Cyphers 89 (Spring/Summer 2020): 56-57
|
Alaska
I wanted you to see Alaska the snowpeaks & the timberline but the work got in the way I wanted to get my license, drive you north to Tobermory, Manitoulin, Kapuskasing but I failed the test I wanted you to give up salt & sugar cigarettes, red meat, the Jack but life was hard enough I wanted you to try tofu Kombucha, ginseng, essiac but old kicks trump new tricks I wanted to stop the radio, physio, chemotherapy the prescriptions, the injections, the predictions but none of it was mine to call I wanted you downwind of wildfire outsmarting sparks, shooting the breeze but I’d lost track of how to pray I’d have walked on too but there was weather the fences needed bucking & you were headed for the coast, the salmon boats crewed up and pushing out I wanted you to see Alaska I wanted you to see Alaska |
When Suddenly The Carnival
It was mid-way between Vandeleur and Ventry, a backroad twisting into wagon ruts hard cut through crops of autumn corn the sunbleached stalks a riot when suddenly the carnival its tents and flags and ferris wheel airbrushed against the high noon atmosphere. I’d come at closing time, the trucks and trailers loaded the banners rolled and bound with baling twine. Beyond that I remember just the river, its course a malachite S bend meandering a desert half in bloom, half in drought how it became a lake and at the water’s margin my father his telltale gait intent on making it before the gates were locked. There was someone picking out the melody of Wildwood Flower on an old flat top guitar a lookout or a celebrant it’s hard to know for sure he was dressed in black and told us that he’d crossed the Alleghenies to shake my father’s hand to say his name, to take him in. |
Poems in Literary Magazines and Anthologies
‘Aurora Borealis’, ‘Hawk’, ‘Aman in Ireland’, The Blue Nib 44 (Winter 2020): 54-6. https://thebluenib.com/poetry-by-kathleen-mccracken/
‘Today I Should Be in Medicine Hat’, Belfield Literary Review: New TransAtlantic Dialogues, eds. Gregory Betts and Lucy Collins, No. 1 (Winter 2020): 97.
‘The Starbog Road’, Southword: New International Writing 39 (2020): 144-45.
‘You Have To Love Them Enough To Let Them Be Wild’, Watch Your Head: An Online Journal of Creative Works Devoted to the Climate Crisis and Climate Justice, November 221, 2020. Online at https://www.watchyourhead.ca/watch-your-head/poetry-kathleen-mccracken
‘My Father’s Last Word’, Cyphers 90 (Autumn/Winter 2020): 39.
‘The Gauntlet Road’, ‘The Fulminologist’, ‘Affreca and the Rooks’, ‘The Pineries, Hillsborough Castele’, ‘High Fidelity’, ‘Bob Dylan’s Paintings’, ‘Burying the Raven’, ‘Will It Fly?’, New Hibernnia Review 24:3 (Autumn 2020): 58-67.
'I Could See Horses', Zócala Public Square, August 21, 2020. Online at https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2020/08/21/kathleen-mccracken-poet-horses-poem/chronicles/poetry/
‘Alaska’ and ‘When Suddenly the Carnival’, Cyphers 89 (Spring/Summer 2020): 56-57.
'What Colour Is The Hurt?’, Her Other Language: Northern Irish Women Writers Address Domestic Violence and Abuse, eds. Ruth Carr and Natasha Cuddington, Dublin: Arlen House, 2020: 158-9.
‘Chironomy’, ‘The Trees at Annaghmakerrig’, Find: Poetry in Motion Community Anthology 2018/19, Belfast: Community Arts Partnership, 2019: 17, 164.
‘Affreca and the Rooks’, Art at the Heart of the Penninsula, Belfast: Institute for Conflict Resolution Peace IV Programme, 2019: 12-13.
‘“For Us To Live A Star Must Die”’, Posthumanism in Fantastic Fiction, ed. Anna Kerchy, University of Szeged, Hungary: Americana eBooks, 2018: 8.
‘You Have To Love Them Enough To Let Them Be Wild’, Global Poetry Anthology. Eds. Kim Addonzio et al. Montreal: Vehicule Press/Signal Editions, 2017: 84-5 & Online at https://www.montrealpoetryprize.com/poems/you-have-to-love-them-enough-to-let-them-be-wild
‘The Gauntlet Road’, ‘The Finger Bird’, ‘My Father’s Heart’, Grey With a Silver Lining: Tributes to Grey Highlands for Canada 150, Flesherton, Ontario: Municipality of Grey Highlands, 2017: 68-73.
‘Indian Head Massage’, Panorama: The Journal of Intelligent Travel, ‘Firsts’ - Quarterly Issue 1 (September 2016). Online at http://www.panoramajournal.org/sm6-indian-head-massage/
‘A Minor’, ‘Corn and Cockcrow’, ‘How Old is Ian Tyson’, Fermata: Writings Inspired by Music, eds. Eva Bourke and Vincent Woods, Connemara: Artisan House, 2016: 146, 169, 191.
‘Sand Street,’ Guia da Folha (Sao Paulo), 27 June 2015: 13.
‘Something About Horses,’ The Honest Ulsterman, February 2015.
Online at http://humag.co/poetry/something-about-horses
‘Four extracts from Mustangs,’ Four x Four Poetry Journal 9 (Summer 2014): np.
Online at http://www.poetryni.com/fourxfour.html
‘A Minor,’ ‘Dream in the Key of D,’ Abridged 0_10 (2014): 9, 12.
‘Blue Balloon,’ Abridged 0_34 (2013): 22.
‘For Us To Live A Star Must Die,’ ‘Fire Tornado,’ ‘The Fast Healer,’ ‘Calmly and With Animal Grace,’ ‘Moon With Contrail,’ Almatroz: A Revista Brasileira de Poesia de Lingua Inglesa (November 2013).
Online at http://www.portalseer.ufba.br/index.php/revistaalmatroz/about
'Mustangs,’ [21 poems and commentary, accompanied by 14 black & white photographs by John T. Davis] Exile: The Literary Quarterly, 36.4 (2013): 18-36.
‘My Father’s Heart,’ Revival 22 (Jan/Feb/Mar 2012): 44.
‘Towards the End of May,’ ‘Always the Moon,’ Poetry Ireland 105 (2011): 66-67.
‘The Finger Bird,’ The SHOp: A Magazine of Poetry 36 (Summer 2011): 64.
‘Magnolia,’ Abridged 0-21 (2010): 29.
‘Trains at Tempe,’ ‘Flight,’ ‘The Sun on His Back,’ Abridged 0-18 (2010): 5, 20, 36.
‘Snow Tea,’ Exile: The Literary Quarterly 33.1 (2009): 69-80.
‘Jennifer Miller, Woman with a Beard,’ Exile: The Literary Quarterly 31.3 (2008): 51-2.
‘The Creation of Man,’ ‘Enter Tezcatlipoca,’ ‘Creed,’ ‘Note to Sivvy,’ ‘Ottersong,’ ‘The House With One Hundred Rooms,’ ‘Ancient Twins,’ ‘Wedding Day,’ Exile: The Literary Quarterly 29.3 (Autumn 2005): 5-18.
'Caroline Crachami, The Sicilian Fairy,' 'Claude Seurat, The Living Skeleton,' 'Tom Thumb in Belfast,' 'The Aztec Children,' 'Julia Pastrana, The Baboon Lady,' 'Eng Alone,' 'Lionel the Lion Man,' 'The United Hilton Twins,' 'The World's Strangest Married Couple,' 'Robert Earl Hughes, The Fattest Man in Medical History,' 'Grace McDaniels, The Mule-Faced Woman,' Exile: The Literary Quarterly 25.4 (January 2003): 43-65.
'Good Friday, Belfast, 1998', You Can't Eat Flags For Breakfast eds. Joseph Sheehy and Joshua Schultz (Belfast: New Belfast Community Arts Initiative, 2001): 20-21.
'Talking to the Milkman', 'Red Earth, Blue Sky', 'Azrael's Table', 'Skushno', 'Sao Paulo', Grain Magazine 29.2 (Fall 2001): 81-88.
'Canadian Sleep', The Malahat Review 135 (Summer 2001): 64-69.
'Rancho Bernardo', New Irish Writing in The Sunday Tribune, 1 April 2001: ArtLife: 2.
'Green Pool with Lightning', The White Page/ An Bhileog Bhan: Twentieth-Century Irish Women Poets, ed. Joan McBreen (Cliffs of Moher: Salmon Publishing, 1999): 146-7.
'A Tree Asleep at the Centre of a Field', Vintage 97-98 (Kingston: Quarry Press Poetry, 1998): 151.
'Good Friday, Belfast, 1998', Fortnight 370 (May 1998): 41.
'Lupo', Poetry Ireland Review 56 (Spring 1998): 62-3.
'Bone-Making, The Beaver', 'Sacre Coeur de Montmartre', 'Eternity Is Now', Writing Ulster 4 (1996): 171-178.
'Dead Elegant', 'The Woman at the Top of the Stairs', New Orleans Review 22.2 (Summer 1996): 40-42.
'Sky Daughter', 'A Tree Asleep at the Centre of a Field', 'Dead Elegant', Honest Ulsterman 100 (Autumn 1995): 71-77.
'All Souls Eve, 1991', Fortnight No. 316 (April 1993): 53.
'March', 'Blue Light, Bay and College', 'Date of Departure', 'Severance', The Malahat Review No. 95 (Summer 1991): 68-72.
'Japheth', 'The Trade', 'Danse Farouche', The Moosehead Anthology No. 3 (Jan. 1990): np.
'Dressing Up For Death', 'The Match', White Wall Review No. 15 (1990): 45, 75.
'The Air Is A Sea', Ariel 21:1 (Jan. 1990): 88.
'The Air Is A Sea', Orbis No. 75 (Winter 1989): 102.
'The Spider', Wascana Review 24:2 (Fall 1989): 73.
'Dante at Ravenna, 1320', Prism International 27:2 (Winter 1989): 7.
'Note to Chris', 'White', 'Merseyside', Canadian Woman Studies 9:3/4 (Fall/Winter 1988): 169.
'Howe Sound', 'Invasions', University of Toronto Review Vol. 9, (Spring 1985): 8, 22-3. [Editor's Choice Award for Poetry]
'Ghazal of the Twisted Rose', Hogtown Poems (1983): 1.
'Swinton', Vancouver Streets (1983): 1.
'Before the Storm', 'Siene', Poetry Canada Review 4:2 (Winter 1982-83): 12.
'The Copper Penny', Poetry Magazine (1982):1.
'Poem For Gerry', Poetry Canada Review 1:4 (1982): 15.
'I have watched you', 'Coming Back', 'You Robe Me', 'She/Struck the Match', Island (1981): 3.
'Of Deer', Scroll (Wombat Press Limited Hand-Printed Edition of 200. Portfolio in honour of Fred Cogswell. Poems by poets he has published) 1980: np; Trade edition Wamboldt-Waterfield, 1981: np.
'We are most beautiful', 'Exposure', 'Our House', Island 7 (1980): 4.
'Seven Old Women', 'Rites', Waves 8:1 (Fall 1979): 42.
'My Grandfather Died', 'I have seen', 'Partisan', Prism International: Special Canadian Under 30s Issue 17:1 (Summer 1978): 157-59.
‘Today I Should Be in Medicine Hat’, Belfield Literary Review: New TransAtlantic Dialogues, eds. Gregory Betts and Lucy Collins, No. 1 (Winter 2020): 97.
‘The Starbog Road’, Southword: New International Writing 39 (2020): 144-45.
‘You Have To Love Them Enough To Let Them Be Wild’, Watch Your Head: An Online Journal of Creative Works Devoted to the Climate Crisis and Climate Justice, November 221, 2020. Online at https://www.watchyourhead.ca/watch-your-head/poetry-kathleen-mccracken
‘My Father’s Last Word’, Cyphers 90 (Autumn/Winter 2020): 39.
‘The Gauntlet Road’, ‘The Fulminologist’, ‘Affreca and the Rooks’, ‘The Pineries, Hillsborough Castele’, ‘High Fidelity’, ‘Bob Dylan’s Paintings’, ‘Burying the Raven’, ‘Will It Fly?’, New Hibernnia Review 24:3 (Autumn 2020): 58-67.
'I Could See Horses', Zócala Public Square, August 21, 2020. Online at https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2020/08/21/kathleen-mccracken-poet-horses-poem/chronicles/poetry/
‘Alaska’ and ‘When Suddenly the Carnival’, Cyphers 89 (Spring/Summer 2020): 56-57.
'What Colour Is The Hurt?’, Her Other Language: Northern Irish Women Writers Address Domestic Violence and Abuse, eds. Ruth Carr and Natasha Cuddington, Dublin: Arlen House, 2020: 158-9.
‘Chironomy’, ‘The Trees at Annaghmakerrig’, Find: Poetry in Motion Community Anthology 2018/19, Belfast: Community Arts Partnership, 2019: 17, 164.
‘Affreca and the Rooks’, Art at the Heart of the Penninsula, Belfast: Institute for Conflict Resolution Peace IV Programme, 2019: 12-13.
‘“For Us To Live A Star Must Die”’, Posthumanism in Fantastic Fiction, ed. Anna Kerchy, University of Szeged, Hungary: Americana eBooks, 2018: 8.
‘You Have To Love Them Enough To Let Them Be Wild’, Global Poetry Anthology. Eds. Kim Addonzio et al. Montreal: Vehicule Press/Signal Editions, 2017: 84-5 & Online at https://www.montrealpoetryprize.com/poems/you-have-to-love-them-enough-to-let-them-be-wild
‘The Gauntlet Road’, ‘The Finger Bird’, ‘My Father’s Heart’, Grey With a Silver Lining: Tributes to Grey Highlands for Canada 150, Flesherton, Ontario: Municipality of Grey Highlands, 2017: 68-73.
‘Indian Head Massage’, Panorama: The Journal of Intelligent Travel, ‘Firsts’ - Quarterly Issue 1 (September 2016). Online at http://www.panoramajournal.org/sm6-indian-head-massage/
‘A Minor’, ‘Corn and Cockcrow’, ‘How Old is Ian Tyson’, Fermata: Writings Inspired by Music, eds. Eva Bourke and Vincent Woods, Connemara: Artisan House, 2016: 146, 169, 191.
‘Sand Street,’ Guia da Folha (Sao Paulo), 27 June 2015: 13.
‘Something About Horses,’ The Honest Ulsterman, February 2015.
Online at http://humag.co/poetry/something-about-horses
‘Four extracts from Mustangs,’ Four x Four Poetry Journal 9 (Summer 2014): np.
Online at http://www.poetryni.com/fourxfour.html
‘A Minor,’ ‘Dream in the Key of D,’ Abridged 0_10 (2014): 9, 12.
‘Blue Balloon,’ Abridged 0_34 (2013): 22.
‘For Us To Live A Star Must Die,’ ‘Fire Tornado,’ ‘The Fast Healer,’ ‘Calmly and With Animal Grace,’ ‘Moon With Contrail,’ Almatroz: A Revista Brasileira de Poesia de Lingua Inglesa (November 2013).
Online at http://www.portalseer.ufba.br/index.php/revistaalmatroz/about
'Mustangs,’ [21 poems and commentary, accompanied by 14 black & white photographs by John T. Davis] Exile: The Literary Quarterly, 36.4 (2013): 18-36.
‘My Father’s Heart,’ Revival 22 (Jan/Feb/Mar 2012): 44.
‘Towards the End of May,’ ‘Always the Moon,’ Poetry Ireland 105 (2011): 66-67.
‘The Finger Bird,’ The SHOp: A Magazine of Poetry 36 (Summer 2011): 64.
‘Magnolia,’ Abridged 0-21 (2010): 29.
‘Trains at Tempe,’ ‘Flight,’ ‘The Sun on His Back,’ Abridged 0-18 (2010): 5, 20, 36.
‘Snow Tea,’ Exile: The Literary Quarterly 33.1 (2009): 69-80.
‘Jennifer Miller, Woman with a Beard,’ Exile: The Literary Quarterly 31.3 (2008): 51-2.
‘The Creation of Man,’ ‘Enter Tezcatlipoca,’ ‘Creed,’ ‘Note to Sivvy,’ ‘Ottersong,’ ‘The House With One Hundred Rooms,’ ‘Ancient Twins,’ ‘Wedding Day,’ Exile: The Literary Quarterly 29.3 (Autumn 2005): 5-18.
'Caroline Crachami, The Sicilian Fairy,' 'Claude Seurat, The Living Skeleton,' 'Tom Thumb in Belfast,' 'The Aztec Children,' 'Julia Pastrana, The Baboon Lady,' 'Eng Alone,' 'Lionel the Lion Man,' 'The United Hilton Twins,' 'The World's Strangest Married Couple,' 'Robert Earl Hughes, The Fattest Man in Medical History,' 'Grace McDaniels, The Mule-Faced Woman,' Exile: The Literary Quarterly 25.4 (January 2003): 43-65.
'Good Friday, Belfast, 1998', You Can't Eat Flags For Breakfast eds. Joseph Sheehy and Joshua Schultz (Belfast: New Belfast Community Arts Initiative, 2001): 20-21.
'Talking to the Milkman', 'Red Earth, Blue Sky', 'Azrael's Table', 'Skushno', 'Sao Paulo', Grain Magazine 29.2 (Fall 2001): 81-88.
'Canadian Sleep', The Malahat Review 135 (Summer 2001): 64-69.
'Rancho Bernardo', New Irish Writing in The Sunday Tribune, 1 April 2001: ArtLife: 2.
'Green Pool with Lightning', The White Page/ An Bhileog Bhan: Twentieth-Century Irish Women Poets, ed. Joan McBreen (Cliffs of Moher: Salmon Publishing, 1999): 146-7.
'A Tree Asleep at the Centre of a Field', Vintage 97-98 (Kingston: Quarry Press Poetry, 1998): 151.
'Good Friday, Belfast, 1998', Fortnight 370 (May 1998): 41.
'Lupo', Poetry Ireland Review 56 (Spring 1998): 62-3.
'Bone-Making, The Beaver', 'Sacre Coeur de Montmartre', 'Eternity Is Now', Writing Ulster 4 (1996): 171-178.
'Dead Elegant', 'The Woman at the Top of the Stairs', New Orleans Review 22.2 (Summer 1996): 40-42.
'Sky Daughter', 'A Tree Asleep at the Centre of a Field', 'Dead Elegant', Honest Ulsterman 100 (Autumn 1995): 71-77.
'All Souls Eve, 1991', Fortnight No. 316 (April 1993): 53.
'March', 'Blue Light, Bay and College', 'Date of Departure', 'Severance', The Malahat Review No. 95 (Summer 1991): 68-72.
'Japheth', 'The Trade', 'Danse Farouche', The Moosehead Anthology No. 3 (Jan. 1990): np.
'Dressing Up For Death', 'The Match', White Wall Review No. 15 (1990): 45, 75.
'The Air Is A Sea', Ariel 21:1 (Jan. 1990): 88.
'The Air Is A Sea', Orbis No. 75 (Winter 1989): 102.
'The Spider', Wascana Review 24:2 (Fall 1989): 73.
'Dante at Ravenna, 1320', Prism International 27:2 (Winter 1989): 7.
'Note to Chris', 'White', 'Merseyside', Canadian Woman Studies 9:3/4 (Fall/Winter 1988): 169.
'Howe Sound', 'Invasions', University of Toronto Review Vol. 9, (Spring 1985): 8, 22-3. [Editor's Choice Award for Poetry]
'Ghazal of the Twisted Rose', Hogtown Poems (1983): 1.
'Swinton', Vancouver Streets (1983): 1.
'Before the Storm', 'Siene', Poetry Canada Review 4:2 (Winter 1982-83): 12.
'The Copper Penny', Poetry Magazine (1982):1.
'Poem For Gerry', Poetry Canada Review 1:4 (1982): 15.
'I have watched you', 'Coming Back', 'You Robe Me', 'She/Struck the Match', Island (1981): 3.
'Of Deer', Scroll (Wombat Press Limited Hand-Printed Edition of 200. Portfolio in honour of Fred Cogswell. Poems by poets he has published) 1980: np; Trade edition Wamboldt-Waterfield, 1981: np.
'We are most beautiful', 'Exposure', 'Our House', Island 7 (1980): 4.
'Seven Old Women', 'Rites', Waves 8:1 (Fall 1979): 42.
'My Grandfather Died', 'I have seen', 'Partisan', Prism International: Special Canadian Under 30s Issue 17:1 (Summer 1978): 157-59.
