Ballad of the Picton Castle

I'm pleased to report that my poem, Ballad of the Picton Castle, has been chosen as one of The Rotary Dial's best poems of 2015.

It can be found on pages 14 through 17 HERE.

Thanks, Pino and Alexandra!

Jugando a cunas y tumbas: "Único poema" de María Eugenia Vaz Ferreira

María Eugenia Vaz Ferreira, one of the greatest Latin American poets of all time, at first did not want this poem to be included in her collection, La isla de los cánticos, because, as she told her brother, "no one would understand it".

Único poema

Mar sin nombre y sin orillas,
soñé con un mar inmenso,
que era infinito y arcano
como el espacio de los tiempos.

Daba máquina a sus olas,
vieja madre de la vida,
la muerte, y ellas cesaban
a la vez que renacían.

¡Cuánto hacer y morir
dentro la muerte inmortal!
Jugando a cunas y tumbas
estaba la Soledad…

De pronto un pájaro errante
cruzó la extensión marina;
“Chojé… Chojé…” repitiendo
su quejosa marcha iba.

Sepultóse en lontananza
goteando “Chojé… Chojé…”;
desperté, y sobre las olas
me eché a volar otra vez.


--- María Eugenia Vaz Ferreira

"from Leaden Sieves --- "

First snow of the season, Saint-Lazare, Québec. photo by Catherine Chandler

It sifts from Leaden Sieves - (311) Emily Dickinson, 1830 - 1886   It sifts from Leaden Sieves - It powders all the Wood. It fills with Alabaster Wool The Wrinkles of the Road - It makes an Even Face Of Mountain, and of Plain - Unbroken Forehead from the East Unto the East again - It reaches to the Fence - It wraps it Rail by Rail Till it is lost in Fleeces - It deals Celestial Vail To Stump, and Stack - and Stem - A Summer’s empty Room - Acres of Joints, where Harvests were, Recordless, but for them - It Ruffles Wrists of Posts As Ankles of a Queen - Then stills its Artisans - like Ghosts - Denying they have been -