 Consumed World 2, 2019  Disturbed Grounds, 2019  Natural Selection and the Universe, 2019  Silent Healing 9, 2019 Marco Reiter is an artist whose works include photography, sculpture and installation art. His mixed-media assemblages combine photographic images with wood, metal, and discarded materials. A long-time meditation student, Marco’s work is contemplative, and explores ideas around transformation, healing, and interconnection, often relating to human relations with the natural world, and ecology. As a lifelong “maker”—he’s been a carpenter for more than 16 years—Marco embraces building as a mode of expression. His photography has been exhibited in Toronto and Kingston and featured in such publications as The New Quarterly and The Animal Game (Tightrope Books).
Website: MarcoReiter.com HALFLING BEAR (ECLIPSE) the trophy hunter has it the scientists & the media celebrate, debate, discuss photos of the corpse fly all around the world & linger for years the miracle of courtship alignment sought & found the passing of a honeymoon the wonder of apparent difference transcended with pleasure the private rendezvous of polar bear & grizzly, followed by months of solitary gestation of nurturing, nursing feeding teaching the young all the years of a young bear’s life discoveries, missteps, accomplishments the cultural patterning inhabited, as taught by the mother & the world met, step by step all these disappear into bloodlust & big money dna proofs & a too small sample the death of a halfling bear reveals the minds of scientific observers & all forms of prejudice: miscegenation still, so scandalous this is not a freakshow but evidence of life unfolding & showing its shape as it goes the elders say, usually they fight but not this time "halfling bear(eclipse)" originally published in Halfling Spring: an internet romance (Kegedonce Press 2013) Joanne Arnott is a Métis/mixed-blood writer and arts activist, originally from Manitoba, at home on the west coast. She received the Gerald Lampert Award (LCP 1992) and the Vancouver Mayor’s Art Award for Literary Arts (2017). She published six poetry books, a collection of short nonfiction and a children’s illustrated. Recent publications include her third poetry chapbook, Pensive & beyond (Nomados Press 2019) and the co-edited volume, Honouring the Strength of Indian Women: Plays, Stories and Poetry by Vera Manuel (U of Manitoba Press 2019). She is Poetry Mentor for The Writers Studio, SFU, and Poetry Editor for EVENT Magazine.
TREE SKETCHES  Silver Maple. Acer sacchcirinum. 45 min. 23.05.16  Weeping Willow. Salix babylonica. 90 min. 25.05.16  Scotch Elm. Ulmas glabra. 20 min. 03.06.16  Tea Crabapple. Malus hupehensis. 45 min. 11.06.16  Cucumber Magnolia. Magnolia acuminate. 180 min. 12.06.16 Tree Sketches were each composed by a different species of tree. As a writer, connected to story, I felt it a salient action in this time of environmental crisis to step back and listen to the subjects I might otherwise have written over.
Each caption includes the species of trees, both common and Latin names, as well as the duration and date of each composition. Tree Sketches # 1 & 3 were originally published by The Blasted Tree in 2017 as a series of broadsides, while the remaining works are presented on its website, all of them presented under the title The Sign of Poetry. Sacha Archer is a writer who works in numerous mediums as well as being the editor of Simulacrum Press. Archer’s most recent publications include Inkwells: An Event Poem (Noir:Z, 2019), TSK oomph (Inspiritus Press, 2018) and Contemporary Meat (The Blasted Tree, 2018). Houses (No Press), Framing Poems and Mother’s Milk (both Timglaset) are forthcoming. Archer lives in Burlington, Ontario with his wife and two daughters. https://www.instagram.com/sachaarcher/ https://www.facebook.com/sacha.archer https://sachaarcher.wordpress.com READING THE MURMURATIONS In the end times, they say, the birds might silence themselves, drop feathers as hints, molt at odd times, and mate with their fiercest rivals. But the days will arrive without warning– no bells rung with symbolism, no trumpet voluntary flourish, no drums rolling attendant. They will have already arrived, these muted and too quiet days, dressed in common clothing and pretending to fit in– silencing mothers and lovers as they come, trailing catastrophe in their muddied wake. Kim Fahner was the fourth poet laureate for the City of Greater Sudbury (2016-18), and was the first woman appointed to the role. Her latest book of poems is These Wings (Pedlar Press, 2019). She is a member of the League of Canadian Poets, the Writers’ Union of Canada, and a supporting member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada. Kim blogs fairly regularly at kimfahner.wordpress.com and can be reached via her author website at www.kimfahner.com
to cope it’s all unseasonal rains winter in the Great Lakes these days in niibin the boreal is ablaze the amazon and outback aflame increasing tsunamis and earthquakes and all we can do is yell CLIMATE CHANGE what else do we say? while the US keeps taking brown babies away numbered like the West Bank Bantustans Japanese internment camps Auschwitz the Indian act our migration routes are older than your borders we have cultural items older than your legal orders this is natural law renaissance embodying ancestors’ excellence bringing land back on ready when RCMP attack Unist’ot’en bimaadiziwin resistance is a way of living Sâkihitowin Awâsis is a Michif Anishinaabe two-spirit water protector, geographer, and spoken word artist from the pine marten clan. She has contributed poetry to Forever Loved: Exposing the Hidden Crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada, Red Rising Magazine, kimiwan ‘zine, and Introducing Atrocities Against Indigenous Canadians for Dummies. She is continually inspired by acts of decolonization, Indigenous resurgence, and community resistance. Follow @awan.ikwe.
SCREAMING INTO A PIANO … The pictures captured a mood of as much astonishment as joy; it was as if the delegates could not quite believe they had succeeded in reaching an agreement of such significance. - Amitav Ghosh Recalling decision 1 / CP.17 on the establishment of a room wide enough to hold your imagining. Like the moon fallen onto the field, new & mistaken by my aunt for a spaceship. Also recalling relevant decisions to respond to everything by screaming. Rain lines. Parts per million diluted light. Each acre along this river & if there are still children blowing tufts int o forg iv e n e s s Welcoming the adoption of planned repairs for the south entrance north alley west gate. Recognizing that even in crossing towards it I would stubbornly remain a parallel incident. Reimagining no one there. Back bicycle wheel spinning hillside. Throwing the moon. Acknowledging that agreeing to uphold & promote revisions ought to be enough this time. Singing. "Screaming into a Piano" previously appeared in a chapbook Night Leaves Nothing New (Baseline Press Oct 2019) Emily Lu earned her B.Sc. at the University of Toronto and her M.D. at Queen’s University. Currently completing her postgraduate training in psychiatry, she lives in London, Ontario. Night Leaves Nothing New (Baseline Press) is her first chapbook.
Carleigh Baker is an nêhiyaw âpihtawikosisân /Icelandic writer who lives as a guest on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, and səl̓ilwəta peoples. Her work has appeared in Best Canadian Essays, The Short Story Advent Calendar, and The Journey Prize Stories. She also writes reviews for the Globe and Mail and the Literary Review of Canada. Her debut story collection, Bad Endings (Anvil, 2017) won the City of Vancouver Book Award, and was also a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Emerging Indigenous Voices Award for fiction, and the BC Book Prize Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award. She is the 2019/20 writer in residence and a 2020 Shadbolt fellow in the humanities at Simon Fraser University.
   “Wailsong 4 Sydney” collects instances of a novel form of found poetry that I call the amput(ransl)ation. First, a random string of alphanumeric characters is typed by hand into Google translate, which misinterprets this string as a legitimate entry in one or another language (often, but not always, recognizing it as Arabic script). Then, one or more characters are iteratively excised from the string, producing a descending sequence of alternate translations, until not much more than a stump is left. While perusing this form, on January 10th, 2020, in the midst of the Australian bushfire crisis, I happened upon a sequence that spoke of Sydney, Australia, of greenness and heat, of smoke, and of payment. Delving a bit deeper, I identified the sequence in question, and explored various permutations of both the string and the type and order of character excisement, ultimately producing this sequence of found poetry, which serves as a dirgesong for the bushfire crisis currently underway in Australia. It is typeset here in Australia, an open-source typeface designed by Denver Ross that "takes inspiration from the arches of the Sydney Opera House to the waves of Bondi Beach." Franco Cortese is an experimental poet living in Thorold, Ontario. His poetry was longlisted for the 2019 CBC Poetry Prize and has appeared in Literary Review of Canada, The Malahat Review, Canadian Literature, The Capilano Review, filling Station, ditch, and others. His recent chapbooks include aeiou (No Press 2018), uoiea (above/ground press 2019), and teksker (Simulacrum Press 2019). He also has leaflets, booklets and other poetic ephemera out through The Blasted Tree, Penteract Press, and Spacecraft Press. His work has been published both within Canada and internationally, and has been anthologized in Concrete and Constraint (Penteract Press 2018) and Science Poems (Penteract Press 2020).
TWO POEMS BY STEVE MCORMOND DARK CLOUDS (ANOTHER APOCALYPSE) The clouds rolled in and never left. Lightning in them but no rain. Life, as Auden observed, went on disinterestedly. There was the tuna casserole to keep from burning, the dog whimpering to be let out. Panels of experts convened on TV to discuss the subterranean rumblings, the preponderance of messianic cults. We perked up at the gory bits, the jumpers and self-immolations, rituals involving goat’s blood. Accustomed to instant gratification, we wanted our apocalypse now. How many times could we say goodbye before we grew bored, turned a blind eye? We had fetishes to attend to, money to make and spend. Years since we’d seen the stars, they ceased to cross our minds. No, never any rain. ENVOI What advice can I give, my fledglings, my little vanishings, as you pack your things and prepare to leave? Everything is fine, the sky has been falling a long time. My wisdom in short supply, these words must seem vague and kitschy like the Lord’s Prayer painted on a grain of rice. Already you are better than me. Each generation is and should be incomprehensible to its parents. We will want to go quietly. Don’t let our grey hair keep you from meting out the judgment we’re due. Love immoderately and permit yourselves rage. Anger makes things happen. The mob is gospel. And to those who claim it couldn’t be stopped: At every point along its path, the arrow is still. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS "Dark Clouds (Another Apocalypse)" and "Envoi" from The Good News about Armageddon (Brick Books, 2010). Steve McOrmond is the author of four books of poetry, most recently Reckon (Brick Books, 2018). He lives in Toronto. www.stevemcormond.com I NEVER GOT OVER 60 LIKES O, darlin’s When hasn’t life been expendable? Another train departs tossed on a heap of disposables Cell phones plastics mountains There is no law Only the monied This too shall pass We already know the ending We’ve seen it Left before the credits “I didn’t think it would be such a downer.” “This sucks, let’s leave.” “Why did you unfollow me?” “You unfriended me bitch” Like that’s the end of the world. Just one click In a darkened theatre We stay to the bitter end The price of the ticket To see what might happen Any surprises plot twists “I didn’t see that one coming” “I did.” The oldies the goodies The good guys show up Oft times even only one To set the captives free To take down the evil ones Shot in glorious black and white Light projected a fresh stream the cup of one’s hands When there was free water to drink “Can I have a glass of water?” “Water some water please” “My daughter needs some water.” You only think you’re tired The entire tired sick fucking world is It sucks to be tired tired of this all of this Maybe I’ll message Christopher See if they’re tired, too. KIRBY’s earlier chapbooks include Cock & Soul, Bob’s boy, The World is Fucked and Sometimes Beautiful, and She’s Having A Doris Day. Their full-length debut, This Is Where I Get Off is now in its second printing (Permanent Sleep Press, 2019) and currently being adapted for the stage. Kirby is the owner and publisher of knife | fork | book. www.jeffkirby.ca
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AboutAn anthology of creative works devoted to the climate crisis and climate justice.
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