Sean Howard : Three poems

 

 

sighting
 

merlin returns
as an app, tell-
ing us what
birds our
phones
are
look-
ing
at:
s-
harp-
shinned
hawk
,
there
now
.

  

 

Found Poems? (The Google Search for the Grail)

Welcome to the Monastery…
Tools for handling gesture recognition…
30th Birthday DISASTER!!! Review of Grail Springs Retreat… 

*

Grail Goes Global, Merges…
The Meaning in the Cambridge…
Might Surpass the Power of the Human Brain… 

*

A medical marijuana dispensary…
Passes early test in Quest…
Along with our popcorn and candy… 

* 

Grail on Launchpad…
A library which allows creation…
With the Crust of the Moon… 

* 

A key master machine…
Targeted to develop your novel…
Internationally inspired cuisine… 

*

Mimic the way the brain works…
Specially crafted for Your Body Shape…
The ruthlessly dedicated world…

 

  

shadowgraph 49: making manifest the tracks
(poetry detected in cecil powell’s nobel physics lecture, 1950) 

i

england –
thin rain from
the stars 

ii

‘man’s world’ –
light, god’s
come 

iii

historic reversal –
hiroshima, destiny
manifest 

iv

modern –
men distinguished
from themselves 

v 

overthrow –
earth from the
balloon 

vi

london, bristol –
‘results obtained
by V-2 rockets’ 

vii 

fall-out –
the counters
infected 

viii 

cogito –
ego
sum 

ix

lost track –
the angels’
flight 

x

‘coming soon’ –
men making light
of the world 

 

 

 

 

Sean Howard is the author of seven collections of poetry, six published by Gaspereau Press, most recently Overlays (2025). His award-winning poetry has been widely published in Canada and elsewhere, and featured in The Best of the Best Canadian Poetry in English (Tightrope Books, 2017). Sean is a peace researcher and activist, and adjunct professor of political science at Cape Breton University. He lives in the lobster-fishing village of Main-à-Dieu.

 

Sean Howard : Two poems

 

 

 

Poems (added to the Manchester Guardian, November 8, 1913)

 

DESTROYERS DAMAGED IN NIGHT EXERCISES IN THAMES ESTUARY
The Teviot’s Bows Were Damaged – The Dee Had a Rent Astern

M.P. AT WRONG MEETING
Fog Adding to Excitement at By-Election

MAD KING OTTO OF BAVARIA
Conversations with the Invisible

THE REIGN OF TERROR IN MACEDONIA
Servian Persecution – Worse than the Turks

*

Militarism’s same boat, the hard
on collision… (Elections? Politicians
closing in, descending…) Monarchy
mad, all kings talking to their
selves… Heaven scent?
Mosques, Cross
fire…

 

 

Woken Poems (from the Manchester Guardian, December 1, 1913)

 

MR. CHURCHILL AND NAVAL AVIATION
First Lord of the Admiralty Returns from Tour of Naval Flying School in Eastchurch
He Made Two Flights – He Slept Aboard the Enchantress

TROOPS CALLED OUT IN ALSACE
Strained Relations between German Garrison and People of Zabern
Old Grievance Leads to New Disorders – Kaiser Said to be Furious

CALL FOR PAUSE IN GERMAN ARMAMENT INCREASES
Baron von Hertling, Premier of Bavaria, says “people will not be able to bear any further burdens”

ARMAMENT EXPENDITURE
Protest by the Free Church Council – £45,000,000 Spent This Year
Four More Dreadnoughts, Costing £2,750,000 Each, To Be Laid Down in 1914-15
Speakers Criticise Mr. Churchill as “Unsafe Leader”

*

Safe hands? The sleepwalking Lord, quite enchanted… (Flight making
the return to Earth impossible?) Troops, people carried too far: rigid

ranks, disordered shadows. (Fit to burst, if the Kaiser increases
any more…) Iron Law: the path to war laid long

before…

 

 

 

 

Sean Howard is the author of seven collections of poetry, most recently Overlays: Scored Poems (Gaspereau Press, 2025). His poetry has been widely published in Canada, the US, UK, and elsewhere, and featured in The Best of the Best Canadian Poetry in English (Tightrope Books, 2017).