bookgaga

bookgaga , 1 hour ago to poetry group

"A hopeful & complex human sort we would all like to see a bit of
ourselves in

The woman who is the poem is a mixture of intrigued & baffled -
alone & surging with company - an anecdote-hound"

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
from Twenty Lost Years by Phil Hall from Killdeer (2011 Bookhug Press) https://bookhugpress.ca/shop/author/phil-hall/killdeer-essay-poems-by-phil-hall/

Poetry collection Killdeer by Phil Hall (Bookhug Press), with its striking cover showing a colourful bird wing, sits on a pillar with a notebook with an ornate gold cover, a black pen and a clay pot with a plant with bright, variegated leaves

bookgaga , 1 day ago to poetry group

"Blocks filled with stories,
with people,
a community.

A past,
a present,
a future.

Here."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
from Denison Avenue by Christina Wong and Daniel Innes (2023 ECW Press) https://tinyurl.com/bdfmed8t

bookgaga , 2 days ago to poetry group

"I choose, for moderate comfort, a thin tree
whose tallest branch has yet one leaf
hunched brown. A flag? Defiance? Obstinance?
A declaration I suppose.
I make it mine."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
Leaf by M. Travis Lane (2024 Opaat Press/@annickmacaskill) https://tinyurl.com/2tpuh2zb

Handwritten transcription of the poem "Leaf" by M. Travis Lane - an uncapped black pen sits on the notebook page and the poetry pamphlet sits nearby

bookgaga , 3 days ago to poetry group

"while in heaven right next door somebody has plugged
a radio into a long extension cord and music from the local radio station has scared
the raccoons away and bushels of corn are picked by a woman who loves the feel
of the perfect ears in her hands because this is her heaven you see not the heaven
of raccoons"

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
Not the Heaven of Raccoons by Julie Berry from The Walnut-Cracking Machine (2010 Buschek Books) https://tinyurl.com/yck3x8nm

bookgaga , 4 days ago to poetry group

"In this life I see strangers kissing in their kitchen through the window."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
forgive me, this is not a love poem by Lilah Warren (2024 League of Canadian Poets) https://tinyurl.com/bdhbessj

bookgaga , 5 days ago to bookstodon group

"When the precipitancy of a man's wishes hurries on his ideas ninety times faster than the vehicle he rides in - woe be to truth! and woe be to the vehicle and its tackling (let 'em be made of what stuff you will) upon which he breathes forth the disappointment of his soul!"

#SundaySentence @bookstodon
from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne https://tinyurl.com/3mz3jjkc

bookgaga , 5 days ago to poetry group

"poetry is what
whips yo tater
pets it awry, oh
oh, twisty pear
two hearts yip
it’s paw theory"

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
What Is Poetry by Susan Holbrook (2015 Poetry In Voice) https://tinyurl.com/5burkvp4

bookgaga , 5 days ago to poetry group

"Smiling at strangers reminds me of my dog
(Better let them know you're friendly)
The way people dress reminds me too
Pissing on their favorite tree"

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
Everything Reminds Me of My Dog by Jane Siberry from Bound by the Beauty (1989) https://tinyurl.com/4et3v397 & https://tinyurl.com/mwv4nx7r

Airedale Mavis' paws and her neon green toy are visible next to a notebook with a handwritten transcription of the lyrics from Jane Siberry's "Everything Reminds Me of My Dog"
Airedale Mavis' paws and her neon green toy are visible next to a notebook with a handwritten transcription of the lyrics from Jane Siberry's "Everything Reminds Me of My Dog"
Notebook with cartoon images of dogs on the cover sits on a computer keyboard. On the computer screen are the lyrics to Jane Siberry's song "Everything Reminds Me of My Dog", including a picture of Jane on the cover of her album Bound by the Beauty.

bookgaga , 7 days ago to poetry group

"A man in a ‘Kafka for President’ shirt transformed into a banana peel at the museum of somber paintings because it was New Year’s Eve."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
New Year's Eve at the Museum of Somber Paintings by Jose Hernandez Diaz (2024 Only Poems) https://tinyurl.com/24wwa8ax

bookgaga , 8 days ago to poetry group

"This morning before daybreak a thunderstorm

In the last hours before her death
her enemies came. A raccoon, that storm,
the FedEx truck manned by a gentle woman
who'd recently lost her own dog."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry #VerseThursday
Stella by Michael Ondaatje from A Year of Last Things (2024 McClelland & Stewart) https://tinyurl.com/2xcx9z9n

Airedale Mavis (with her rubber chicken Trudy in the background) sits on the concrete floor before a notebook with a handwritten transcription of the poem "Stella" from the poetry collection A Year of Last Things by Michael Ondaatje

bookgaga , 9 days ago to poetry group

"What real thing does anyone want?

Who sings for the women I inherit?
Who hopes for a woman like me?"

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
Love in Stereo by Remica Bingham-Risher from Starlight & Error (2017 Diode Editions) https://tinyurl.com/44f7upff & https://tinyurl.com/43js3vb5

bookgaga , 11 days ago to poetry group

"Next morning I'll confess I overmarmaladed
the toast on purpose, trying to make up
for the chromatic deficiency, for orangelessness,
though the sky begins to show at times
we can observe, now, look -"

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
Aperture by Dawn Macdonald from Northerny (2024 University of AlbertaPress) https://tinyurl.com/2vnr7s47

bookgaga , 12 days ago to bookstodon group

"Decades they have watched the dreamers venture, toil, despair, come back to the refuge of trunks, branches, their conversation deep underground tingling up my legs."

#SundaySentence @bookstodon
from secrets from the sea by Adrienne Fitzpatrick in The Litter I See Project (2024) https://tinyurl.com/55spmhse

bookgaga , 12 days ago to poetry group

"when
we reached the very top there were no trees
only flowers grew there
accompanied by nothing
the name of which was loneliness"

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
Loneliness by Gerald Stern (2016 Poetry Magazine) https://tinyurl.com/w5fw393j

bookgaga , 13 days ago to poetry group

"Could you have seen us through a glass
You would have said a walk
Of farmers out to turn the grass,
Each with his own hay-fork."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
Carentan O Carentan by Louis Simpson from The Owner of the House (2003 @BOAEditions) https://tinyurl.com/5x9due9h

bookgaga , 13 days ago to bookstodon group

#FridayReads #WeekendReads @bookstodon

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760) https://tinyurl.com/3mz3jjkc

Northerny by Dawn Macdonald (2024 University of Alberta Press) https://tinyurl.com/2vnr7s47

bookgaga , 14 days ago to poetry group

"We had a drawer marked

before and after, and after
and before happenings

we'd add atrocities and
incidents and the wild

asters someone before
and after keeps leaving."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
After by Andrea Cohen from Everything (2021 Four Way Books) https://tinyurl.com/4xu8rc7b

bookgaga , 15 days ago to poetry group

"For my friend's dog who loves people, but gets overwhelmed
and barks. He wants to love from his hidey hole.
I can relate."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
Prayer for the Day by @ronnabloom (2023 Freefall Magazine) https://tinyurl.com/ms9f5bbn

Notebook with cartoon images of dogs on the cover sits on a computer keyboard. On the computer screen is Ronna Bloom's poem "Prayer for the Day".

bookgaga , 16 days ago to poetry group

"when i am alone, i hear the thrum of blood pumping against my shirt. i feel my mother and grandmother wrap their arms around me until we are all chest to chest, the mirrors of our hearts beating in sync, as unending as the ocean lapping the shore"

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
mistranslation by Alysha Mohamed (2024 The Temz Review) https://tinyurl.com/5n6jr2ap

bookgaga , 17 days ago to poetry group

"Watch us, we can throw a stone
and hit the empty shoes dangling by
the shoelaces, slung over telephone wires."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
The Good Place by Cynthia Atkins (2023 Reverie Magazine) https://tinyurl.com/38bhhazd

bookgaga , 18 days ago to poetry group

"there is always birdsong
breaking the quiet

letting us know
it's safe to rise again"

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
from Giwachiyenaanig Gimishoomisinaanag by Tyler Pennock from Blood (2022 Brick Books) https://tinyurl.com/237jzs3r

Poetry collection Blood by Tyler Pennock (Brick Books), with striking orange, yellow and black cover showing a brilliant image of a bird, sits on a purple desktop with a black pen and a notebook with an ornate gold cover.

bookgaga , 19 days ago to poetry group

"The moment you feel your star cooling off
and so you pull it out of your chest
and stitch it on your jacket like a badge,
or on the collar of your coat
so that others may finally notice it."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
The End of Summer by Luljeta Lleshanaku, translated by Ani Gjika from Negative Space (2018 @bloodaxebooks) https://tinyurl.com/bdf4zev6

Handwritten transcription under way of the poem "The End of Summer" from the poetry collection Negative Space by Luljeta Lleshanaku, translated by Ani Gjika - some mock orange blossoms sit on the pages
Handwritten transcription of the poem "The End of Summer" from the poetry collection Negative Space by Luljeta Lleshanaku, translated by Ani Gjika, with a note at the end that reads "finished on June 8, 2024 ... and now this notebook will be sent on its way!"

bookgaga , 20 days ago to poetry group

"I don't see you, my body, I'm focusing farther
out
where the sea barely breaks at the edges
like pursed lips, reminding us the earth is
round"

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
the self by Halyna Kruk, translated by Ali Kinsella and Dzvinia Orlowsky (2023 Exchanges University of Iowa) https://tinyurl.com/2nf7stc2

Handwritten transcription of the poem "the self" by Halyna Kruk, translated by Ali Kinsella and Dzvinia Orlowsky - notebook with uncapped black pen resting on it sits atop the Saturday Globe and Mail, with coffee in a blue cup and other books nearby. The sun is visible on a chair on the other side of the table.

bookgaga , 24 days ago to poetry group

"I filled my backpack with rocks
& loveletters to the deep & swung
it into the lake. I grew up with hardened
shoreline instead of sand between my toes."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
Loveletters to the Deep by Qurat Dar (2020 Watch Your Head) https://tinyurl.com/3mfbbyxt

bookgaga , 24 days ago to bookstodon group

Kinds of bookish joy - enjoy the latest report and delicious reading list from our east end Toronto #SilentBookClub group! Kinds of bookish joy - the latest report from our east end Toronto #SilentBookClub group https://bookgagabooks.ca/2024/06/02/kinds-of-bookish-joy/ @bookstodon

At East Toronto Coffee Co, getting ready for a silent book club meeting, with books by Jarrett Walker, Mary Shelley and Annie Ernaux on the wooden table, along with refreshments
2. At East Toronto Coffee Co, getting ready for a silent book club meeting, with books by Eden Robinson, Joanna Goodman, Melanie Marttila, Saeed Teebi and more on the wooden table, along with refreshments
Silent book club member Vicki (that's me, with my signature messy hair and glasses), on screen getting ready for our zoom meeting, with books stacked next to my computer, including work by Michael Ondaatje, Tanis MacDonald, Margaret Christakos and Laurence Sterne

bookgaga , 25 days ago to poetry group

"All rivers are full of sky.
Waterfalls are in the mind.
We all come from slime.
Even alpacas."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
Belief in Magic by Dean Young (2014 Poetry Magazine) https://tinyurl.com/427m8263

bookgaga , 26 days ago to bookstodon group

"It is a singular blessing, that nature has formed the mind of man with the same happy backwardness and renitency against conviction, which is observed of old dogs, - 'of not learning new tricks.'"

#SundaySentence @bookstodon
from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne https://tinyurl.com/3mz3jjkc

bookgaga , 26 days ago to poetry group

"But if the blood
Pumping through my veins could freeze
Like the river in Toronto then I'd be pleased
You said I made you feel warm
Said I made you feel warm inside"

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
Forests and Sands by Tracyanne Campbell of Camera Obscura (2009) https://tinyurl.com/42jv76pf

bookgaga , 27 days ago to poetry group

"these silent spaces sprout seeds
of a mute beginning
and I am left at the end of the circle
contemplating running the track of
my choices
yet again
breathless
from fear"

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
love speak by d'bi.young anitafrika (2024 Poems In Passage) https://www.poemsinpassage.com/

bookgaga , 28 days ago to poetry group

"A gold-feathered bird
Sings in the palm, without human meaning,
Without human feeling, a foreign song.

You know then that it is not the reason
That makes us happy or unhappy.
The bird sings. Its feathers shine."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
Of Mere Being by Wallace Stevens from The Palm at the End of the Mind (1971 Alfred A. Knopf) https://tinyurl.com/hafswuc5

bookgaga , 29 days ago to poetry group

"Beyond the loggia, I watch

rain not fall, I watch fall not rain, often—
I am the expectation of gravitas,

a tub gelato, a deep spoon. Sometimes
I calligraphy the refrigerator."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry #VerseThursday
Constellation Cannoli by Tara Mesalik MacMahon (2020 Duende Literary) https://tinyurl.com/y4m8a5js

bookgaga , 1 month ago to poetry group

"Just stir yourself once
in forever under this ultra blown
bleeding moon-thing
& snap back into day"

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
Corruption Bitumen Court Date by Margaret Christakos from That Audible Slippage (2024 University of Alberta Press) https://tinyurl.com/3sjaufc5

bookgaga , 1 month ago to poetry group

"The first layer of new skin
is silence.

The sound of poplars like running
water. One thing shifts, becomes

another."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
Adjusting the slider dial of the world by Bren Simmers from The Work (2024 Gaspereau Press), reviewed by @TableMusic https://tinyurl.com/49fxj7x6

bookgaga , 1 month ago to poetry group

"you know, I was so small then, I let
your winds & waters rock me round
and couldn’t talk enough to tell you
—Big Trees, I like to be with you to-night."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
Big Trees by Colleen Thibaudeau from The Artemesia Book (1991 Brick Books) https://tinyurl.com/32k8ahem & https://tinyurl.com/598r4725

bookgaga , 1 month ago to poetry group

“Out of the eater, something to eat;
out of the strong, something sweet.”

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
Visual poetry using Judges 14 by @AmandaEarl (2024 The Ex-Puritan) https://tinyurl.com/y2e765er

bookgaga , 1 month ago to bookstodon group

"But Munro is an entirely different case, and she may be a singular author in that category for me: the time spent not reading her is as essential to my understanding of her work as the time spent immersed in her words."

#SundaySentence @bookstodon
by Yiyun Li in ‘Her stories are life itself’ https://tinyurl.com/5f8buhpv

bookgaga , 1 month ago to poetry group

"The first full moon yanked us

toward the windowsill so fierce
we had to spin the foot of our bed

around to face the lapping waves."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
Course Correction by @jackbedell (2017 Radar Poetry) https://tinyurl.com/3fnvm67u

bookgaga , 1 month ago to poetry group

"If you lie down with dogs,
you get up at five. If you lie down with ducks,
you get up with down."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
Jane Explains the Expanding Universe by Tanis MacDonald from Mobile (2019 Bookhug Press) https://tinyurl.com/2uawwsrk

Handwritten transcription of the poem "Jane Explains the Expanding Universe" by Tanis MacDonald from Mobile, in a small notebook, is held in the foreground. In the background is young Airedale Mavis, sitting amidst strewn cherry blossom petals

bookgaga , 1 month ago to poetry group

"Guestbook and pew aside, the place stank
of someone’s scheme to shill the weary: small
donation box locked by the entrance. Pray
(and pay) for safe deliverance. Patience be
damned."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
Be Patient. No Matter What. by Jacob Boyd (2024 Blackbird, Virginia Commonwealth University) https://tinyurl.com/yx6raw58

bookgaga , 1 month ago to poetry group

"The idea is the mind
has wings. The idea being when the dog
runs off in the dark, darkness is your dog."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
The Best Way I Can Describe It by Dean Young (2018 Quarterly West) https://tinyurl.com/yc6hj4de

bookgaga , 1 month ago to poetry group

"Jane floated down the 400 to land in Sibelius Park, she's the love child of Kip and Hannah, she's every girl lost on a Girl Guide trip who turned into a bear at the mouth of the Humber."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
The Birth of Jane in CanLit by Tanis MacDonald from Mobile (2019 Bookhug Press) https://tinyurl.com/mvfasza5

bookgaga , 1 month ago to poetry group

"I don't believe the sky is blue;
I don't believe in thunder's echoes;
I don't believe that dreams are false;
I don't believe that death has no revenge."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
The Answer by Bei Dao, translated by Bonnie S. McDougall from The August Sleepwalker (1988, 1990 New Directions) https://tinyurl.com/yeeeb7us

bookgaga , 1 month ago to poetry group

"Thank you for insulting me.

You helped me see how much I was worth.

Thank you for overlooking my humanity.

In that moment I gained power."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
Gratitude List by Naomi Shihab Nye from The Tiny Journalist (2019 BOA Editions) https://poets.org/poem/gratitude-list

bookgaga , 1 month ago to bookstodon group

"My father told me we see clearly when there's less to look at, less to hear."

#SundaySentence @bookstodon
from Cabin Fever by Anik See (2024 Fish Gotta Swim Editions) https://tinyurl.com/22f4wktc

bookgaga , 1 month ago to poetry group

"in my brain resides this grey wolf on the one side
a brown rabbit on the right,
down, down, down
spiral into the darkness of the icy lair
gently I go – without resistance, it’s all static
without seeing the light ahead"

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
Wolf by Jacqueline Valencia (2020 Juniper Poetry) https://tinyurl.com/2tkk3wsk

bookgaga , 1 month ago to poetry group

"Push me higher until I am giddy from kicking clouds and birds,
burning my shoes off the sun, just push me."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
Swing by Victoria Kennefick from Eat or We Both Starve (2021 Carcanet) https://tinyurl.com/yaew3uej

Handwritten transcription of the poem "Swing" by Victoria Kennefick from the collection Eat or We Both Starve - in the background are dark purple tulips and other plants in a small garden