she wanders
through Westmount
her red cloak undone
in order to meet
the wolf
she admires
her own reflection
between dead
leaves in the puddles
along the way to another
young poet’s walk up
she is a beautiful liar
who sleeps with handsome
award-winners but never
returns their texts
poetry is fleeting,
she writes on paper
airplanes made of the pages
of their latest collections
she folds meticulously
before setting on fire
and flying them off
the balcony of her
19th floor apartment
aflame the plane
of poetry swoops
low, singeing the
ear hairs of formerly
dapper rogues sitting
in parks and listening
to Leonard Cohen
there’s a wisecrack
in everything, that’s how
the blight gets in, the frog
croaks
Questions and Answers
How/where do you find inspiration today?
I find inspiration by paying close attention to people, events and things in the natural world and humanity. I am inspired not just by contemporary news and circumstances, but also by history, art, literature, music, film and theatre.
As a published writer, what are your tips or words of motivation for the aspiring poet?
Read and watch and listen. If you are writing contemporary poetry, read contemporary poetry. Be part of your community. Take workshops. Share your work with others. Gain feedback. After you’ve taken some workshops, self-publish: make chapbooks and zines. Exchange them with friends and peers. Start your own small press or online or print magazine. Publish others. The more engaged you are in the world, the more you can accomplish, the more creative you become.
What inspired or motivated you to write this poem?
Leonard Cohen had just died. Donald Trump had just been elected as the President of the USA. I had just returned from a wonderful reading in Montreal where I was one of the featured readers and also a member of the audience and heard excellent poetry. I was wearing burgundy, which made me think of Little Red Riding Hood’s cloak and the typical tropes of the powerless woman. I wanted to deconstruct, critique this notion in a playful way. I engage often with fairy tales and their contemporary retellings.