An enormous thank you to The Black Spring Eyewear Press Group and to judge Terese Svoboda for shortlisting my manuscript for the 2020 Sexton Prize for Poetry, and good luck to all the other shortlisted poets!
“Not for Sale,” shortlisted for the Times Literary Supplement’s 2019 Mick Imlah Poetry Prize
Not for Sale
The minimum-wage worker drags the cart
full of children, all of them
so cute, put together
so perfectly. Along the cracks of the sidewalk,
the wheels twist, popping, the ride
far from smooth. Occasionally,
couples stop him, ask how much
for the little girl with pigtails, for the boy
with the black eye. The worker
doesn’t speak much English,
tells the passersby the kids aren’t for sale
until tomorrow, & only
at the store, not illegally
like this, smack in the middle of the street.
“This is Not a Pipe,” The Dalhousie Review, 2016
“Animal House,” selected for The Poetry Society’s “Zoo” competition, 2019
“To Sugarcoat the Truth,” selected for The Poetry Society’s “Truth” competition, 2019
Runner-Up in America’s 2019 Foley Poetry Contest: “Thanks a Lot, Shakespeare, for the Starling”
“Un incendio difícil de traducir”, Notre Dame Review, 2018, audio recording
Audio of “Fire Flowers”, RATTLE, 2014
Audio of 2017 Ledbury Poetry Competition Winners Event, “The fire escape, no longer weighed down”
Phillippa Slinger’s introduction (12:03-13:05)
“The fire escape, no longer weighed down” (13:05-14:45)
Fiona Sampson’s remarks (14:45-15:22)
