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Pinhole Poetry
@pinholepoetry.bsky.social
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Digital journal and chapbook press. We love the upside-down view and the fact that some art can only happen in the dark. Journal submissions always open! pinholepoetry.ca
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pinholepoetry.bsky.social
Pinhole Poetry @pinholepoetry.bsky.social · Oct 3
Issue 4.3 is here! Featuring poems & photographs by 18 poets, 3 pinhole photographers & 4 new members of our Chapbook Love Letter Club; we’re so excited to see all this creative work out in the world. Please read & share!

pinholepoetry.ca/current-issue-pinhole-poetry/
pinholepoetry.bsky.social
We’re taking a little winter break from our inbox and all social media until the new year. I’m so grateful for all the beautiful poetry and community shared in 2025.
See you in 2026!
Snowy street with bare branches of trees covered in fresh snow. Text reads We’re taking a little winter nap.
December 18, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Reposted by Pinhole Poetry
thetemzreview.bsky.social
We are currently OPEN until Jan. 31, 2026 for Issue 34 journal submissions!

www.thetemzreview.com/submissions....
A photo taken from the bank of the Thames River in London, Ontario in the winter. There are 2 ducks on the water, near the camera. The water is a murky grey. There are bare branches of shrubs rising out of the water around the ducks
December 1, 2025 at 3:50 AM
pinholepoetry.bsky.social
Announcing the contributors of our next issue, Pinhole Poetry’s 16th issue! It’s going to be full of amazing poems, pinhole photography and a couple of chapbook love letters! Can’t wait for you to read it soon!
PINHOLE POETRY'S WINTER ISSUE James Croal Jackson Peter Schireson Jule Wong Kathryn MacDonald Frances Boyle Antony Di Nardo Kelly Shepherd Patrick Grace Gary Campanella Sky Davis Robbie Chesick Laura Nuckols Melissa Mack Dagne Forrest David Ross Linklater Allister White Julie Cameron Gray Alexandra McKay Monty Reid Concetta Principe Kate Rogers Amber Goodwyn Wenda Salomons Samantha Annie Bernstein Loch Baillie with Chapbook Love Letters from Kim Fahner to Ancestral Wings & from Rob Madden to Unbecoming JANUARY 3
December 5, 2025 at 2:25 PM
pinholepoetry.bsky.social
Creative Constraints Workshop Series
In a series of 90 minute Zoom sessions, explore how creative limits can reroute writing habits, silence the inner critic and open up new ways of making a poem.

register & find out more at pinholepoetry.ca/events
Creative Constraints Workshop Series In a series of 90 minute Zoom sessions, explore how creative limits can reroute writing habits, silence the inner critic and open up new ways of making a poem. After a general introduction on constraints, special topics will include: The Cento (Dagne Forrest) Hermit Crab Poetry (Rayya Liebich) Erasure (Erin Bedford) & Poetic Forms (Jade Liu) first workshop: January 18, 2026 register or find out more at pinholepoetry.ca/events PINHOLE POETRY $15 per session or $50 for all 5
December 4, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Reposted by Pinhole Poetry
bookgaga.bsky.social
"and on his palette the painter mixes
the cheap acrylic reds and blues to
make something past periwinkle"

#TodaysPoem #poetry
After the rain starts by @wynnlibby.bsky.social (2025 @pinholepoetry.bsky.social) pinholepoetry.ca/13982-2/
· P I N H O L E • P O E T R Y
WYNN LIBBY After the rain startsand on his palette the painter mixesthe cheap acrylic reds and blues tomake something past periwinkle,and the way the rain splattersand hangs on the windows makesyou wo...
pinholepoetry.ca
December 2, 2025 at 3:03 PM
pinholepoetry.bsky.social
We’re missing pieces for our next issue!
We’re still looking for a few more poems and pinhole photography submissions.
Check out our guidelines on our website and send in work by Nov 28 to be considered for the Jan 2026 issue.

pinholepoetry.ca
November 24, 2025 at 6:16 PM
pinholepoetry.bsky.social
Annie Diamond shares her poem ‘Speak over it as magic’ today, along with one of her favourite books of poetry, how cooking and poetry are related, and her thoughts on revision. Thanks for sharing your time and poetry with us Annie!

pinholepoetry.ca/an-interview...
November 20, 2025 at 3:01 PM
pinholepoetry.bsky.social
Nancy Daoust shares her poem ‘window lets Tuesday sun’ today, along with some thoughts on creative success, what poetry book is on her nightstand, and how she makes room for poetry in her daily life (hint: it includes reading some of our favourites!) Thanks Nancy!

pinholepoetry.ca/an-interview...
When I'm working on a particular poem, I'll play with it in my mind even when I'm doing something else like cooking. I'll write down a possible next line, think about it, and then return to the poem. I also read poetry everyday. The Pollination Field by Kim Fahner is on my desk as well as the latest edition of ARC Poetry. The League of Canadian Poets' Poetry Pause also pops up in my gmail everyday. NANCY DAOUST window lets Tuesday sun dapple warm shadow floors cats into maximum heat philodendron-birken stretch almost touch strange heart-shaped succulent that stays same yet greens i follow light's suggestion out of house pause above Fairbank Lake flex like birken feel into prickling lichen hot smell sun hard berries just tingeing cool green leaves thrusting blue uv light
November 18, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Reposted by Pinhole Poetry
shaunbarr.bsky.social
Sharing a poem I found today by @shelaghrowanlegg.bsky.social from an interview by @pinholepoetry.bsky.social

Love the exquisitely crafted musicality that weaves its way throughout in lines such as:

'in that solitude / that sees any light / as solace and succour.'
#poetry #poetrycommunity
pinholepoetry.bsky.social Pinhole Poetry @pinholepoetry.bsky.social · Oct 20
Shelagh Rowan-Legg joins our interview series today, sharing her poem ‘Moths are older than dinosaurs…’ along with her thoughts about revision, how making short films is similar to writing poetry, and the role of a poet to keep asking questions.

pinholepoetry.ca/an-interview...
...the more I write, the more I realize there isn't one big question to answer, or if there is, likely it's already been answered long ago. But I think each generation has a new set of questions, and it's a poet's job to reveal those questions, and try to answer them. ? Moths are older than dinosaurs, and often only live a few days You must always be drunk - Charles Baudelaire Their secret: they turn everything they consume to alcohol. Or more precisely, just enough to fly in that solitude that sees any light as solace and succour. This is how they have outsmarted meteors, deluges, droughts. They can always find bark or wool, blood or fungus, to make the moth's equivalent of a thimbleful, enough to give them cadence and swagger to dodge proverbial bullets of extinction. Tipsy-swayed, survival through brazen insouciance for nothing but some insistent illumination.
November 13, 2025 at 2:16 PM
pinholepoetry.bsky.social
Wynn Libby shares his poem ‘After the rain starts’ with us today, along with a favourite book of poetry that he keeps close for inspiration, his thoughts on revision, and what he’s working toward with his art.

pinholepoetry.ca/an-interview...
I'm really trying to find the balance between the kind of work I like the most and the kind of stuff | want to write. Who am I as a writer? Do I have a space that I belong to? Writing honestly without trying to just imitate a style I admire has been difficult. I am fighting nowadays to carve out my own voice and to represent the things that matter to me. WYNN LIBBY After the rain starts and on his palette the painter mixes the cheap acrylic reds and blues to make something past periwinkle, and the way the rain splatters and hangs on the windows makes you wonder if Pollock painted the spots on all the leopards, and the kiss of mist on your face is God's way of saying I love you and rain needs something to fall on
November 10, 2025 at 3:41 PM
pinholepoetry.bsky.social
Brett Warren shares her poem ‘Feeding the Bees’ today, along with her thoughts about what creative success means for her, how a poem begins, and a revision technique that uses old drafts to feed new poems - an kind of poetic ecosystem!

pinholepoetry.ca/an-interview...
I have a folder on my desktop called "Stagnant Poems." It's like a vernal pool that can dry up or become stagnant in a drought but is restored to health when rain finally comes. Sometimes | muck around in there for ideas...and even find poems I had totally forgotten about. But most of the poems I start will eventually decompose and nourish other poems into life. I see this as part of revision, too. Feeding the Bees Yellow flags pop up like daffodils along our street, with stick-figure icons of children and dogs to warn of poisons in chemical-drenched lawns. We're outnumbered but we keep trying to make a sanctuary for the more-than human world. We turn off outside lights at night. Leave the leaves and let dead stems stay tall for insects who overwinter in their hollows. We plant Selfheal, Ox-Eye Sunflower, Blazing Star to feed the bees. Our lawn is gone, replaced by pine chip paths we hauled ourselves, back when we had a truck, before the hybrid and electric cars. But still the oil-burning furnace. The truck backing up our driveway, a cyanide capsule on wheels. The stains it bleeds on the asphalt. The asphalt. The final insult: a bill printed on thermal paper, fluttering in the sun, tucked by the oil man into the seam of a storm door that won't keep out what's coming.
November 7, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Reposted by Pinhole Poetry
periodicities.bsky.social
newly posted: Jeremy Luke Hill : on a burrow, a nest, a lea stone / @meetthepresses.bsky.social ;
periodicityjournal.blogspot.com/2025/11/jere...
Jeremy Luke Hill : on a burrow, a nest, a lea stone
Most of the poetry I write involves playing with other people's words–rewriting the statements of Trump administration officials i...
periodicityjournal.blogspot.com
November 3, 2025 at 3:14 PM
pinholepoetry.bsky.social
Our third and final fall chapbook is ready for orders: Svoboda FSR: a biotext’ by Tosh Sherkat. Order it on its own or bundle it with our other fall chapbooks to save $ (& get more books) Available now from our shop at pinholepoetry.ca
SVOBODA FSR:a biotext by Tosh Sherkat available now from pinholepoetry.ca NEW PINHOLE POETRY CHAPBOOK
November 5, 2025 at 2:35 PM
pinholepoetry.bsky.social
Sonia Nicholson shares her poem ‘Pierre and Marthe’ today, along with what book of poetry has been most influential in her life, where she turns for inspiration, and who she trusts to read her work first. Thanks, Sonia!

pinholepoetry.ca/an-interview...
This poem was inspired by the 2023 film Bonnard: Pierre and Marthe, which explores the relationship between the famous Post- Impressionist French painter Pierre Bonnard and his model, muse, and eventual partner and wife Marthe... The line "Enterre-moi" comes from the film; Marthe asks Pierre to "bury her" - that is, for her to die first - because she can't bear to be without him... When she passes in their bed, he picks up the book she was reading and closes her eyes after seeing them for the last time. Pierre and Marthe bury me (enterre-moi) run fingers down lids to shutter my eyes for the last time windows of the country house pick up the roman dropped mid-read from my hand, place it on the nightstand next to glasses ignored climb into bed beside me, painter and muse wrapped in sheets silent and cold with sketches of ghosts put on your suit and take up your brush: dab blossoms onto the almond tree finally flowering, the one you thought had died jump after me into the Seine, where Monet rowed ashore with pheasant and Bordeaux our single nakedness enterre-moi, bury me at Le Cannet. white-washed walls and yellow light so that, mon amour, i never live a day without you
November 4, 2025 at 3:10 PM
pinholepoetry.bsky.social
Hey Toronto!

Aching to see
an underdog
win big?

Come down to
Meet the Presses
today and buy
some chapbooks
from us!

12-5
Cecil Community Centre
November 2, 2025 at 3:00 PM
pinholepoetry.bsky.social
Jacob Lee Bachinger joins our interview series today, sharing his poem ‘Winter Marriage,’ along with his thoughts on the creative act as a potential locus of joy, his practice of carrying a notebook, and how important routine is for his writing.

pinholepoetry.ca/an-interview...
While living with theBenedictine monks [at St. Peter's Abbey], I learned that their days followed a careful routine... This made an impression on me, and I took it as a lesson: if an activity is important (like prayer, like poetry), you must schedule it as part of your daily routine. This increases the chance of those inspirations and visitations. JACOB LEE BACHINGER Winter Marriage Reach through the falling snow to where thorntrees clutch small parcels of sky on the crest of the white hill. Reach through the raging dream to where hagbirds grasp small parcels of night on the crook of your ribcage. Reach through the darkness across the bed, past thorn bramble and birds. In her parcel of sleep she gives no reply.
October 29, 2025 at 2:45 PM
pinholepoetry.bsky.social
Season Kam joins our interview series today, sharing her poem ‘Brackish Water,’ her process of revision, and where she finds creative inspiration. Thanks for sharing your work and your thoughts with us Season!

pinholepoetry.ca/an-interview...
This poem began a few years ago as a curiosity about openings— moments of possibility: to stay or to go; to be open to connection or to walk away; to step into the unknown, or to stay in familiar water. When writing this, I was curious about what is uniquely possible at the opening, before we fully leave something, and before we arrive somewhere else. SEASON KAM Brackish Water There are many ways to meet. When a river meets an ocean, its flow slows. Neither freshwater nor salt, it becomes something in between. The day they told us your grandfather was dying, I wept at the kitchen counter over a lost love. Wound the size of a dinner plate inside my chest. The neighbourhood, newly awoken from winter, rose to greet us. A boy not much older than you danced shirtless outside the rug store, sun a warm orb in the sky for the first time in weeks. It's March, and the tulips we did not plant are sprouting. One morning, an ice cream sky— raspberry swirl, orange sherbet, tiny ripple of blueberry— the next, frost threatening the tomatoes. As your grandfather dreamt of the final shore, your father held him as he held you once. A foot in the river, a foot in the sea. Nine months with just an idea of you, and there you were-wailing and insistent on the bathroom floor. When they finally lowered him into the ground, you sprang from my lap, certain you had something to say to him that could only be said when he was alive. When I met you, I didn't know I could cross over unarmed. What a sunbeam looks like in slow motion. How a heart curdles under the surface. The small flicker underwater; the starry flounder swimming back upstream.
October 27, 2025 at 1:35 PM
pinholepoetry.bsky.social
Our second chapbook for Fall 2025:
‘AFFECTION IS THE BROADCAST,’
by David Ross Linklater

available for preorder now from pinholepoetry.ca/shoppoetry/
October 25, 2025 at 2:08 PM
pinholepoetry.bsky.social
Toronto! We’ll be tabling at the Small Press Fair that’s part of the Toronto International Festival of Authors. Next Saturday in the Victoria Chapel Lobby from 10-5! Hope to see you there!
October 25, 2025 at 1:05 PM
pinholepoetry.bsky.social
Today, Ben Blyth shares his poem, ‘Aubade for the QE2,’ along with the book of poetry he can’t stop buying, the importance of discipline in his writing practice, and how the struggle is part of his creative satisfaction. Thanks Ben!

pinholepoetry.ca/an-interview...
Honestly, I find fulfillment in the striving, the sharing, and the growing. Messing about. Taking a risk. Trying something new and being terrible at it. I tried to learn how to ski after I turned 30. I think this will keep me alive longer. Aubade for the QE2 Buzzed at 4.30 and the winter semester is about to begin— 3 ½ hours and 350 clicks to go. It's a long road south and I'm leaving behind more than a bed. My ride today is called Sarah. One of her dad's "specials" He named after a previous owner. In Alberta, you aren't so much what you eat as what you drive. Sarah is a white Hyundai Accent with a dinged-wing and two good tires. My sister nicknamed her "The Accident" —because she was always "waiting to happen"-her dad would have loved that. True to form, it is forty-below and both back tires are flat. Bead-leaks. Sarah's been on life-support all night but coughs to life first time and grinds to the 7/11 for gas and air. Those little knobs are a nightmare in this cold. Click. After two pumps of burned coffee and brioche-shrink-wrapped and somehow still stale-we both have enough fuel to face The QE2. This highway plays tricks on you. Sarah and I count seventeen vehicles in the ditch before Red Deer, lured towards the black ice by gentle curves after hours of straight nothing. Click. Turn on the radio to stay focussed and the country host —when in Rome-says that right now Alberta is colder than Mars. But this is no Red Planet. Have you ever seen the sun rise Blue? The hoar-frost hangs in the air and this alien sun-more absent than usual-throws distant spears of technicolour that shatter the sky and slowly sink. The caustic exhaust of a dying lung, collapsing in its final moments before its new breath. I have left her asleep to teach poetry. Click. But Sarah doesn't have a spare tire and we're both running out of air. Click. Click.
October 23, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Reposted by Pinhole Poetry
shelaghrowanlegg.bsky.social
Many thanks to @pinholepoetry.bsky.social for featuring an interview with me. Have a read, read the wonderful poetry on the site, and support them if you can. pinholepoetry.ca/an-interview...
An Interview with Shelagh Rowan-Legg · P I N H O L E • P O E T R Y
Shelagh Rowan-Legg (she/they) is a writer and filmmaker. Her work has been published in The Windsor Review, The Ampersand Review, numerous anthologies, and her short films have screened at festivals a...
pinholepoetry.ca
October 22, 2025 at 2:43 PM
pinholepoetry.bsky.social
Announcing the first of our 2025 fall chapbooks:
‘Word Games for Times of Genocide’
by Rayya Liebich, available for pre-order now from pinholepoetry.ca/shoppoetry/
All profits donated to the Sameer Project: Refaat Alareer Camp
‘Word Games for Times of Genocide’ by Rayya Liebich, available for pre-order now from pinholepoetry.ca/shoppoetry/ All profits donated to the Sameer Project: Refaat Alareer Camp The Sameer Project, a mutual aid organization led by three Palestinians in the diaspora, are the proud directors and funders of a tent encampment in Central Gaza that provides shelter and specialized support to displaced families who have critical medical issues, called The Refaat Alareer Camp. Our first encampment serves some of the most vulnerable families: those with war injuries or chronic diseases, adults with special needs and mobility issues, children with physical or mental disabilities, high risk perinatal and neonatal females, or families with extreme trauma or are in phychological distress. With this narrowed criteria, we will be able to serve the most critical population with tailored services and facilities, to enhance their health, safety, prevent complications and further injury, as well as care for the children and adults that need special attention. In addition, our camp takes a burden off the over-stressed hospital system as we also take referrals from medical NGOs, relief organizations, as well as concerned volunteers, to accommodate the most urgent cases as they await medical evacuations out of Gaza by the World Health Organization. The Refaat Alareer Camp is a refuge for the critically injured or sick as we provide treatment, all medications needed, physiotherapy, mental health support, community activities, and foster an atmosphere of caring family.
October 22, 2025 at 12:22 PM
pinholepoetry.bsky.social
Shelagh Rowan-Legg joins our interview series today, sharing her poem ‘Moths are older than dinosaurs…’ along with her thoughts about revision, how making short films is similar to writing poetry, and the role of a poet to keep asking questions.

pinholepoetry.ca/an-interview...
...the more I write, the more I realize there isn't one big question to answer, or if there is, likely it's already been answered long ago. But I think each generation has a new set of questions, and it's a poet's job to reveal those questions, and try to answer them. ? Moths are older than dinosaurs, and often only live a few days You must always be drunk - Charles Baudelaire Their secret: they turn everything they consume to alcohol. Or more precisely, just enough to fly in that solitude that sees any light as solace and succour. This is how they have outsmarted meteors, deluges, droughts. They can always find bark or wool, blood or fungus, to make the moth's equivalent of a thimbleful, enough to give them cadence and swagger to dodge proverbial bullets of extinction. Tipsy-swayed, survival through brazen insouciance for nothing but some insistent illumination.
October 20, 2025 at 2:57 PM
pinholepoetry.bsky.social
Layla Salma joins the interview series today, sharing her poem ‘After the Shade Fell,’ thoughts on how a poem begins, and the responsibility she feels to write, even in the midst of chaos.

pinholepoetry.ca/an-interview...
When I wrote this poem, it had been a week since our most recent displacement. We had set up our tents on a street next to a piece of land filled with grapevines. At sunset, I would peek through the gaps between the metal and fabric fences to look at them. That sight triggered a wave of nostalgia, back when I had a warm home, its rooftop covered with grapevines. After the Shade Fell It once grew quietly, between stones and stories, a sky that chose to bend low for us. Arms wide, it caught the sun before it burned, spread calm like a lullaby at night. We gathered, rhythms of bare feet and laughter, sipped dusk from low-hanging fruit that tasted like forever, and helped us remember. Time paused beneath its breath, and even the dust sat gently. But one morning, the light didn't come. Something unseen arrived, not to prune, but to erase. Now the place hums empty. No shadow falls. Only thirst and longing for our piece of the sky that once grew from the ground.
October 16, 2025 at 1:42 PM
pinholepoetry.bsky.social
Our next interview is with Elana Wolff, who shares her poem ‘Don’t We Look Marvellous,’ along with what poetry books are on her nightstand, what creative success means to her, and how poems begin and where they can go.

pinholepoetry.ca/an-interview...
A poem may begin in one place and meander to another, in the way of exploration. I write a bit like a magpie collecting shiny and curious pieces for her nest. The pieces may be disparate and eclectic, but in the end, they're integrated into a whole and choate poem. Don't We Look Marvellous The body becomes the vehicle for the invisible (faith in change?) I'm driving north on Bayview in a whiteout, it's been days— I see you as I saw you after the hours hooked to machines. Swollen, cut & intubated, sleeping. Be strong, you said before the prep, before they took you in, before the hours waiting— Isn't it strange? An hour turns to another and another and the cryptic ticks ... The psalm that I repeated when you were under— oozing & under: Frail beings... grasses….. sprouts of the field … (It's not how you feel, it's how you look that counts, said somebody else, someone in your repertoire of quips.) Don't leave till we leave together, I mouth aloud to the cold car-air-driving home alone through snow. This selfish self, this less-than-this clutching the wheel-
October 14, 2025 at 12:44 PM