 2025)

by Chris Banks How happy I was if I could forgetTo remember how sad I amWould be an easy adversityBut the recollecting of BloomKeeps making November difficultTill I who was almost boldLose my way l…

the-wood-lot.ca

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Litbowl @litbowl.bsky.social · 13d

From @dseuss.bsky.social's book Frank: Sonnets.

Published by @graywolfpress.bsky.social. Get it here: bit.ly/franksonnets

#poem #books #writing

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Chris Banks @chrisbanks6625.bsky.social · 12d

I wrote a review of Long Exposure, a book length poem by Stephanie Bolster out this Fall with Palimpsest Press.

tinyurl.com/y762dwzu

I've always shied away from writing about long poems but this one felt like a long book-length ceremony of witnessing. Anyways, here it is!

“Weather Is Not Our Friend”: A Review of Stephanie Bolster’s Long Exposure (Palimpsest Press, Fall 2025)

by Chris Banks —When will we arrive? —You’re already here. Long Exposure by Stephanie Bolster, out with Palimpsest Press this Fall, is both challenging and ambitious for it does not read like the t…

tinyurl.com

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Chris Banks @chrisbanks6625.bsky.social · 14d

Just received my copy of Fan Mail by Jason Guriel. Looking forward to reading it this week.

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Chris Banks @chrisbanks6625.bsky.social · 15d

Wrote a poetry review, mowed the lawn, did the laundry, walked the dog, even showered. I’m unstoppable today

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Kris Werewolfheart @kriswolfhe.art · 17d

getting hung up on the continuity of a nintendo franchise is like losing at chess to a dog, except there isn't a dog and there never was, there isn't a chessboard either, you're not even indoors, you're standing in the parking lot of a shuttered Kmart, a hollow wind blows

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rob mclennan @robmclennan.bsky.social · 18d

Anna Swanson, The Garbage Poems
the-wood-lot.ca/2025/09/25/a...

Anna Swanson, The Garbage Poems (Brick Books, Fall 2025)

lovingly reviewed by rob mclennan In Which We ReplaceGarbage With LoveThis place is famous for love, all brands& standards. We who come here know loveis a verb, & we love with open hands.On…

the-wood-lot.ca

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phillip crymble @phillipcrymble.bsky.social · 17d

Louise Glück

A Sentence

Everything has ended, I said.
What makes you say so, my sister asked.
Because, I said, if it has not ended, it will end soon
which comes to the same thing. And if that is the case,
there is no point in beginning
so much as a sentence.
But it is not the same, my sister said, this ending soon;
There is a question left.
It is a foolish question, I answered.

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Chris Banks @chrisbanks6625.bsky.social · 19d

Got a tough group of grade 10 kids this term whom melted into laughter when I told them if I was a rapper I would be MC Phatjesus and if I was a DJ I would be DJ IceColdPop. Teaching high school is 60 percent theatre.