EXCERPT

5.

Blackbeard buried $2,000 in casks
near the Boca Raton Inlet. One of many,

millions. Waves.

Rare Spanish coins have washed up, beached.

Lifeguard chalks up daily wave heights, warnings,
Man-o-War. Aquamarine: a swollen,

floating death.

6.
St. Augustine. The line returns, becomes
a closed form, shaped. Adheres to origins,

retires. Palm trees equidistant,
portioned. A tonal lilt, the gilded

Spanish tongue.

 

ABOUT THE POET

Born in Ottawa, Canada’s glorious capital city, rob mclennan currently lives in Ottawa. The author of nearly thirty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, he won the John Newlove Poetry Award in 2010, the Council for the Arts in Ottawa Mid-Career Award in 2014, and was longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize in 2012. His most recent titles include notes and dispatches: essays (Insomniac press, 2014, The Uncertainty Principle: stories, (Chaudiere Books, 2014) and the poetry collection If suppose we are a fragment (BuschekBooks, 2014). He spent the 2007-8 academic year in Edmonton as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta, and regularly posts reviews, essays, interviews and other notices at robmclennan.blogspot.com.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Maralena Howard is a painter, mixed media artist and writer. Her focuses on abstract and minimalist subjects are prominent. Of her work, Maralena states, “I celebrate the complex nature of detailed simplicity. Capture. Repossess. Release. In each piece, there is liberation.”

"Facing the Edge of Eternity,” acrylic/mixed media painting, 20 x 30 inches, by Maralena Howard.