Vicki Ziegler
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bookgaga.bsky.social
Vicki Ziegler
@bookgaga.bsky.social
2.2K followers 1.4K following 2K posts
Booklover, blathering at http://www.bookgaga.ca - literary news, reviews, discussion, poetry posted daily (aka #TodaysPoem http://bit.ly/2J4ym4C), member of a thriving silent book club group (aka #SilentBookClub http://bit.ly/2NSBVtw) ... oh, and I crochet
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bookgaga.bsky.social
"Before you walk the path of a myth, you must first imagine it."

#TodaysPoem #poetry
Mixed Girl as Cosmogonic Myth by Jordan Redekop-Jones (2025 CBC Poetry Prize) www.cbc.ca/books/litera...
Mixed Girl as Cosmogonic Myth by Jordan Redekop-Jones | CBC Books
The Vancouver-based writer has won the 2025 CBC Poetry Prize.
www.cbc.ca
November 25, 2025 at 1:46 PM
bookgaga.bsky.social
"within travel mug brim
a valved crater
cradles
a minuscule caffeinated puddle
whose mirrored skin
shimmies with the engine’s heartbeat"

#TodaysPoem #poetry
Pulsar by JR MacLean (2025 League of @CanadianPoets.bsky.social)
"Pulsar" by JR MacLean - League of Canadian Poets
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets' daily poetry dispatch. Read "Pulsar" by JR MacLean, part of the League's Fresh Voices program.
poets.ca
November 24, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Reposted by Vicki Ziegler
christianbauman.bsky.social
Who knew, there's a Venn diagram-center between Buddhism and Britishism. My #sundaysentence for this week: "It was bad form to dwell on traumas past."
November 23, 2025 at 12:57 PM
bookgaga.bsky.social
"The ancestors are impacted follicles on the big feet of history."

#SundaySentence from Not Stand-Up but Stand-in Comedy: the Venn diagram of profound and ridiculous by @garybarwin.bsky.social garybarwin.substack.com/p/not-stand-...
Not Stand-Up but Stand-in Comedy: the Venn diagram of profound and ridiculous
I’m really interested in what constitutes meaningful, moving texts that appeal to “poetic” or “literary” sensibilities.
garybarwin.substack.com
November 23, 2025 at 2:41 PM
bookgaga.bsky.social
"the face

an atlas, the hair a forest, the torso stolen,
the sex and hips are an unknown, the brain
a bowl of noodles, the heart is the heart"

#TodaysPoem #poetry
Flyer Taped to a Store Window ... by @samrasnake.bsky.social (2025 @stonecirclereview.bsky.social) stonecirclereview.com/flyer-taped/
Flyer Taped to a Store Window…
by Sam Rasnake   If you know or see this person, please tell them: come home One eye, oversized, heavy-lidded, as in a Picasso—the other, a lit eye peeping through the keyhole—one arm a cartoon, one...
stonecirclereview.com
November 23, 2025 at 2:21 PM
bookgaga.bsky.social
"the Robins leave not
because it is too cold for them, but
because their food is running out."

#TodaysPoem #poetry
Migration by Eric Gansworth from Apple (Skin to the Core) (2020 Levine Querido) www.levinequerido.com/store/apple
Poetry collection Apple Skin to Core by Eric Gansworth (Levin Querido), perched in gnarled vine branches on a wooden fence with a dried leaf clinging to the side of the book cover Close-up of handwritten excerpt of the poem "Migration" by Eric Gansworth from the poetry collection Apple Skin to Core
November 22, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Reposted by Vicki Ziegler
pearlpoet.bsky.social
#TodaysPoem Instructions for Having a Soul by Joseph Fasano
Instructions for Having a Soul Take it out in the rain sometimes. It has vast, invisible wings that gather dirt and need rinsing. When it tries to kill you that is because you've forgotten to let it look into someone's eyes for longer than a minute. It needs that the way a bee needs nectar in the early morning dew. Every so often, take it on a journey. Let it read long, hard books and let it stare into the depths of the sea. Yes, you can give it chips and whiskey but from time to time let it kneel in a place that is holy like the simple cathedral of the willows. All it wants is to live, to keep becoming. Nourish it, and it puts down roots, it opens. But starve it, and the mind, the flesh is empty; the world breaks down; symphonies go unwritten; the rockets fall; the children die in flames. Listen. It is not too late to wake it. Say the names of the wild, the forgotten things: bluebird, red wolf, robin; violet, child, clover. You cannot save the world but you can open the window for the trapped wren in the cellar. Read a book to a blind man, to your father. Tell a child you do believe her anger. Make your life the first life that you save. Joseph Fasano
November 19, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Reposted by Vicki Ziegler
celticstoic.bsky.social
#TodaysPoem

I am weary of being bitter and weary of being wise,
And the armor and the mask of these fall from me, after
long.
I would go where the islands sleep, or where the sea-dawns
rise,
And lose my bitter wisdom in the wisdom of a song.

- Arthur Davison Ficke, 1915
"Arthur Davison Ficke (1883-1945) was born in Davenport, Iowa. He received an undergraduate degree from Harvard University, traveled around the world, and returned to Iowa. While working as an English teacher, he entered the University of Iowa to study law. After completing his studies, he joined his father's law firm. The young lawyer was also a budding poet. Two collections of his poetry were published in 1907. According to Dictionary of Literary Biography contributor Paula L. Hart, these volumes display Ficke's 'fondness for romantic themes, the influence of his extensive travel, and his partiality for the lyric form.'" [Source: Poetry Foundation
November 19, 2025 at 11:39 PM
bookgaga.bsky.social
Founders Laura Gluhanich and Guinevere de la Mare look back on the many highlights from 10 years of @silentbookclub.bsky.social: silentbook.club/blogs/blog/1...
Highlights from 10 Years of Silent Book Club
It has been an incredible ten years of Silent Book Club. As we reflect on our celebratory month, we wanted to pause and take stock of some highlights over the past decade of organizing this community ...
silentbook.club
November 21, 2025 at 6:11 PM
bookgaga.bsky.social
"For a countryside summer, the different man suffered,

and wrote the worst poems of any of us,
his one exclamation mark
rotting like mutton in his pocket."

#TodaysPoem
The Young Poet
Ben Ladouceur (@helloiamben.bsky.social) (2025 New Poetry @bookninja.bsky.social) newpoetry.ca/2025/11/10/t...
The Young Poet
Ben Ladouceur   A young poet once told me, you get one exclamation mark your whole career. Twenty years passed and still his name is not very known. Each morning, all summer, I write the first…
newpoetry.ca
November 21, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Reposted by Vicki Ziegler
thewalrus.ca
The book club is having a comeback. Across Toronto, young readers are reviving a centuries-old tradition and transforming it into a way to build meaningful friendships. Journalist Janna Abbas explores: thewalrus.ca/find-a-book-club/
On the left: an image of a pile of books with a door in the middle on a white background. People are walking toward and into the door.. On the right: text that reads “Forget running groups and work socials. Find a book club. A generation of lonely readers looks to make connections”
November 14, 2025 at 3:01 PM
bookgaga.bsky.social
"It's a good trick, and, unexpectedly, repeatable."

#TodaysPoem #poetry
The Second Arrow by @sadiqademeijer.bsky.social from The Outer Wards (2020 Vehicule Press) vehiculepress.com/shop/the-out...
Poetry collection The Outer Wards by Sadiqa de Meijer (Vehicule Press) sits atop a notebook with a golden cover Handwritten transcription of the poem "The Second Arrow" from the collection The Outer Wards by Sadiqa Meijer - the book is held open with a small piece of red brick and an uncapped black pen rests on the notebook page
November 20, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by Vicki Ziegler
kimdorman.bsky.social
Susan Howe
November 19, 2025 at 5:13 AM
bookgaga.bsky.social
"There are no flamingos on Lake Michigan, which may be why it took me moving to Miami to figure out that a group of them is called a flamboyance."

#TodaysPoem #poetry
A Flamboyance of Flamingos by Nicole Tallman (@natallman.bsky.social) (2022 @havehashad.com)
2 Poems by Nicole Tallman
The Astro Poets say I’m a ? The Astro Poets say I’m a ? because just like a Cancer a ? looks you in the eye & asks how you feel. Yes, I do that. Way too often I’ve been told by some. Sorry about…
www.havehashad.com
November 19, 2025 at 12:24 PM
bookgaga.bsky.social
Sometimes it helps to just make yourself a little crown ...
Me, smiling, wearing a burgundy turtleneck and a crocheted gold crown, thank you very much!
November 19, 2025 at 12:46 AM
bookgaga.bsky.social
"He must have flown me home
for when I wake, sunset blooms
in the garden of our wallpaper"

#TodaysPoem #poetry
from The Filling Station by @leesadean.bsky.social (2022 @gaspereaupress.bsky.social) bookgagabooks.ca/2025/03/08/p...
Poetry collection The Filling Station by Leesa Dean (Gaspereau Press), with its elegant dark gray cover, sits among clay pots and autumn leaves Handwritten transcription of a part of the poem The Filling Station from the collection The Filling Station by Leesa Dean - the book is held open with a small piece of red brick and an uncapped black pen rests on the notebook page
November 18, 2025 at 3:26 PM
bookgaga.bsky.social
"And old women, helping the effort, walk
the streets beating pans to flush out a poem"

#TodaysPoem #poetry
Two Thirteen-Line Poems on How We Need a New Poem by @alexboydwriter.bsky.social (2006 Taddle Creek) www.taddlecreekmag.com/two-thirteen...
Two Thirteen-Line Poems on How We Need a New Poem - Taddle Creek
But only a good one. Hammer, mine the day.
www.taddlecreekmag.com
November 17, 2025 at 3:36 PM
bookgaga.bsky.social
"Sal – who at eight years old wrote Angry Birthday, a relatable tune about being ignored at his own party – says the group got together in the fourth grade."

#SundaySentence from School of rock by Ben Kaplan in @theglobeandmail.com www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/arti...
A garage band revival? Maybe the kids are all right
Tired of their smartphones, looking for connection and spurred on by Gen X parents, youngsters across the country are getting the band back together
www.theglobeandmail.com
November 16, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Reposted by Vicki Ziegler
carolbrisebois.bsky.social
#SundaySentence

His brushwork and the vividness of his colors had intrigued me, but I had never imagined his pictures to be of ghosts.

No Longer Human
-Osamu Dazai
November 16, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Reposted by Vicki Ziegler
moodogpress.com
“In its gusts it bears a broth of little beasts—birds, beetles, spiders tethered to their skeins of silk, seeds in forms of puffs and parachutes.”

Daniel Mason
📖 North Woods, page 207.

#SundaySentence
johnmuir.bsky.social John Muir @johnmuir.bsky.social · 13d
The wind writes two stories..
A sailboat passes a navigation marker in choppy water before a distant offshore wind farm under a pale blue sky.
November 16, 2025 at 2:04 PM
bookgaga.bsky.social
"In my sparkling water, I hold spilled stars
to glow through the blossom

of my scars when time sweeps me along,
then I become the river."

#TodaysPoem #poetry
Lena River by Özge Lena (@lenaozge.bsky.social) (2025 @internationaltimes.bsky.social) internationaltimes.it/lena-river/
Lena River | IT
internationaltimes.it
November 16, 2025 at 3:48 PM
bookgaga.bsky.social
"And as he spoke, another earth appeared,
One grain among innumerable grains
And nearly weightless as a grain of sand"

#TodaysPoem #poetry
Archimedes Lullaby by Gjertrud Schnackenberg from Heavenly Questions (2010 @fsgbooks.bsky.social) us.macmillan.com/books/978037...
Poetry collection Heavenly Questions by Gjertrud Schnackenberg (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) sits atop two colourful fingerpaintings Handwritten excerpt of the poem "Archimedes Lullaby" by Gjertrud Schnackenberg from the poetry collection Heavenly Questions
November 15, 2025 at 6:06 PM
bookgaga.bsky.social
#FridayReads #WeekendReads
Keeping a clear head with my reading and crocheting this weekend:
In Search of Lost Time Vol IV, Sodom and Gomorrah by Marcel Proust (Modern Library Classics) tinyurl.com/53syzucx
The Character Actor Convention by Guy Elston (Porcupine's Quill) ghp-pql.com/products/the...
A light blue can of Biere Sans Alcool Blanche Orange alcohol-free beer sits atop two books: In Search of Lost Time Volume IV, Sodom and Gomorrah by Marcel Proust and The Character Actor Convention by Guy Elston, with a crocheted afghan work-in-progress in green, white and gold in the background
November 14, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Reposted by Vicki Ziegler
celticstoic.bsky.social
#TodaysPoem

I think that when my eyes were very young
I saw You clearly for a little while
In evening firelight and my mother's smile...

- Arthur Davison Ficke, O Beauty Infinite (1932)

2/2
The Poetry Foundation
Poems, readings, poetry news and the entire 110-year archive of POETRY magazine.
www.poetryfoundation.org
November 14, 2025 at 7:21 PM
bookgaga.bsky.social
"Walking the Evening Back Home
A Twelve Course Dinner of Regret"

#TodaysPoem #poetry
Table of Contents for an Imaginary Book by @elaineequi.bsky.social from Ripple Effect (2007 @coffeehousepress.bsky.social) coffeehousepress.org/products/rip...
Poetry collection Ripple Effect by Elaine Equi (Coffee House Press) sits on a desktop with a notebook with an ornate gold cover, with a black pen nearby. Handwritten transcription of the poem "Table of Contents for an Imaginary Book" by Elaine Equi from Ripple Effect
November 14, 2025 at 3:26 PM