Welcome to the ninth edition of Fresh Voices, a project from and for the League’s associate members. 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!

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Requiem 

by Melanie Flores 

The yellow rose you plucked

pierced your finger. Its thorny kiss

drew a crimson bead. Still,

you marveled in its heady aroma,

the butter yellow of satin petals.

Days of innocence, when thorny

threats held no consequence,

eroded by time. Would you

have chosen differently, had you

understood that life was finite?

Would you have argued? Cursed

the fates? Cheated? Lied? Died?

Would you have done the same

all over again, because that’s

who you were? Neither good

nor bad, just a soul – free to do

as only you would do.

Toronto-born Melanie Flores divides her time between working as a freelance copy editor/proofreader and writing poetry and short stories.  Melanie has been a contest winner in several national poetry competitions and her poems and short stories have appeared in anthologies of new Canadian poetry and short fiction.

Two Haiku

by kjmunro

quiet morning

after the storm

the wind chimes in pieces

migrating swans runes temporary as a song

Originally from Vancouver, BC, kjmunro moved to the Yukon Territory in 1991. She is active in the local organization Yukon Writers’ Collective Ink, & in 2014 founded ‘solstice haiku’, a monthly haiku discussion group that she continues to facilitate. She is Membership Secretary for Haiku Canada. She also currently writes a weekly blog post called ‘Haiku Windows’ for The Haiku Foundation.

Remember the Treeless

by David C. Brydges

On a Kamøyvaer Norway hillside

where rocks with horizontal desires

have bred for millions of years,

without any vertical competition.

Above the arctic circle tree line

you never see a circle, except

when seagulls are circling above.

In the harbour fishing boats unload caught cod.

The Barent Sea, her blue hair wet with salt

waves hello.

I stare at the no tree land and hallucinate,

into a landscape of images uprooted.

I’m a disordered mind out on a limbless limb.

Ghost trees are memory robots

hiding in the dark forest of what was.

They dance mechanically

in the bone hollows of yester times.

Someone has built a fire with

phantom twigs of remembrance.

Smokey residues fade over the rocky hill.

Finally after days of disorientation,

acceptance sees new branches of light.

As the midnight sun smiles wider,

on terra North’s kingdom of space.

David C. Brydges is a poet/pioneer and community builder. He is also creator of Canada’s most historic community poetry park, Dr. Pollard Poetry Park, founder of Northern Ontario’s largest annual poetry/arts festival, Spring Pulse Poetry Festival,  founder of PoeARTry – Northern Ontario’s first painting/poetry competition, Chief Engineer for the PoeTrain adventure, and Chief Energizing Officer of Brydge Builder Press.

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Curated by Lesley Strutt and Blaine Marchand, these poems represent just a small portion of the great work being produced by our members, and we are excited to have this opportunity to share their poetry with you. If you are interested in contributing to Fresh Voices, please send 3-5 poems to [email protected]. You may submit only once per month, but you may submit every month until your poetry is selected. This opportunity is open only to associate members of the League–if you are interested in joining the League, please visit our membership page!