Fresh Voices 23
Welcome to the twenty-third edition of Fresh Voices, a project from and for the League’s associate members, edited by Joan Conway (Check out her personal blog!) and Blaine Marchand. The League’s associate members are talented poets who are writing and publishing poetry on their way to becoming established professional poets in the Canadian literary community. We are excited to be taking this opportunity to showcase the work of our associate members in this series!
Fresh Voices 23 includes poetry by: R.J. Calzonetti, Meena Chopra, Janice Colbert, Melanie Flores, Mark Hertzberger, Louisa Howerow, Camille Lendor, Kamal Parmar and D.G. Peart.
After Watching Live Coverage of Another Military Parade, by Louisa Howerow
with its jubilant onlookers, voice-overs,
release of doves—so much pomp—and
yet none of it helps me celebrate victory.
I keep returning to Robert Capa’s photo,
Chartres, 1944:
Flags hang from balconies.
Boys blow whistles, bang pot drums.
A little girl wears a flowered dress.
The triumphant citizens, the barely saved
are marching a young mother
and her infant to the Palais de Justice,
gendarme at her elbow.
I keep returning to my great aunt,
how she turned away from the photo,
told me I knew nothing. But
there must have been the usual shouts:
Salope! Collabo! Spits and slaps.
And through it all the young mother
holds her newborn so close against her breast
I half-imagine it as dead.
Robert Capa, Europe 1944, Chartres, just after its liberation
Louisa Howerow’s poems, “Why Scrabble,” and “The Why of It” appeared in Fresh Voices and were subsequently selected for Poem in Your Pocket, 2020 and 2021.
What does the wind say? by Kamal Parmar
Still silken night
descends,
a veil over the valley,
twilight takes a final bow
and a lone star,
smoulders in the dark cauldron of the sky.
Silhouettes of junipers and conifers
stand stark,
their branches inter-twining like a wire-mesh,
pale moonlight that pours through.
Around the turn, the valley hemmed by a shallow pond,
a silver blur with soft ripples
that disappear into bulrushes, swaying with the drifting breeze.
A path weaves through the valley,
swallowed by the dense cavern of the shadows.
A footstep shatters the eerie spell,
Someone who has lost his way?
Someone going homeward, after back-breaking work?
Someone for whom the open star dusted sky is a roof.
The rolling glades, his bed.
As the earth rocks him to sleep.
Kamal Parmar has been passionately involved in writing since high school and University years. Her genre is poetry and creative non-fiction and she dabbles frequently with Haiku poetry. Her poems are simple, though poised and evocative enough to set the reader thinking. She has a few books published in UK, Canada and India and many publications in reputed US and Canadian literary journals and anthologies. Her writings have won many honorable mentions and prizes. Kamal has been a member of several writers’ organizations and Writers Guilds. Currently, she is an Associate Member of the League of Canadian Poets and a Board member of the Federation of BC Writers. She is also a member of Haiku Canada and of The Writers Union of Canada and a member of Canadian Authors Association.
Hummingbirds, by D.G. Peart
I filled the feeder with nectar
hung it by the back door,
left the door open, thinking
“wouldn’t it be something if
a hummingbird came inside the kitchen?”
Not long after, I came downstairs
to clicking sounds, the burr of wings
as flashes of iridescence
rose up and down the windows
seeking escape.
I pulled open one glass door,
then another,
grabbed a pillow from a chair
gently guided them,
one then the other,
safely outside.
Something I had wished for, yet not expected,
there and then gone.
Danny Peart currently resides in Vancouver, B.C. In 2012, he published a slim volume of poems, cheerfully titled Ruined By Love. The collection was guided by Aislinn Hunter. In 2016, he published a collection of stories and poems titled Stark Naked in a Laundromat. This book was edited by Zsuzsi Gartner. In 2018, he published a collection of poems titled Another Mountain to Climb. Edited by Aislinn Hunter. He is most comfortable reading and writing in a quiet café. Though he seeks the mountains often for hiking, skiing and snowshoeing.
Moon Light, by Meena Chopra
Fragments of light
interlace with sodden dreams
scrape of the full moon
rides the high tide
crests with waves that
disappear and reappear,
settle then rise
along the pulsing shore,
shine on wet sand
Shaken,
awake by dreams
too close to my reality,
forsaken and fossilized
with passing time
Silver studded wings
shiver and gasp
along the sprawling coastline
malleable, ready to soar
through the shimmer
in re-animated life.
Meena Chopra is an internationally renowned author, poet & visual artist with an unbridled passion for words, space, colours and forms. Born and brought up in India, now lives in Mississauga, Canada. She writes poetry both in English and her native language Hindi and has authored three poetry books. She has co-edited one anthology. Her poetry and art has been published in many literary journals worldwide like, American Diversity Report (USA), Artis Mag (Canada), Word Masala (England), , The Journal of Poetry Society (India), Poets International’ (India), Word Fest (Mississauga Writers’ Group), Canada Our Home, Zenith (Austria), Capriccio (Germany), Indian Voices (Canada), Acta Victoriana (Canada), Fresh Voices (League of Canadian Poets), Trinity Review (Canada) Amongst many accolades, she has also been awarded (December 2018) for her distinguished work in literature and art by National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada. She was a finalist for MARTY’s award for literature in 2019.
Reflections in Ash, by Melanie Flores
Sifting through the ashes of my mind.
Digging for those golden nuggets of memory.
Moments unearthed; moments remembered.
Brushing off the ash; burnishing the gold –
until it’s aflame with life.
A young you and a younger me
gaze at each other with adoring eyes.
Holding hands, supple bodies intertwine
in a lovers’ embrace while vowing eternal love
between fervent kisses.
Time and familiarity
breeds complacency,
arguments and power struggles.
Innate differences surface
as the tedium of everyday
threatens to rip us apart.
Yet, somehow, we weather through
before it’s almost too late.
An old me and an older you
forgive each other for their wrongs.
Comforting each other in solidarity
because time is ticking,
threatening to run out.
Cherishing the dying embers of recollection.
Stirring up the ashes to keep the flame alive.
Moments re-lived; moments half-forgotten.
Treasuring those golden nuggets of memory –
reflections in ash.
Toronto-born Melanie Flores works as an editor/writer and audiobook narrator. Melanie has been a contest winner in national poetry competitions and her poetry has appeared in national and international anthologies. An Associate Member of the League of Canadian Poets since 2017, Melanie published her first chapbook, “The She: An Exposé”, in July 2019 and she is currently seeking publication for her first book of poetry.
the dead have more decorum, by Camille Lendor
weary pupils
blurring
blue light
a psychological fight:
Sartre’s words shake you
while watching the
living
fight the walking
dead—
You ignore him.
Sartre’s essence strikes you:
You,
the living dead—
the living who act like
the living dead—
beings who claw at impulse
and devour rationale.
You continue to gaze
at this stupid show
as if
your freedom’s unbathed stench
doesn’t smell!
Above your body,
you can see him slap you
as you look down—
ceiling centre to your crown—
while you choose to cling
your gaze onto the screen
like a dumbfounded clown
Camille Lendor (she/her) is a poet living in Toronto, Ontario. Her work has appeared in Canadian Literature, Beyond Words Literary Magazine, and The Foundationalist.
The Robins on Main Street, by Mark Hertzberger
Sunday afternoons in 1957
used to feel just like this one.
Exquisite blandness
sun-soaks the town,
storefronts like books unopened,
streets grand and open,
trails to a midsummer night’s countryside,
waiting for dusk.
Am I an abnormal creature,
some sort of mutation?
Should I not miss the buzz and flight,
the endless cycles of
hiving and stinging
looping and spiraling our days into
weeks, months, all the years
before our isolation?
A stranger’s singular smile in passing
takes root in my mind,
spreads and blossoms. We can both hear the robins on Main Street.
Mark Hertzberger is a member of Poetry Stratford and the Huron Poetry Collective. Mark has recently self-published his first chapbook: Fog & Mirrors. His poetry also appears the following Anthologies: “Denouement”, published by Beliveau Books; “Writers Undercover: Tenth Anniversary Issue” – Cambridge Writers Collective; “Writers Collective Anthology: Volume 1” – Kitchener Public Library; “The Language of Dew and Sunsets” – Huron Poetry Collective. Mark was the winner of the 2008 Poetry Stratford Open Mike Contest and has read his poetry on CJCS Radio and at Culture Days Festivals in Stratford. Mark resides in Stratford, Ontario with novelist Yvonne Hertzberger.
Complement to Blue, by Janice Colbert
Olivia (painted by Elizabeth Bishop c.1941) Key West, Florida
St. James First Missionary Baptist Church
watercolour and gouache, 5 x 7 inches
The belfry clanged a one-note bell, electric in the blue sky,
as Elizabeth sketched the pocket church on paper scrap
small enough to line a cigar box.
The lump of a steeple cut the edge of the page,
the heavens limpid sienna wash,
the same for the earth where she stepped.
The timber-shingle roof, batten-and-board
wall, louvered shutters and steps, dog-eared
fence and power pole are opaque
umber, like dried leaves of tobacco.
Her grandfather ministered in her northern village back home.
Wool carpets, hooked rugs sent from his brothers,
missionaries in India, cozied their sitting room.
Her Scot grandmother crooned psalms,
Elizabeth’s prelude to poetry, familiar hymns
staying with her for life.
In this tropical fishing village, mothers with babes
on hip watched, children played barefoot in dirt
lanes. Spanish-lime boughs, lashed to a stick were for sale.
Laundry died in the coral dust. Awash with salt,
winds of brine shuddered the bow of homes despite bolts
anchored to native coral. Floors were plank, paint
could not last long, the houses blighted.
An aproned-flock of black churchwomen baked Saturday
pies, timed the boil on cauldrons of chopped
sweet potatoes. Malleable butter
joined the drained cubes. Egg congealed
the cooled orange puree. Prodigal pinch of
cinnamon and nutmeg, one-quarter cups sweet
milk and sugar, smoothed into short-crust shells,
take-away lunch for sale, after Sunday service.
The ill-starred bell was strung
rope to a beam. Restorers
discovered the frayed strands poised
to drop anchor on the parishioners.
Shortly after, when Elizabeth quit this island,
brick walls muted the wood building.
In time, white plaster blooming erased it all.
Janice holds an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC and a BFA in Visual Art from OCADU. She winters in Key West, a childhood home, where in 2019 she joined other Elizabeth Bishop enthusiasts to launch the Elizabeth Bishop Committee, to champion her achievements. In 2020 the group, in conjunction with the Key West Literary Seminar was able to have the city declare February 8 as a public day of recognition for EB. Each year at the celebration Janice reads one of her (often ekphrastic) original poems about Bishop.
Closet, by RJ Calzonetti
Grinding the flowers between the gears of my teeth
Gambling lost dreams of slot machines
To a heart groping the wind
Wandering the city homeless
For a bench to cradle
Little specks of colour with big souls stained neon
On imaginary megalomanic avenues
Landing on faceless moons
Expressionless little astronauts with big dreams
Cluttered with stars
Butterflies in jars
Stanzas that soak into the pages like rainfalls over landfill daffodils
Cold and grasping for air in a fickle breeze
Gasping out heartbeats from monotone smiles
Kissing empty vessels in(to) a red sea
Dancing amaranthine unanswered cancerous
Concussive muscular lustrous brushstrokes
Stoking colloquial altocumulus
On the painted faces of half angels
Flying home
On polycrystalline peninsulas
Crawling to their fatherlands
An encore again to the murals of incoherent earlobes probing tenebrous euphoria
Peering through the veneers of sulphuric speleothems
Golden omens holed in homeless agoraphobia
R.J is a youth poet who loves how abstract, intense and dark epics poetry can be. Identifying as he/him, he was born in 1997 and is asexual. He often finds himself writing hour after hour, never satisfied. He was a finalist two years in a row at the Burlington Poetry Slam within the first two years of writing. He has since branched out from spoken word into other forms of poetry. Headline Poetry and Press published a good dozen of his poems, and for several months he worked together with the head editor who he owes a great debt. After leaving the magazine in order to focus more on building his skills in hopes of eventually publishing a booklet, he has been bunkered up for two years of constant writing. His early work focused on mental illness and abstract works. These days he focuses on improving in new areas. He wants to be inspired by experienced poets, and eventually, be among them.