“tossing & turning” by Daniela Elza

July 22, 2024

Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “tossing & turning” by Daniela. Due to its formatting, this poem is only available as an image.

tossing & turning

By Daniela Elza

the rain reprints itself from yesterday repaints a city where objects have trapped the river. a poem wraps around a stone clinging— it says: a woman is walking and is cut off/ /her story comes a/part w/here the poem rips. and what of the man? stopped in his tracks. s/nagged on a phrase. in the grip of the stone— his dark gaze. she steps cautiously between words. sp/lit. lingers in their mute promises their slippery moss. curls up in the day’s possibilities. sleeps in the f/ear of conclusions. in a crooked bent city the small sanctuary of such love what will they toss in it what will they get back—

Copyright © Daniela Elza

From the broken boat (Mother Tongue Publishing, 2020). First published in Poetry Pause on October 5, 2020

Daniela Elza lived on three continents before immigrating to Canada. Her latest poetry collections are the broken boat (2020) and slow erosions (2020)— a collaboration with poet Arlene Ang. Daniela is the recipient of the 2024 Colleen Thibaudeau Award for Outstanding Contribution to Poetry. Her poetry collection, SCAR/CITY, is forthcoming from McGill-Queen’s University Press (Spring, 2025). She lives on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, also known as Vancouver.

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