Becoming by Patrick Connors

July 28, 2022
Poet name: Patrick Connors Poem name: Becoming Poem: it is always becoming a poem this furnace, this fire in a corner of the body’s dark this is the place that burns whatever has been broken “Heart”, by Mick Burrs The world says we are the result of the residue it leaves upon us. Don’t let this be. Burn this dross from me! No matter the pain it brings I will not be like everyone else. Mould me in your image form me in the refiner’s crucible that my thoughts, my work and my poetry may bring you glory. Let all the indescribable pain endured while becoming understandable bring clarity to my vision and integrity to my life. Then my words would blaze a trail across the midnight sky and be a likeness of the light which will forever shut out darkness. End of poem. Credits and bio: Copyright © Patrick Connors Previously published in Tending the Fire (a chapbook by the League of Canadian Poets, 2020); Lummox 9 Anthology (2020); The Celebration of Poetry 20th Anniversary Anthology (Beret Days Press, 2021); The Literary Parrot Anthology, (2021). Patrick Connors first chapbook, Scarborough Songs, was released by Lyricalmyrical Press in 2013, and charted on the Toronto Poetry Map. He contributed 18 poems to Bottom of the Wine Jar, published in 2017 by SandCrab Press, and launched in Gibara, Cuba. He has had work printed in Belgium, India, and the United Kingdom, in addition to the United States and Canada. Past publication credits include: The Toronto Quarterly 4; Spadina Literary Review; Tamaracks; and Tending the Fire, released in spring 2020 by the League of Canadian Poets. Recent publication credits include: Poetry and Covid; Devour; Lummox 9 Anthology; Canadian Stories; Harbinger Asylum; Silver Birch Press; and Poetry Pause. He has conducted writing workshops for organizations including Scarborough Poetry Club, and was the literary juror for Big Art Book by Scarborough Arts in 2013. He has featured in numerous reading series such as The Art Bar, Wild Writers, Plasticine Poetry, hosted events under the 100,000 Poets for Change banner, and was on the organizing committee for The Great Canadian PoeTrain Tour. His first full collection, The Other Life, is available from Mosaic Press.