SUSAN GILLIS

Read David O'Meara's poem "Days"

Sheri Benning kindly shared this excerpt from her stirring and gorgeous  Field Requiem,  a book that has been on my "currently reading" stack for many months now. This image by Heather Benning is one of several that mark the places Benning sings to. Click here to read three poems from the section "Let Them Rest"  at Concrete & River.

I'm delighted to be part of this creative collaboration with my friend, artist and ceramics maker Susie Osler. Have a look at our bookmarks project, available now in our little corner of eastern Ontario and online MIND (2022) BLOOM (2021) Bookmarks by SGSO Slide a splash of colour and an effervescent poem into the pages of your books! Three different images are paired with three different micro-poems. With room for notes - because if you're like us, dear reader, you love to make notes! Now available in sets of 3, the series BLOOM (2021) and MIND (2022). Each set includes all three designs in the series. The first creative collaboration from SGSO , poet Susan Gillis and artist Susie Osler. Each bookmark pairs an evocative poem by Susan with a painting (reproduction) by Susie. Bookmarks measure 2.1 in x 7.5 in $ 10/set of 3 Order online  here  or send us an email <sgsomade[at]gmail[dot]com Questions? Comments? We love hearing from you! 

       Often near our house I find papery chunks of abandoned wasps' nests, fallen from under the eaves. Photo by Adrian van Leen /freeimages I keep thinking about reiteration and recursion in poems and groups of poems. (Right?) So when I came across this Rumpus interview with Kaveh Akbar about his new book Pilgrim Bell , it made sense to pause and listen. The whole book is really interested in recursion, recursive forms. I read the line in a Hadith about the prophet receiving revelation “like the ringing of a bell” and it blew my mind. And, the idea of the bell as a spiritual technology powered by the human form (someone has to pull the rope, which often literally lifts that person in the air, maybe almost too on the nose, that) is so akin to poetry, to me. A spiritual technology powered by the human body (lungs/breath/voice/tongue/ocular muscles across the page/fingers across the Braille, etc). Repeating titles: it’s iterative, recursive. Also, nerdily: Islamic architect

First we delayed a few months. Then we delayed a year. Then we thought, let's just read and talk poetry on Zoom! So we did. It's grainy, it's messy, it's warm, and I hope you'll listen in. Thanks to Poetry London for including Mary di Michele and me in this remarkable series. On Wed June 30, we'll launch the long-awaited video collaboration of @marydimichele & @GillisSusan , including work by @Yokosdogs ! Local Openers #MichelleArnett & #MicheleNicole YouTube Event 7:00pm ET Zoom Workshop 6:00pm Join us for great online #poetry ! #ldnont pic.twitter.com/2wywVAkxau — Poetry London (@poetrylondon_ca) June 23, 2021  image: pre-pandemic reading with Yoko's Dogs at Knife Fork Book in Toronto

Resistance: Righteous Rage in the Age of #MeToo , edited by Sue Goyette. University of Regina Press, 2021 Sue Goyette's sensitive and uncompromising foreword is a necessary guide through this anthology of poems that take on, and take up, the subject of sexual assault and abuse. The presence of care and commitment, Goyette's and all the participants', is felt on every page. Four sections track increasing intensity: Innocence/Exposure; Endurance/Persistence; Rage/Resistance; and arrive at an unsettled rest: Survival/Recovery. Variations of Ren é e Munn's arresting cover image, "Ophelia," make striking section markers. Poems that open a world to me include Catherine Greenwood's "Black Plums," a chilling revision of the nursery rhyme about Little Jack Horner; Eleonore Schönmaier’s "Sixteen," in which two voices meet "on the narrow rocky trail;" Byrna Barclay's clear-eyed "Birdman," which watches an exterminator rid