The poem beginning “the hardest part is knowing,” reveals the shame of all educated feminists who remain victims of themselves: that struggle between the intellect knowing better and the body self-destructing at the hands of learned behaviors. She writes “at the end of the day / ––theory fails / to account for disjunction / between bodily urges and / rational thought.”
Read MoreIf you attended our Secrets launch you may have indulged our call for confessions and left a secret or two behind for us to peruse. Some secrets appeared on our Instagram before we passed them on to Curtis AuCoin, who turned them into a poem. Here's the result, accompanied by images from AuCoin's series "What's Personal, What's Secret."
Read More"So began my search for Jean Armour. Over the next couple of years I read many biographies about Burns as well as his extensive collections of letters, poems, and songs, trying to piece together a picture of Jean from the fragments written about her. She emerged as a footnote in the life of the poet, a blurry image that wouldn’t come into focus, a stereotype of the devoted, long-suffering wife."
Read More"We also see a distorted concept of loyalty in intimate groups, in families, cliques and communities. For example, one person might break up with their girlfriend, and expect their friends to be mean to their girlfriend. But in fact that’s the opposite of loyalty—real friendship and real loyalty and love means helping people negotiate and helping people be self-critical. The problem now is that we have a very high bar that must be reached to be eligible for compassion."
Read More"We both had experiences where I’d go into a music store or a video store when I was younger and I was really excited about something. I’d bring it up to the counter and I’d be vibrating with excitement cause it was that cool and then I’d just get a ton of shade. We were like “I don’t wanna replicate that experience.” We wanna try to do something different and we try to be low-key."
Read MoreI love the worlds we build with other people through language—how letters, poems, text messages, emails are not only evidence of our rapports, but they also actively shape them. Each relationship has its own vocabulary and texture and I like to think epistolary poems allow me to pay tribute to those idiosyncrasies. It’s also a way to conjure the addressee; it creates a wormhole that doesn’t exactly bring that person closer, but it does bring into relief that realm you’ve created together.
Read MoreRead Local BC is back again this year—and if you haven’t yet heard about this initiative spearheaded by the Association of Book Publishers of BC—then clear your calendar from now 'til November 7th.
Read More“Stevie chewed on her straw and peered up at the stage through her long bangs. “Look at the saliva,” she said. “It's free-flowing.” // “No regrets,” I said. “YOLO, or whatever.” // “Oh, to be loved like that,” said Stevie. “Not.”// This was a last minute New Year’s plan.”
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