Poetry & Anthologies
Mangata (Moonroad)
You remember how the river shone
in summer, a road of light,
there, beneath the willows
on the banks, you sat down.
Later, in the saturnine shade
you wept, only after you were able
to return, after every burnt stone
was overturned, from the rubble
the old city rebuilt, your life
reassembled by many children.
There are no words in your tongue
for such a radiant mourning.
Joy and dolor are an elision of the heart,
heart and tongue, each organ and muscle.
To live again, not just endure, requires strength,
you must have known this those nights
as you stood on the bow,
following the moonroad over the water.
Every Heart
The maps have been redrawn and the roads
are filled again with refugees.
Have you not heard?
Even the stones listen,
hold each footstep.
Heartbeats
return to the earth, engraved
on stone, touched with fingertips
of memory. Cobbled roads
are lined with linden trees, yellow
with blossoms in summer. Their lingering
scent draws the bees, flavors the honey. August breeze through withered grass,
the river’s pull. Each is a longing.
Do you not know?
The body is at once matter and light,
the firmament
without border. Separation
displaces the earth, and every heart
is drawn to love, but like a refugee.
Even the dust
of stars makes its way home to the body,
and the planets gather in their house
when a woman gives birth.Other Poetry Publications
Narrow Passageway
Poetry collection published by the Alfred Gustav Press in Vancouver, 2017.
Following the Moon Road
Commissioned poetry for a choral work, choir and cello, by Canadian composer Christine Donkin and performed by the Da Capo Chamber Choir, directed by Leonard Enns, world premier March 2019. Texts by Connie T. Braun, George Elliott Clarke and Lozan Yomalky
The Sun in the Twelfth House
A suite of poems, Alfred Gustav Press, Vancouver, 2020.
UnSpoken: An Inheritance of Words
Poetry collection Fern Hill Publications, Vancouver, Limited edition, 2016, 2nd edition 2019.
Poland Parables
A collaboration of poetry and musical composition for mezzo soprano, piano, and cello with Canadian composer Carol Ann Weaver.
