G66 – The Possibility Of

Infinite-dimensional cats napping
while butterflies play horseshoes
on billiard tables, watching
the waves slap onto the beach
from dawn to dusk without
ever lifting your eyes away.

Chances
WASPs shouting BINGO
is nigh impossibility
is inherent in the word, making it true.

Guffaws tittering is similar to the
time and earnestness
of finishing this sentence.
Mercy.

The possibility of speaking
until one arrives at the future,
ending what another started,
probability being greater
than 100%.

Sibilants: impossibility
is possible.

Successfully navigating an asteroid field
is approximately creating perpetual
motion machines
and gold from lead.



Warren Dean Fulton, Brian Bartlett, Harold Renisch, Ted Betts, Laurie Anne Fuhr, Andrew Waldie Porteus, Linda Steer, James Depew, Amanda Earl, Gary Barwin, Nick Treanor, Rob Budde, Lori D. Roadhouse Haney, Paul Vermeersch, Catherine Heard

G67 – A Third Way

on a straight path to a forked road
that leads nowhere, Robert Frost, who needs roads?

to train
your hand-raised
vole
away from the fence

a third way has not yet
been opened
because nobody can find it

the search goes after oral and vaginal
a third way is mutual
is a highway away from anyway toward way to
get someone else to write your poems

tenth gate, a third eye seeing
attempts to reconcile those
tricky two-way streets & avenues of love
balances, confuses, enlightens

a third way is a cross street
is a path to hell paved with
a fourth dimension, a fifth of scotch,
and a path of least resistance

the poetics of constraint
is either lucky or unlucky
is made out of exhaustion
threads through the this and
that may not be identical to a third space

a third way is not, unfortunately, a three way
is a cross street, pissed
with the vinegar of its own misdirection,
vexed by i dunno indecision,
indigo indyvision, gottago imprecision
and hot salted idaho impotatos
or perhaps that's “idaho impetagos”

a third way is
I dunno
is not to be confused with a third eye


Priscilla Brett, Gary Barwin, Pearl Pirie, Elena Basile, Jamie Reid, Nick Treanor, Kathleen Betts, Slim Volumes, Warren Dean Fulton, Penn Kemp, Catherine Heard, Tom Cull, Robin Moses, Rob Budde, Nadine Flagel, Andrew Waldie Porteus, Brian Bartlett

G68 – So I Protest

By creating lines
context surrounds us
and I finally manage to get signed.

I rant and rave.
I write angry letters –– they are never published.

So I protest the rest, and I wind up undone,
protestant testosterone.
Because my heart could not spell the right frequencies,

my guilt, hiding my innocence,
waves a red flag for surrender,
a white flag for charging bulls.

The outcome is a fixed variable
yet you continue as if my pain meant nothing to you.

Your faith, your size, your wonder. Give me back my heart.
The sounds echoing long, into the night
while deaf stars blink overhead, mocking us both.

But nothing changes incendiary words
against the hated.


Gary Barwin, Andrew Waldie Porteus, Catherine Heard, Kit Dobson, Andrew Topel, Satu Kaikkonen, Andréa Ledding, Alice Robinson, Lesley Bell, Warren Dean Fulton

G69 – I Write Witty

I write witty, oh so witty,
I write witty and
cheque people off when it’s sexist
but I talk dirty
and I write real good
but am not living up to my reputation.

Wild weird wonder
while walking west in my dreams,
but awake: less clever than it seems.
I'm sunk by bad rhyme schemes
in my genes, ditties, and limericks, too.

I write Witty every day
and she has never written back.

Punctuation into the flesh
placards a lot of the time,
but not right now,
but sing terribly and
pretty and wise.

Yet I cannot right wrongs.
I write witty bitty teeny
weeny whiny tiny poems,
wrinkles in folds of timely winks,
cul-de-sacs with my breakdancing
back and blow the sax
with my toe flaps
wonders.



Mathew Timmons, Paul Vermeersch, Nick Treanor, Andrew Waldie Porteus, Maria Damon, Amanda Earl, Andrew Topel, Andréa Ledding, Catherine Heard, Robin Moses, Gary Barwin, Kaye Watson, Lauren Corman, Slim Volumes, Nadine Flagel, Tobey C. Anderson, Pearl Pirie, Penn Kemp

G70 – Slogans on Signs

Slogans on signs
are like words on thick paper,
are slippery when wet,
taste better than cake
like a trampstamp on a Detroit bartender.

But guns as signifiers
are traffic hazards
mutter and nag
unreadable
from the windows of the towers,
and the lush lawns of the suburbs.

Slog across in sighs,
read: sngis no snagols.

Reflection on fire,
whiskers on kittens.

My favourite
slogans on signs
swirl into my sight,
sing “songs sans lingo”
into the night.

Ted Betts, Susan Barbour, Shannon Maguire, Priscilla Brett, Gary Barwin, Susan Shone, Kaye Watson, Catherine Heard, Mark Laliberte, Andrew Topel, Rob Budde, Andrew Waldie Porteus, Robin Moses

G71 – Hurl Hockey Pucks

hurl hockey pucks
across the thin blue line
it’s the Canadian thing to do

at the high fluorescent lights
at all the dumb fucks

they will not pass
is not a brand

I’m familiar with – aw shucks,
line up your ducks
and duck

hurl hockey pucks
in patriotic protest
gnarl jockey gawk
against

hurl hockey pucks
to hot puck bunnies


Gary Barwin, Warren Dean Fulton, Rob Budde, Catherine Heard, Slim Volumes, Nick Treanor, Kaye Watson, Jamie Reid, Andrew Topel, Neil Hennessy

G72 – And Smash Windows

Like in Pleasantville before ordinances
of good conduct took nodded effect

without first looking through
those glass people living in stone houses:

and smash windows for that's what windows are for,
part of the wave of "unreported crimes".

As if they kept out the inside.

For the pleasure of shatter,
to see yourself in several shards, a myriad of personalities,
for want of a door,
to get over it,
to mimic the stars.

“And smash windows...” she said, as an afterthought, because she liked being asked to testify, enjoyed having everyone’s eyes and ears fixated just on her; not that it was the truth, of course, but what would a little white lie like this one matter in a case where everyone knew Johnny McCarthy did it.

With a boot, or a brick,
or the heft of the chains that taunt you.
Kristallnacht to break the banks with a flower,
like Pipilotti Rist in that cool video.

To make the rich pay,
to wake up the middle class,
to serve social justice and progress,
to find the way inside the building,
to let the fort go,
to build the future
and books and knives and other pointed objects.

Once more answering the call of that dark
force lying deep in the heart of everyman,
the desire to maim, destroy, ravage and make someone pay.

To hide the bullet hole: smash windows.
Instead of using windex: smash windows.
Because the wind wants a better view: smash windows.
Doors aren't for c-section babies.

And smash windows.
And wash sinews.

Pearl Pirie, Bryne Helen Lewis, Warren Dean Fulton, Brenda Schmidt, Ted Betts, Gary Barwin, Amanda Earl, Alice Robinson, Jamie Reid, Domenico Capilongo, James Dewar, Carmel Purkis, Catherine Heard, Linda Steer, Nadine Flagel, Andréa Ledding, Andrew Topel

G73 – I Stand Before

I stand before the edge of the universe
letting the pregnant lady sing,
stand, stoodly stood,
during, after, but no more.

And then it stops...
I crawl, I bawl, I bury my face into
wistful doorways and press
enveloping you.

I made this one up myself
like I’ve never done before.
Fearing after, mourning once,
and wondering, stand b.by.


Steve Thochuk, Mark Steiyer, Dana Barker, Eric Schmaltz, Cassie Leigh, Bryson Waind, Priscilla Brett, Catherine Pararye.

G74 – Front line police

are persons empowered to compromise the law,
seize property, incite civil disorder,
take the bullets,
front line police?

front line police
murdered Oscar Grant;
most try their best . . . most are automated.

find lice, a fine-tooth comb, a typo in the status.
front line police wear their masks to keep peace;
fingers on triggers they tell us to freeze,
pepper spray flying, they never say please, on, in

front line police
backdoor politics
are each other.

line dancing: this sentences,
these mistake
sing the chorus
“love polices to pieces”
chew gubble bum.


Catherine Heard, Teresa Carmody, Stephen Voyce, Sharon Honeywill-Haddow, Rob Budde, Nadine Flagel, Andréa Ledding, Andrew Topel, Priscilla Brett, Pearl Pirie, Gary Barwin, Slim Volumes

G75 – In a gasmask

With mismatching damask suit set dress,
Alice set off to find a plunger to unplug some rabbit holes,
memory, details drawn in dragged breaths –
the outside world doesn't have to breath us.

The new father started to change the
masked gas, asking gaskets, a task breath
recirculated and recycled endlessly.

You don't get the clouds, only the rain
can't tell who the gas is
asking questions
comfortably confined in a bubble of your own air.

In a gasmask
nobody know you're a dog.

A tisket, a tasket, and a green and yellow gasket,
refine your pores and freshen your skin
mask how gassed your guest gets;
the masses won't be aghast at the mess.

Pearl Pirie, Bryne Helen Lewis, Gary Barwin, Andrew Waldie Porteus, Andrew Topel, Catherine Heard, Slim Volumes, Rob Budde, Joseph Brown, Amy Lavender Harris, Nadine Flagel, Andréa Ledding

G76 – My Frontpage Challenge

Is your backpage victory
old enough to remember the TV show?

Unlike my definition,
[which] alters the very taste of the universe,

my frontpage challenge
unfolds
utters interesting space-paste.

Those headlines are brow-furrows:
my CBC, my Pierre Trudeau
lasts only 22 minutes.

To convert my website to dreamweaver
is to weavesite my webdream into a converter.

Ohh, very nice is finding my glasses,
is wearing Pierre Burton’s bow tie.


Paul Vermeersch, Amanda Earl, Linda Steer, Andrew Topel, Bryne Helen Lewis, Maurice Burford, Gary Barwin, Catherine Heard, Andrew Waldie Porteus, Susan Shone, Nadine Flagel

G77 – I Make A

I make a mean bread pudding marshmallow look skinny.

I make a complete sentence mountain word out of a mole word mown gran cry.

I make a sentence more lenient, a twig crack underfoot, a shift, my weight to relieve my aching legs.

I make no noise beyond the rasp of my shallow, rapid breaths, a great advocate for animals.

I make a second comment, overstimulated by coffee on the long weekend mud hut; sit & wait for you, nasty face, and it freezes that way. I finally look like my passport photo.

I make a stake of fake cake breaking Blake ache flakes of steak take Drake bake Jake wake
an offer i'm waiting to refuse. . . . a life . . . my life promise I don't intend to keep.

I make a bed, with no intent to sleep mistake and I say I'm sorry if I've hurt anyone, human being, be a human being, being human unto thee.

I make a Freudian impression, stolen of course, from my friend Jacques, make-shift language out of discarded thoughts, precious baby, my gorgeous wife Lisa.

I make a mockery of the English Language.


Maria Damon, Brenda Schmidt, Gary Barwin, Amanda Earl, Catherine Heard, Laura Nichols, Nadine Flagel, Andrew Topel, Andréa Ledding, Bryne Helen Lewis, Sharon Honeywill-Haddow, Kathleen Betts, Priscilla Brett, Linda Steer, Stacey Nichols, Joseph Brown

G78 – Romantic scenario of

Romantic scenario of
semantic Lothario

boot to the head, changing syntactic stereo
ssyynnttaaccttiicc sstteerreeoo

Delacroix’s Liberty leading the people over the bodies of the fallen, raising the tricolour flag of the Revolution in her right hand, and brandishing a bayonetted musket in her left
or
Géricault’s raft of the Medusa.

Romantic scenario of
semantic Ontario

A Klondike alive alive-o
Turner's Burning the Houses of Lords and Commons
and Goya's Saturn Eating His Children.


Gary Barwin, Paul Vermeersch, Domenico Capilongo, Andrew Topel, Catherine Heard

G79 – This Tragic Battle

With words was won – whoa – with wit bright warriors turned bitter under a boastful sun. This tragic battle is as ridiculously redundant as the last one was.

Hit the nail on the head of snickerdoodle vs teletubbies may outlast the entire 3rd period of Jupiter's favourite satellite channel for magic cattle, beat this magic moment as the top song of the billboard 100 in 1960 paused on Christmas Day, and the troops played soccer on no man's land.

This tragic battle involved spittle, and a paddle... splattle.


Nadine Flagel, Gary Barwin, Kathleen Betts, Lynn McClory, Pearl Pirie, Andrew Topel, Amanda Earl, Catherine Heard, Donna Szoke

G80 – I Know No

I know no banned bands ate eight charred chards, green lights or stylish mathematics or hyperbolic gemstones or unconditional apathy or metaphysical longing or abstract catharsis or infrequent downsizing or languishing topography or symbiotic disharmony or photographic pavement or fatal reference or catastrophic reverence...

I know no nice one Paul Knots, Noh.

I know no clocks knock law which undermines the rights to speak freely and carry a big gun, no greater joy than love, nor greater pain than passion along this path tonight was the first word I learned.

I know no gnomes from Nome who need nod for nought; the unknown is not now but near, and new.

I know of no one named Shirley today, eye, reason, or reasonable solution, raison d'etre, domino dunno like those of plateaued bonobos, no like my no, norms for knockwurst.

I know no drag queen named "Belinda" officer. Now like what I now know; I now know no now like what now I know.

I know no Bob on Wonki, the tropical island paradise.

I know no Nota Bene.


Paul Vermeersch Linda Steer Neil Hennessy, Catherine Heard, Angela Rawlings, Lynn McClory, Joseph Brown, Priscilla Brett, Andrew Topel, Nick Traynor, Andréa Ledding, Natalie Caple, Douglas Barbour, Sheila Murphy, Donna Szoke, Gary Barwin, Nadine Flagel