semicolon

A poem of mine will appear in semicolon, a Montreal/Toronto based zine (ed. Daniel Morley Johnson) whose featured writer will be Stephen Michael Berzensky (AKA Mick Burrs), a poet I very much respect, as well as, it so happens, like personally. We got to know each other when he took one of my poems for Grain muchas moons ago (i.e. 1988) when he was at the helm of that magazine. He actually pencilled in some editorial suggestions which lead to quite an exchange of letters on the aesthetics of a few phrases... eventually I agreed with his suggestions (mostly cuts, as I recall). We reconnected at last year's League of Poets AGM (the photo above from my camera) and indeed, he remembered that poem quite clearly. I always thought that was remarkable. When I got the call to send in a submission for this issue (whose theme, by the way, is healing), well, it was hard to resist. I am truly happy one of the poems was accepted. A heart-felt submission, as it were...

Here's a link to Stephen Michael Burzensky's Selected Poems (Cocteau Books). (I'm sure it's well worth ordering...indeed, I've just done so.)

And here, Stephen reads a poem of his entitled "The Guest in the Garden".