Below the Bluffs
Below the bluffs
where the streetcar
tracks end
we wash our feet
in Lake Ontario's
grimy wavelets
gently toe
the wealth of
muti-coloured fragments
time-polished
from shattered
beer bottles
This is one of the small joys of being a poet, rediscovering a long forgotten poem in an old chapbook. I'm unloading packets of small press poetry chapbooks from the boxes which fill my front porch and basement. Thank God for new small press enthusiasts like James, the owner of The Printed Word bookstore in Dundas, Ontario. In a phone chat a few weeks ago James proclaimed his love of poetry, especially Canadian poetry. Most poetry fans stick with the mainstream poets, the sort of famous ones like Al Purdy. But a few devotees veer off the beaten track to discover the work of lesser known (e.g. publicized) Canadian poets like jones and Shaunt Basmajian.
The packet I mailed James two days ago contained a small poetry anthology published by Mark McCawley with his Greensleeves Press. The other chapbook I sent was my own collection, Unacknowledged Legislator, kindly published by small press godfather bill bissett in 1981 with his alternative blewointmentpress. Yeah, this is a minor "filler" poem, but it was fun to find a piece I'd long forgotten I'd written, and a very good friend is a beach glass collector who I hope will enjoy reading it.
In conversation with James I learned that he admires several of the poets I published with my small Unfinished Monument Press, esp. Shaunt and jones (Daniel). Apparently jones's writing has achieved a cult following in CanLit, and perhaps Shaunt's work as well. While preparing today's packet I started re-reading Shaunt's poetry, and tomorrow I'll post one of his excellent poems from Surplus Waste and Other Poems.
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