bookgaga

bookgaga , 1 month ago to poetry group

"Honestly you need to access a second opinion on
matters of the present moment without taking
the time to read over what it is you're
just not getting anymore"

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
Such Love Alert by Margaret Christakos from That Audible Slippage (2024 University of Alberta Press) https://tinyurl.com/3sjaufc5

Close-up of the handwritten transcription under way of the poem "Such Love Alert" from That Audible Slippage by Margaret Christakos, includes the lines Honestly you need to access a second opinion on matters of the present moment without taking the time to read over what it is you're just not getting anymore
Poetry collection That Audible Slippage by Margaret Christakos (University of Alberta Press), with a cover showing juxtaposed mirror images of trees, grass and water, sits on a wooden dining room table with a notebook with an ornate green cover, a black pen, coffee in a blue cup and sections of the Saturday Globe and Mail
Handwritten transcription under way of the poem "Such Love Alert" from That Audible Slippage by Margaret Christakos - the book is held open with a small, pink hand weight, I'm holding the black pen and one of the transcribed pages and a blue cup of coffee is nearby

bookgaga , 1 month ago to poetry group

"so I look at them and look at them until
one thing makes a mirror in my eyes
then I paint it with the tear to make it bright.
This is why I sit up through the night."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
Why do you stay up so late? by Don Paterson (2009 Poetry Magazine) https://tinyurl.com/2e62nvks

bookgaga , 1 month ago to poetry group

"Silence

is a fiction.
But when it's quiet enough,
you can hear the wind
carrying conversations
between leaves."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
Silence by Melanie Marttila from The Art of Floating (2024 Latitude 46 Publishing) https://tinyurl.com/mr2tu47d

Handwritten transcription of the poem "Silence" from the poetry collection The Art of Floating by Melanie Marttila - a small piece of red brick holds open the book, an uncapped black pen rests on the notebook page and a red bookmark ribbon runs between them

bookgaga , 1 month ago to poetry group

"I am giddy with love for the trees, the rain and the wind. I say inappropriate things because I am happy. There is no wall for me anymore."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
from Beast Body Epic by @AmandaEarl (2023 AngelHouse Press) https://tinyurl.com/3xvbf33x

Poetry collection Beast Body Epic by Amanda Earl (AngelHouse Press) is splayed open, cover facing out, on a purple desktop. The book cover is graduated shades of red/orange, with an abstract line drawing that looks like bird wings.

bookgaga , 1 month ago to bookstodon group

The best kind of curated newsletter … is made up of book club friends - the latest report from our east end Toronto #SilentBookClub group: http://bookgagabooks.ca/2024/04/30/the-best-kind-of-curated-newsletter-is-made-up-of-book-club-friends/
@bookstodon

At East Toronto Coffee Co with books by Amanda Peters and Bradley Peters on the wooden table, along with lattes, cookie, bright green and purple hats, ready for silent book club meeting
Silent book club member Catherine reads at a table at East Toronto Coffee Co
At East Toronto Coffee Co with books by by Daniel Innes & Christina Wong, Maurice Vellekoop, Jennifer Ackerman, Marina Nemat, Amanda Peters, Bradley Peters, Andrey Kurkov and Jenny Erpenbeck on the wooden table

bookgaga , 1 month ago to poetry group

"Make me dance, I want to surrender
Your familiar arms I remember
Everybody’s talking about you
Every word’s a whisper without you"

#TodaysPoem #poem #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry
I Didn't See It Coming by Belle and Sebastian (2010) https://tinyurl.com/yc5ww7h8

bookgaga , 1 month ago to poetry group

"God ... interesting, keeping
bees in your kitchen ... why
not I guess when you've got so
many flowers around ... they
certainly make a warm sound,
I said a warm sound ..."

#TodaysPoem #poetry #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry
Invited In by John Steffler (1997 Malahat Review) https://tinyurl.com/3xn7z63z

bookgaga , 1 month ago to bookstodon group

"They say a house comes into its own when the weather gets rough; a house under siege from water, wind, snow, ice, becomes a poetry, the very thing that confirms your place in this world, despite what the world throws at you."

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

bookgaga , 1 month ago to poetry group

"Unbidden, a spooklight, a nightmaker, he seems a nikin, a creature, a very soft creature—
his underness, an unkanny prank of second sight.

Yet a fake and a fetch. Riven with affliction, with ravenous crookedness.

Hush, hush."

#TodaysPoem #poetry #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry
from Twitchcraft by Sandra Ridley in Vixen (2023 Bookhug Press) https://tinyurl.com/2fub4an6 & https://tinyurl.com/d7c72zu2

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"I want to stand here on the shore of the Atlantic

and ask if you feel you’re on the edge
of something. If the ocean mist is so fine

you feel a tug of nostalgia for the Mesozoic Era,
the beauty of oxygenating through a set of gills."

#TodaysPoem #poetry #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry
Once Earth Had Just One Sea by Jeffrey Hermann (2023 Pinhole Poetry) https://tinyurl.com/2bj5dsb2

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"I want to buy a pug and name it Frank
and feed him whipped cream and peanut butter
And laugh at his face, to push Frank around
In shopping carts, let him sleep in my bed,
Say Fuck you, Frank when he farts every night
Of his sweet life of twelve years, then lay him
By the kale and weep."

#TodaysPoem #poetry #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry @dogsofmastodon
What I Want by Bradley Peters from Sonnets from a Cell (2023 Brick Books) https://tinyurl.com/yc657bxb

Young Airedale terrier Mavis looks on from the floor as I gaze at my handwritten transcription of the poem "What I Want" from Sonnets from a Cell by Bradley Peters (Brick Books)

bookgaga , 2 months ago to bookstodon group

"The Silent Book Club remains a unique and growing community that caters to the needs of readers who seek a quiet, communal reading experience without the obligations typical of traditional book clubs." https://howtobe247.com/silent-book-club-london-organiser-on-why-its-so-popular/ #SilentBookClub @bookstodon

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"She tries to define why

she comes here, sitting & growling, when it
is not exactly pleasant. It aches in ways

that still need naming."

#TodaysPoem #poetry #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry
Aug 24 by Margaret Christakos from Dear Birch (2021 Palimpsest Press) https://tinyurl.com/yc34ubby

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"Maybe it's easier to be afraid
Drenched in tragedy, man-made
And my compass is an antique
But if I'm not back soon
Don't come looking for me"

#TodaysPoem #poetry #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry
Crowbar by Katie Crutchfield from Tigers Blood by Waxahatchee (2024) https://tinyurl.com/29jzamy9

Singer/songwriter Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee sits on the edge of the stage at Toronto's Massey Hall, singing. She is wearing a short black pleated skirt, cropped black top and silver ankle boots. The first couple of rows of standing audience members gaze raptly at her in the glow of the stagelights.

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"Not lost, but twice
I appear on wet sideroads smiling up -
A seagull arcs overhead like
floating is everything"

#TodaysPoem #poetry #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry
Daydreaming in the Shower before Lights-Out by Bradley Peters from Sonnets from a Cell (2023 Brick Books) https://tinyurl.com/yc657bxb

Poetry collection Sonnets from a Cell by Bradley Peters (Brick Books) has a bright orange cover with prison-bar-like lines of blue running through it. Bookmarks the same shade of blue jut out of the book as it sits on a purple desktop.

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"Five years ago the weaver
unraveled a rainbow at my name."

#TodaysPoem #poetry #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry
Twenty years ago ... by Ryka Aoki (2021 Read Poetry) https://tinyurl.com/hvun4y43

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"Earthly body, celestial body.
Body of water, body of work.
Body politic, body of argument.
Receptive body seeking body,
body dweller."

#TodaysPoem #poetry #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry
Erogenuity by Moira Walsh (Anthropocene Poetry) https://tinyurl.com/bdeadvxv

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"who was
it who

taught you
to want

what will
not feed

you"

#TodaysPoem #poetry #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry
Parable of the Magpie's Name 1 by Monica Youn (2023 Graywolf Press) https://tinyurl.com/3rpwe5r2 & https://tinyurl.com/bdjr2wcp

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"The howls, the heavy breathing, the sighs
from that faraway untranslated world"

#TodaysPoem #poetry #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry @dogsofmastodon
The Cabbagetown Pet Clinic by Michael Ondaatje from A Year of Last Things (2024 McClelland & Stewart) https://tinyurl.com/2xcx9z9n

Poetry collection A Year of Last Things by Michael Ondaatje (McClelland & Stewart) sits on a cracked concrete floor with a small notebook with cartoon dogs on the cover

JD_Cunningham , 2 months ago to poetry group

A neighbourhood.
At dusk.

Things are getting ready
to happen
out of sight.

Stars and moths.
And rinds slanting around fruit.

But not yet.

One tree is black.
One window is yellow as butter.

A woman leans down to catch a child
who has run into her arms
this moment.

Stars rise.
Moths flutter.
Apples sweeten in the dark.
-- 'This Moment' by Eavan Boland

#VerseThursday #TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry

(Art credit: Eva Kryshtapovich)

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"A swift flow erodes one side,
while a silty ladle adds to the other.
Repeating this motion over and over,
an oxbow lake is born and a new biome
rises."

#TodaysPoem #poetry #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry
A Tribute to Fractals by Leslie Thomas (2023 Consilience Journal) https://tinyurl.com/36v67nkt

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"You got a fast car
Is it fast enough so we can fly away?
We gotta make a decision
Leave tonight or live and die this way"

#TodaysPoem #poetry #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry
Fast Car by Tracy Chapman (1988) https://tinyurl.com/4nkek4c4 & https://tinyurl.com/3un9f5xk

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"Then you hold life like a face
between your palms, a plain face,
no charming smile, no violet eyes,
and you say, yes, I will take you
I will love you, again."

#TodaysPoem #poetry #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry
The Thing Is by Ellen Bass from Mules of Love (2002 BOA Editions) https://tinyurl.com/32k3jv7n

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"who am I to believe

I am separated from suffering?
With a blue attunement I resonate

my own small losses a string
that in sympathy quivers"

#TodaysPoem #poetry #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry
When the bough breaks you don't say a word by Ben Gallagher (2024 Opaat Press/@annickmacaskill) https://tinyurl.com/ys5tmayh

Handwritten transcription of the poem When the bough breaks you don't say a word by Ben Gallagher sits on a purple desktop with an uncapped pen resting on the notebook page and Airedale puppy Mavis looking on, with a bit of morning sun glancing off her cocked ears

bookgaga , 2 months ago to bookstodon group

"And that was the night they began to share dreams because that's what happens when you both know the weight of another's soul."

#SundaySentence @bookstodon
from A Year of Marvellous Ways by Sarah Winman (2015 @TinderPress) https://tinyurl.com/3wt4h5mz

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"And since I started listening to both sides without caring onto which side I fell
I found out that there were more than two sides if you really wanna know a subject well.
Which only led me to more heartbreak as I though about all the fights
That have been started by two sides and neither one of them was truly wrong or right"

#TodaysPoem #poetry #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry
Abe Partridge's 403d Freakout by Abe Partridge (2022) https://tinyurl.com/2vaaz6pz & https://tinyurl.com/mpfy3w38

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"if she picks up a package of beyond
meat or peanut butter fudge smoothies
by mistake (Never peanut butter fudge.
Fudge.) point her to the meadow
she's done"

#TodaysPoem #poetry #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry
The Business of Giving Your Heart or by Kirby from She (2024 knife fork book) https://tinyurl.com/bdfuj2tx

Handwritten transcription of the poem "The Business of Giving Your Heart or" from She by Kirby - the poetry collection is held open with a pink hand weight, an uncapped black pen rests on the notebook page, coffee in a blue cup and a vase of yellow tulips are nearby and a book cabinet is in the background
Close-up of a handwritten transcription of the poem "The Business of Giving Your Heart or" from She by Kirby, with an uncapped black pen resting on the notebook page

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"Haystacks, I need
the needle of queer

bees and queen
peace."

#TodaysPoem #poetry #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry
Let Me Go by Sid Ghosh (2024 Poetry Magazine) https://tinyurl.com/rjr3h9vv

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"It must be twilight,
must be the day when you fly home and find
me changed, not a bird at all, resentful,
unforgiving and unwinged, bird or no
bird, a shadow among others blooming
like disappointment out of the black wire."

#TodaysPoem #poetry #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry
A Bird in Blue by Meghan Kemp-Gee (2023 Frontier Poetry) https://tinyurl.com/yt7395fy

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"There’s nothing
for it but to stay on the train,
your hand straying toward the green
window, the fields beyond, imagining

flattening tall grasses in a meadow
to make a patch of sky above you."

#TodaysPoem #poetry #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry
Hypaethral by Dagne Forrest (2024 Pinhole Poetry) https://tinyurl.com/n8es98n6

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"he talks
blocks

of space
and

books of
time"

#TodaysPoem #poetry #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry
No Account Syllables by Norma Cole from Rainy Day (2024 knife fork book) https://tinyurl.com/ymruhvfv

Handwritten transcription under way of the poem "No Account Syllables" from Rainy Day by Norma Cole - the chapbook is held open with bright steel stapler and tape dispenser, an uncapped black pen rests on the notebook page
Close-up of a handwritten transcription of the poem "No Account Syllables" from Rainy Day by Norma Cole, with an uncapped black pen resting on the notebook page

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"Please, let there be a good
somewhere, in which a tree represents not
a country, a genocide, a ripe body,
but something holding up heavens
that I will never dream of understanding."

#TodaysPoem #poetry #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry
Against Beauty by Em Dial (2024 League of Canadian Poets) https://tinyurl.com/2znfevup

bookgaga , 2 months ago to bookstodon group

Our #SilentBookClub groups (east end and midtown #Toronto) enjoyed so much bookish goodness and togetherness - virtual and in-person - in the month of March that it spilled over into April! You can read all about it here: http://bookgagabooks.ca/2024/04/06/book-blurbs-and-blurbing-our-book-club/
@bookstodon

Silent book club member Estelle reads at a table at East Toronto Coffee Co - Coffee cups and a sign indicating the table is reserved for the book club are visible on the table.
Silent book club member Catherine, wearing a red Dr Pepper sweatshirt, reads at a table at East Toronto Coffee Co - Coffee cups and plates and a bookmark are visible on the table.
At East Toronto Coffee Co with books by Norma Cole, Joan Didion and Elena Ferrante on the wooden table, along with latte and cookie, ready for silent book club meeting

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"When I arrive back home, the dog is somehow standing on the bright green lawn, staring up at the full moon, panting quietly. This is the stillest I have ever seen him, and yet he gives the impression of being propelled forward into some great unknown, like the figurehead on the prow of an ancient ship."

#TodaysPoem #poetry #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry
from N12 by Emma Healey from Stereoblind (2018 House of Anansi Press) https://bit.ly/3OY1lUN

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"She left this morning, but first she did
the laundry. Put the note
where he’d see it, on the counter by the sink.

If, she said. People, she said."

#TodaysPoem #poetry #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry
Laundry by Anne Simpson (2015 The Litter I See Project) http://bit.ly/1HV5fb8

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"my phone
burps &
I suppress

the urge
to change
that word"

#TodaysPoem #poetry #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry
I Really Want to Love Everything, But by Nasser Hussain from Love Language (2023 Coach House Books) https://tinyurl.com/mr3u6w2y

Airedale youngster Mavis sits nearby while I transcribe poetry. She is sitting in her crate, on which is placed the sign "Pirate Cave - Keep Out!". She is sitting on a brown patterned dog mattress, holding her squeaky goose Gertrude.
Poetry collection Love Language by Nasser Hussain (Coach House Books) sits on a wooden dining room table with a notebook with an ornate green cover, coffee in a mug with a floral image and a black pen

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"when alone,
spelunkingly in
quire for wings to
fly with, to dive dive
dive with, to trysohardto
define"

#TodaysPoem #poetry #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry
Spelunk by Edie Reaney Chunn (2023 untethered magazine) https://tinyurl.com/yknp229b

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"How one knows
another well enough
to continue the dance, much less
the species, goes over my head.
But this is how love should be,
and also how love is. Beyond me."

#TodaysPoem #poetry #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry
Two White Moths by George Murray (@bookninja) (2023 Bad Lilies) https://tinyurl.com/262fz4t7

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"The drop off
the implausibly high fireman's pole / a gulp
of witches' brew, bittersweet. You got

up there ...!, the teacher yells"

#TodaysPoem #poetry #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry
Stranded on the Jungle Gym After Morning Bell in Kindergarten by Matthew Tierney from Lossless (2024 Coach House Books) https://tinyurl.com/43arrwxb

Holding the poetry collection Lossless by Matthew Tierney (Coach House Books) and looking down at my green mary jane shoes and blue and gray patterned socks, which sort of echo the pattern of the cover of the poetry collection

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"Foolish bird,
Do you think, because the rain's over
And the sun's in your eyes,
Summer's here again?"

#TodaysPoem #poetry #NationalPoetryMonth @poetry
Foolish Bird by Jewell Bothwell Tull (1922 Poetry Magazine) https://tinyurl.com/56dbtfyc

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"I say this now to remind myself how words can squirt sideways, mute and mad; you think they are tools, or toys, or tame, and all at once they burn all your clothes off and you're standing there singed and ridiculous in the glare of the lightning."

#SundaySentence (and bonus #TodaysPoem) @poetry
from Snow by Anne Carson from Wrong Norma (2024 New Directions) https://tinyurl.com/ejttaeus

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"It's too late
She's gone too far
She's lost the sun
She's come undone"

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
Undun by Randy Bachman / Guess Who (1969) https://tinyurl.com/yjmh3t39

... performed magnificently last night by the Trans Canada Highwaymen (Moe Berg, Chris Murphy, Craig Northey, Steven Page) at Toronto's Opera House

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"a movie's just bright things and dark things changing places"

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
What I Like About You, Baby by Anne Carson from Wrong Norma (2024 New Directions) https://tinyurl.com/ydu3neac

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"I had accepted nothing
would flourish there, but a miracle
of apples dressed the lesser branches,
this paragon of stunted trees
I'd obstinately planted.
I reached up and grabbed the fruit."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry @dogsofmastodon
Sestina at 48 by Alison Smith (2024 Opaat Press/@annickmacaskill) https://tinyurl.com/5n7u8epk

Another close-up of the handwritten transcription of Opaat Press poetry pamphlet Sestina at 48 by Alison Smith "I had accepted nothing would flourish there, but a miracle of apples dressed the lesser branches, this paragon of stunted trees I'd obstinately planted. I reached up and grabbed the fruit."
Handwritten transcription of Opaat Press poetry pamphlet Sestina at 48 by Alison Smith - the pamphlet is open on the table, showing the back/copyright information and line image of pine needles on the back, an uncapped black pen rests on the notebook page and coffee in a blue cup sits nearby
Close-up of the handwritten transcription of Opaat Press poetry pamphlet Sestina at 48 by Alison Smith "Nothing really stopped my trees. Miracles were slow, expertly planted. Deeper roots put fruit on the branches."

bookgaga , 2 months ago to poetry group

"we are in a boat
I am a crow
or I am a boy

with a crow head

& you are you
& you are
amazing like trees"

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
Crow Boatin' by Dalton Day (2014 One Throne Magazine) https://tinyurl.com/37futzt2

bookgaga , 3 months ago to poetry group

"The wound of the night, wrote Walser—the moon,
our beautiful word-wound. Shadow curve
of silver-white beyond grey ceiling."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
Sonohysterogram by Annick MacAskill (@annickmacaskill) (2024 Ex-Puritan) https://tinyurl.com/7frpdz7m

bookgaga , 3 months ago to poetry group

"Out of the eater came forth meat,
And out of the strong came forth sweetness."

Judges 14 (King James Version) https://www.bible.com/bible/1/JDG.14.KJV

#TodaysPoem #Poetry #VisualPoetry @poetry
Judges 14 by @AmandaEarl (2024 Ex-Puritan) https://ex-puritan.ca/judges-14

bookgaga , 3 months ago to poetry group

"For so many, the moon guides
our counting. Like a breath cycle
inside of us. Teshuvah. We must keep turning
in shadow and light, towards each other."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
Where We Are & Where We're Going by Samantha Sternberg (2024 Opaat Press/@annickmacaskill) https://tinyurl.com/2mxhy87h

Opaat Press poetry pamphlet Where We Are & Where We're Going by Samantha Sternberg sits on a wooden desktop
Close-up of the back/copyright information and line image of pine needles on the back of Opaat Press poetry pamphlet Where We Are & Where We're Going by Samantha Sternberg, sitting on a wooden desktop
Six Opaat Press poetry pamphlets arranged in two rows on wooden steps