Natalee Caple : Hello, you've reached 1994. I'm unable to reach you unable to remember what I was trying to say. Please leave a message for me please don’t say, goodbye for now.

 

 

 

I thought I thought a waste a curtain in front of something I wanted to write 

I was going to phone and say no one owns the water friend to my way of thinking you would answer me beautiful astronaut sure sure we look older but answering doesn’t cost a dime don’t laugh but I remember you saying when I was sad as we kissed goodbye what a lovely kiss and I said tell everyone Gosh I think I’m drunk again! I want to be drunk again all of us in a living room a room where we are all alive

Hello those you awhile bereaved Hello daughters and lovers Hello wife and friends Hello

Black curls black irises insomnia guitars sunflowers chili

What if I keep saying bastard, is that a spell? Please don't cut me off by dying leave a voice in the void to stall goodbye 

Fuck nature & nature poems find signals on impossible winds keep from disconnecting right now cause it’s not time for you I'm screening memories in a factory and waiting up for an explanation 

 

                                                                 for Steven Heighton (1961-2022)

 

Natalee Caple is the author of nine books of poetry and fiction. Her latest book of poetry, Love in the Chthulucene/Cthulhucene was published by Wolsak and Wynn in Spring 2019. Natalee is an associate professor at Brock University.

Emily Izsak, Adam Clay, émilie kneifel, Chris Johnson + Natalee Caple : virtual reading series #4

a series of video recordings of contemporary poets reading from their work, prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent cancellations, shut-downs and isolations; a reading series you can enjoy in the safety of your own protected space,

Emily Izsak : from Never Have I Ever (“Been Drunk,” “Split a Sundae with Frank O’Hara,” and “Cried Over Mini-Golf”)

Emily Izsak is the author of Whistle Stops: A Locomotive Serial Poem (Signature Editions, 2017), Twenty Five (above/ground press, 2018) and Stickup (shuffaloff/Eternal Network, 2015). Her work has been published in Arc Poetry Magazine, The Puritan, House Organ, Cough, CV2, The Doris, and The Hart House Review. In 2014 she was selected as PEN Canada’s New Voices Award nominee. Emily currently writes clickbait so she can afford rent in Toronto. She also married a doctor, so that helps.

Adam Clay : “Only Child (III)”

Adam Clay is the author of To Make Room for the Sea (Milkweed Editions, 2020), Stranger (Milkweed Editions, 2016), A Hotel Lobby at the Edge of the World (Milkweed Editions, 2012), and The Wash (Parlor Press, 2006). His poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Denver Quarterly, Tin House, Bennington Review, Georgia Review, Boston Review, jubilat, Iowa Review, The Pinch, and elsewhere. He is editor-in-chief of Mississippi Review, a co-editor of Typo Magazine, and a Book Review Editor for Kenyon Review. He directs the Center for Writers at the University of Southern Mississippi.

émilie kneifel : “grocery story” previously published in Lighthouse Journal, “<3” previously published in Unbroken

émilie kneifel is a sick fish, goo fish, they fish, blue fish (critic, poet, editor, and co-creator of playd8s, a show for you if you need it). find 'em at emiliekneifel.com, @emiliekneifel, and in Tiohtiáke, hopping and hoping

Chris Johnson : “Social Media” (battleaxe press broadside, 2016), “Without Discrimination” from Phyllis, I have never spoke your name (In/Words Press, 2013)

Chris Johnson is the Managing Editor for Arc Poetry Magazine. He currently lives in Ottawa, which is located on unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe Nation. His recent chapbooks include Listen, Partisan! (Frog Hollow Press, 2016) and Gravenhurst (above/ground press, 2019). @ceeeejohnson

Natalee Caple : “So Far”

Natalee Caple is the author of nine books of poetry and fiction. Her work has been nominated for the KM Hunter Award, the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award, the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award, the ReLit Award and the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. Her latest novel, In Calamity’s Wake, was published in Canada by HarperCollins and in the US by Bloomsbury. The novel in translation was published by Boréal and has been sold separately for publication in France. Her latest book of poetry, Love in the Chthulucene (Cthulhucene) is published by Wolsak and Wynn. Natalee is an associate professor at Brock University.