Sea Glass Circe by Irina Moga

A spin on poetry review. Exploration in verse.

Nature. Flora, fauna, feelings felt
experienced and known, flown, not
vanished but migrated, sailed south
from Great Lake shores and tributaries.

Barn Door. “It’s a wet, late spring that makes its way / across Lake Ontario through freezing rain, / barely unravelling snow from tree tops. // Not a pinhead fits in between rain drops.”

Out to sea, where jetsam, polished glass
and ancient ocean gods reside, alongside
Circe, keeping company with dreamers
wordsmith alchemists, their lab-apothecaries

Symbols, cadence, metaphysic metaphors
once tended gardens overgrown with imagery
depicted on the printed page, doled out
prescriptive measures, over counter, capsulated.

Hub. “hyacinth whiffs lost in medals of rain / smeared on tree trunks /
desiccated, each one a hub, // a molded shape of a lost tree stump.”

Measures taken, drams, a pinch to grow
an inch, a foot, a lifetime, lifetimes, delve into
an herbage hedgerow, rows of roots and vines
ingredients for salves, emulsions, every one a poem

Healing, in its way a suture, sewing open sores
and softening and shortening collected
lifetime-lengthened scars, not yours or mine
but ours.

A Prelude to Pollen. “A coalescing weight that hangs on to a / barely discernible crown / as I lay claim to my throne // I, / the queen of mulch.”

This work, this poet, kin to Circe, transmutation
those we feel, we know, require transformation
changing, changlings, patient patients in the ever
waiting rooms, adjacent to our wombs and tombs

The in-between meantime a series, steps into our garden plot
where trees and plants and herbs medicinal still grow
an almost knowing certainty awaiting preparation, cooked
distilled and measured out in daily dosages, we take our medicine

and heal.

About the Author: Irina Moga lives in Toronto. Her poems, reviews and short stories have appeared in literary magazines in Canada and the US, including Canadian Literature, Prism International online, dandelion, carte blanche, and The Chaffin Journal. Irina has previously published two poetry books in Romanian (Limit of Visibility and Continuous Poem) with Editura Dacia in Cluj-Napoca and won two literary awards. Sea Glass Circe is her fourth book of poetry.

Title: Sea Glass Circe
Author: Irina Moga
Published: 2019
ISBN: 975-19993915-15
Pages: 87

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Bill Arnott is the bestselling author of A Season on Vancouver Island, the Gone Viking travelogues, and A Perfect Day for a Walk: The History, Cultures, and Communities of Vancouver, on Foot (Arsenal Pulp Press, Fall 2024). Recipient of a Fellowship at London’s Royal Geographical Society for his expeditions, Bill’s a frequent presenter and contributor to magazines, universities, podcasts, TV and radio. When not trekking with a small pack and journal, Bill can be found on Canada’s west coast, where he lives near the sea on Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh land.

Bill Arnott

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