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Tag: Poetry

Poem: There’s a thread runs through everything

Posted on January 27, 2012October 17, 2022 by David Barker

There’s a thread runs through everythingand a seamstress with a camel the sizeof a needle’s eye, though it’s not the eyethat worries me, but the other end,a steel point that runs me throughlike the pin the entomologists useto fix their bugs to the mounting board.The Fates don’t clip the thread, you know.Whoever said that was…

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Poem: Thanks a shitload, Karen Armstrong

Posted on January 13, 2012October 17, 2022 by David Barker

This is a poetic response to some passages I read in The Spiral Staircase: My Climb out of Darkness, a memoir by Karen Armstrong.

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10 Reasons to Like Li’l Bastard by David McGimpsey

Posted on January 12, 2012October 17, 2022 by David Barker

And by “Like” I mean “Like” as in feel great affection or affinity for, as opposed to “Like” as in click an up-turned thumb on a Facebook page.

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Darkling – An Experimental Opera by Anna Rabinowitz and Stefan Weisman

Posted on January 9, 2012October 17, 2022 by David Barker

Anna Rabinowitz, whose poetry I have reviewed here and here, has collaborated with composer, Stefan Weisman, to create what they describe as an “experimental opera – theatre work” called Darklingwhich they have released as a two-CD recording from Albany Records.

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Poem: The well-oiled pistons of the juggernaut

Posted on November 9, 2011October 17, 2022 by David Barker

Have you heard the news? Publishers Weekly reports that a Japanese insurance company purchased Toronto-based ebook seller, Kobo, for $315 million dollars.

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Poetry in the Afterlife

Posted on November 8, 2011October 17, 2022 by David Barker

I dreamt I died and went to heaven. When I got there, they told me there was no such thing as print media. They said: books are physical things, but we, as incorporeal spirit beings, have no fingers to turn the pages.

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Two Poems for a Wednesday Afternoon

Posted on October 19, 2011October 17, 2022 by David Barker

Half-choked Blooms I give my best to the morningand the balance to the afternoonin the half-choked blooms of the rosesand the thorny brambles of a dying quince. Profile of a Poet i used to worship in a churchbut the air was stale and deadi slunked away an outsidernot meek not powerfulan inheritor of nothingthen to…

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Vancouver is a Strange Place

Posted on October 5, 2011October 17, 2022 by David Barker

After a month of driving to from in and around western Canada, I’m wondering what to do next. While on the road, I did as I intended, writing poems as I went. Maybe not as many poems as I would have liked, but enough that I have the raw material for a chapbook.

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Poem: Back by Popular Demand

Posted on October 1, 2011October 17, 2022 by David Barker

what a fucked up thingto nail Jesus Is Coming to a treebeside a highway in north ontarioa via dolorosa which is latinfor road through the middle of nowhereand prompts an eternal question:if a soul declares its christin a forest and there is no GODto hear it…a tree-spiking evangelist isno concern of mine no soulsharmed in…

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Poem: The Canadian Museum for Human Rights

Posted on September 29, 2011October 17, 2022 by David Barker

there’s a path in The Forks where we stumbled on a humble little man dressed in a loincloth and armed with a walking stick a strange sight in Winnipeg though less strange if we had stumbled on him in wintertime we would have figured the cold froze him solid instead of the rabid pack of…

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Poem: The Legend of Lanigan

Posted on September 28, 2011October 17, 2022 by David Barker

as we drive into Laniganpopulation next to nothinga pull out and a signand on the sign a mapand above the map in bold-faced caps the word LEGENDI’m not thinking cartographyand imagine a bright marqueeflashing The Legend of Laniganlike The Legend of Zeldaevery place has its legendhere we see its traceshere the dusty gravel roadshere the…

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Poem: Boring

Posted on September 28, 2011October 17, 2022 by David Barker

I hate to drive through the prairies.It’s boring. It all looks the same.I love to shop at Wal*Mart.All across this great country,Wal*Mart is the place for me. (if performed, this verse should be repeated at least 300 times, once for each Wal*Mart in the country) Download the complete collection of poems and accompanying photographs as…

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Poem: West Edmonton Mall

Posted on September 27, 2011October 17, 2022 by David Barker

Imagine our world is dying. Imagine survival depends on journeys to distant suns settling strange planets colonists voyaging for generations whirling in cigar-shaped tubes tribes of ten thousand adrift between the stars. Now imagine these crafts of our salvation are designed by the Ghermezian brothers: worlds of endless shopping salted by breaks in water parks,…

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Poem: The Wildest Thing

Posted on September 25, 2011October 17, 2022 by David Barker

What was the wildest thing you saw in all of wild Canada? Was it the roaring waters of Rearguard Falls? Or the black bear swimming across Mud Lake? Or the pine beetle chewing its way down the North Thompson River Valley? Or the protesters haranguing politicians on the steps of the Victoria Legislature? Or the…

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Poem: Economic Action Plan

Posted on September 24, 2011October 17, 2022 by David Barker

self-congratulating signslitter roadsides allacross the countryharper masturbatingon our shoulderswhat a good boy am itearing down mountainsraising up valleyswrapping ribbons of highwayaround the nationknotting a tight bowlike mickey mouse earsa great big beautiful packagethree lanes each waysquirting goods from a to bk y gel efficiencybut nowherenot a single stopno pull out rest areaplace to stretch and…

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