Ways of Mourning by Marvyne Jenoff

January 5, 2024
Poem title: Ways of Mourning Poet name: Marvyne Jenoff Poem: Through laundry: She stuffs too much unto the washer, lets it over-dry, looks rumpled wherever she goes because her mother, decades dead, would sort her clothes and iron them, even the easy-care fabrics. Through money: He uses a seat-of-the-pants method of budgeting, non-budgeting, just fine for now but no thought for the future, because his absent father dealt so well with such things. Through disability: I could affect a cane, confine myself to home, knitting, TV; a cat would clinch it, because my first love and I, or a different love and I, or I and a different he or he or he at every intersection in this city used to talk, then kiss, then quarrel and keep walking for a while. Through decor: On the shelves because they once were trees, near the books because they once were trees, arrange wheel-thrown ceramic vessels, leave them empty: no little indoor plants, no greenhouse flowers. End of poem. Credits and bio: Copyright © Marvyne Jenoff Previously published in Climbing the Rain, by Marvyne Jenoff, 2022. Marvyne Jenoff was born in Winnipeg and began publishing poems as a student at the University of Manitoba in the 1960s. A long-time resident of Toronto, she has published five books of poetry and one of short experimental fiction with Canadian literary presses. Her work appears in Canadian and international anthologies and journals. In recent years Marvyne has had a parallel career in the visual arts, creating and exhibiting works in watermedia and collage. One of these pieces, called “Hush, the Sibilant Rain,” is the cover image of her new poetry collection, Climbing the Rain (Silver Bow Publishing, New Westminster BC, March 2022). She is a member of the League of Canadian Poets and the Writers’ Union of Canada. The Marvyne Jenoff fonds are housed at the William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections, McMaster University Library. Marvyne’s poem, “It’s There” is included in the anthology, Hologram: an Homage to P.K.Page, Editors: Yvonne Blomer and D.C. Reid, Caitlin Press, Fall, 2023.