Vanessa Shields's Blog, page 18

Poem 345 – 9:22pm

9:22pm

the room is a mess with joy & tomorrow afternoon I will organize it
my hands are smoothed by shea hinted with peppermint & rosemary
& I use my fingers to type this poem & pause to scratch my right ear
it is always itchy – the moo-moo I wear is a garden of dragons & tropical flowers
soon I will get into bed & the dog hair will tickle my nostrils & make me sneeze & the beauty I held in the crystal tears sliding down my cheeks will make lakes for dreams & Louis wain’s cats will squeal & jump in prisms of dazzling light that rise with the sun

TOMORROW – SUNDAY 11AM -2PM!

Get 15% off all merchandise at Gertrude’s Writing Room! Literary gifts for bookish! T-shirts, stickers, stationary, word prompts, books, bags & FREE COOKIES!

Looking forward to sharing the holiday spirit with everyone!

Poem 344 – Contour

Contour

this morning I contour a drawing of us into my throat
so that every breath in & out
every word spoken or swallowed
keeps us deeply connected

Poem 343 – I Know Why Skin

Alert: There is a curse word in this poem

I know why skin

I know why it exists
to contain
All. Of. It.

thepainthegorethepleasurethedarktheconfusionthebloodthehopethegraspthedesperationthedreamthepassiontheorgasmthelosstheslobberthemuscletheknowingtheempathytheragethefearthenoisethepasttheliesthestoriesthetruththefirethetastethejoytheheartthelove

the What the Fuck of It All
the glorious hasty extraordinary vomitous victory of Living

(yes, I know it is not indestructible that it changes reshapes reflects redefines holds the codes for my every wobble but oh! skin…I know why skin)

OPEN HOUSE SALE SUNDAY 11AM – 2PM!

Thank you to the shoppers who came by last evening and purchased some goods (and free goodies!) from the writing room. We look forward to seeing more of you on Sunday!

*All Items 15% off!*

Including…re-usable wrapping material…look how pretty…

$2.00 a roll of material.

Next Wednesday – a ZoomZoom reading!

Please join me and writer/poet/playwright Natalie Meisner for our By the River Reading Series event! It’s free & fabulous!

MORE INFO HERE!

7PM EST

Poem 342 – I Burned My Tongue & YIN Link & Open House tonight!

I Burned My Tongue

hot gravy oozing over meat
scorched the centre
now it’s rough with tender pain

sometimes hunger does that –
brings a biting, hasty excitement
scarring a song of soreness
on a body part for further harkening

I roll my tongue under my
front teeth, try to lift the tantrummed tissue
will my speech be different today –
smouldering in yesterday’s haughty hunger?

Yin Zoom Link for Thursday, December 9 – 6am

Vanessa Shields is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: DECEMBER YIN WRITING
Time: 6am

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82391490292?pwd=TkFURUcyYmJEZWl4NkQvNWs0UzhKZz09

Meeting ID: 823 9149 0292
Passcode: 512295
One tap mobile
+15873281099,,82391490292#,,,,512295# Canada +16473744685,,82391490292#,,,,512295# Canada

Dial by your location
+1 587 328 1099 Canada
+1 647 374 4685 Canada
+1 647 558 0588 Canada
+1 778 907 2071 Canada
+1 204 272 7920 Canada
+1 438 809 7799 Canada
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 929 436 2866 US (New York)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
Meeting ID: 823 9149 0292
Passcode: 512295
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbfRzEzaDG

Shop tonight! Free cookies!

See you at Gertrude’s Writing Room, 1899 Niagara, in Willistead Park in the Coach House – shop for handmade gifts and fine literary luxuries!

6:30pm – 8:30pm

Cash, credit, debit, etransfer accepted.

Poem 341-Octopus & Gertrude’s Writing Room Open House #shoplocal

Octopus

Today I Am Octopus
8-Limbed
3-Hearted
Blue-blooded Water Alien
Gliding Across Ground Above & Below

Such Suction-Heavy Solitary Living Is
Soul Saturation Under The Influence
Of Moon & Her Feisty Phases I

Do Not Digress Rather Spread My
Tenacious Tentacles & Embrace The
Current Of My Ink-Brimming Brain

Today I Am Octopus
I Do Not Wait For Dreams
When I Can Hold 8 At A Time
On My Body Love Them In A
Trifecta Of Abundant Beatings

This Alien Creature-ing Is Immortal
Like Poetry

OPEN HOUSE WEDNESDAY & SUNDAY!

Come and visit Gertrude’s Writing Room for a literary shopping experience like no other ! We’re offering 15% off ALL ITEMS! And, there will be free cookies from the Riverside Pie Cafe. Oof – so yummy!

WED. DEC. 8 – 6:30PM – 8:30PM

SUN. DEC. 12 – 11:00AM – 2PM

We accept cash, debit, credit, and e-transfer. Please wear masks and respect social distancing rules. Thank you!

For the literary love in your life – you included – come on by and #shoplocal! Local art, local books, local lovin’!

Poem 340 Twenty-first Century Alternatives to the Opening Line of Mrs Dalloway

Twenty-first Century Alternatives to the Opening Line of Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the batteries (for her vibrator) herself.
Mrs Dalloway said they would attend the protest themself.
Mrs Dalloway said he would cook dinner himself.
Mrs Dalloway said she would get the vaccination herself.
Mrs Dalloway said they would judge the case themself.
Mrs Dalloway said he would wear the yellow dress himself.
Mrs Dalloway said she would plant the seeds herself.
Mrs Dalloway said they would vote themself.
Mrs Dalloway said he would raise the child himself.
Mrs Dalloway said she would lead the country herself.
Mrs Dalloway said they would go off-grid themself.
Mrs Dalloway said he would cut his hair himself.
Mrs Dalloway said she/they/he would.
Mrs Dalloway is

I’ll be reading!

Join me and Natalie Meisner as we share words on zoom as part of the By The River Reading Series.

Wednesday, December 15, 2021 via zoom

7pm EST

To register, click here!

Poem 339 – I’ll Be Dreamscaping

I’ll be Dreamscaping

taking a shovel (soft-edged)
to the pipes in patient waiting
gathering seeds of stories
flitting in my femur, picking up
poetry pods littered & stuck
in my pancreas – oh, wonder!
oh, curiosity! oh, muse naked
& aroused

I’ll be with you soon

Poem 337 & 338

337 – Haiku for Carlos Ruiz Zafón

you did it again*
cleared my mind of poetry
I’m in your labyrinth

*Friends, it happened again. All day I reminded myself: writeyourpoemwriteyourpoemwriteyourpoem. And the day flew by with moments to fill with poetry…but instead I held up his book, Labyrinth of the Spirts…and I was gone. I stopped because my eyes were drying out. It was 11:45pm…all I could do was go to sleep. And so…another day with a double-up. (Do you think because I’m so close to the end, part of me is ready to be done this poem a day thing?)

338 – After Crafting

digits, swollen from use
needles threaded through rainbows
the filling of time with colours & craft
this witch on the spine of solstice 
heats in the pleasure of collective 
creating – sigh, oh, star-blitzed sky
dust over me as I dangle from the 
moon’s ample curvature & hold
hard this abundance into always 

Thank you to the stellar group of crafters who gathered at Gertrude’s for an incredible extravaganza of creativity! Photos to come!

Poem 336 – Work

Work

it’s nearly ten & she’s still working
what does that even mean?
categorizing expressions of living
changes them in her body
with each new meaning
interspersing like shrapnel
then eating news that wars
damage in her guts

relativity is pain’s dialect
when resilience slips in
she exhales to an 8 count
but the inhalation always
arrives – a thick black hair
on the chin of her day
she can’t feel it growing
& it never stops & she knows
that like she knows guns
will exist as long as there’s
hearts to point them at

it’s all work
the language
the limbs
the comfort of the pen
between her fingers
the way she loops her
Ps and Qs

handwriting is sanctuary
& poetry tucks behind
her knuckles with age
the discussion of labour
sandwiched between
vein & its pulse

can she call it something else?
now it’s work to hold her
eyelids up – sleep is on deck
gazing at the stars
rocket rising

Poem 335 – Tell Each Other & Yin Writing

Tell Each Other

The following things:

If there’s a rice-looking snot in a nostril (or any shape of snot, actually)
If there’s a dark chunk of food between teeth (or any coloured chunk of food, actually)

If breathe is deathly
If a bra shows through
If ear wax is showing
If one smells like poo

If you need an ear or both
If you need a hug or hand-hold
If you need a laugh or cry
If you need an eye or both

Please, tell each other because
of all the things we say each day
typed or texted or zoomed
we’re doomed
if we can’t ask for what we need
or point out what we see, gently

I’ll tell you you’ll tell me
when I need to wipe my face
for vulnerability stands on grace
& kindness opens space for

Love lots and lots of love

YIN WRITING – THURSDAYS IN DECEMBER

Here is the link for the month of December. It is the same for each weekly session. If you have any trouble getting in, please text/call Vanessa at 519-999-2314.

Vanessa Shields is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: DECEMBER YIN WRITING
Time: 6AM

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82391490292?pwd=TkFURUcyYmJEZWl4NkQvNWs0UzhKZz09

Meeting ID: 823 9149 0292
Passcode: 512295
One tap mobile
+15873281099,,82391490292#,,,,512295# Canada +16473744685,,82391490292#,,,,512295# Canada

Dial by your location
+1 587 328 1099 Canada
+1 647 374 4685 Canada
+1 647 558 0588 Canada
+1 778 907 2071 Canada
+1 204 272 7920 Canada
+1 438 809 7799 Canada
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 929 436 2866 US (New York)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
Meeting ID: 823 9149 0292
Passcode: 512295
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbfRzEzaDG

WINNERS!

Congratulations to all those who are National Novel Writing Month Winners! That means they wrote 50,000 words in the month of November! Me, well, I’m not winner this year, coming in with just under 4,000 words. But I tell you what, I handled some desperate structure and plot issues, and feel reignited with my characters and story – ONWARD WRITERS! May the words continue to flow, no matter what the pace!