Author Archives: quillfyre

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About quillfyre

I'm a poet and member of the League of Canadian Poets published in Ottawa journals and online. My poems have received Honourable Mentions in Arborealis 2008, Ontario Poetry Society, and the Canadian Authors Association National Capital Writing Contest in 2008 and 2011. I began writing on a manual green Olivetti typewriter, but I don’t miss having poems flavoured with correction fluid and cross-outs.

Working at Discomfort

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Carol A. Stephen

 

I started this challenge on the 4th of January. During this first week, I worked on and submitted two poems (ok, it was to a contest, but a new one, not the safe usual ones!)

I’ve also kept up with the challenge to complete the river of small stones, ten done so far, and this is Day 10.

I’ve been finding the last few days that the winter blahs are trying to move in, so I am pushing back in new directions to send them packing again.  Tomorrow I am going to a group pottery lesson, which is something else totally new. This will help to break up my usual intense-focus-on-one-thing-to-the-exclusion-of-all-others, which tends to add a lot of guilt to my days.  I guess my overall goal for this week is going to be to lighten up!

—Carol

 

the tenth small stone: the ordinary

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Day 10

the ordinary

morning cat pokes his nose
into my eyelid, wanting fed.
my other eye waters and
focuses on blue clock face
an hour past his usual time.

we race downstairs, cat always
winning, though I start down first.
he handicaps me, I suppose,
ungainly human— slow, he thinks.

he sniffs kibble, waits
till his tongue touches tuna
in the other bowl, laps a little,
then wrinkles his whiskers,

ready now for winter weather
but only for a moment, this creature
comfortable in his own routine,
prefers the inside warmth, the ordinary.

Carol A. Stephen
January 10, 2012

Day 9 small stone: focusing on one thing

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Day 9 Focusing

the challenge is small,
to open one bottle.

the maker boasts the use
of less plastic, a green intention

yet the cap is harder to grasp
and it resists my grip.

a single turn. it appears
no different than before, but

if I poke my thumbnail, just so,
a thin line reveals itself.

tiny plastic fingers brace
and break at slight pressure.

now the cap turns easily.
my lips moisten in anticipation:

500 ml of cool water,
a long slow swallow.

Carol A. Stephen
January 9, 2012

Day 8 small stone: an absent silence

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Day 8 an absent silence

the house returns to me
its sounds loud today
in the silence from other rooms
empty of visitors and family
humidifier hums, clock talks,
and the furnace and fridge
hold their low-key conversations
no snores before the tv screen
no rattle of crinkly bags
nor clink of coffee cups
as they collect in kitchen sink
only the cat and I still here
in this silence of absence
—cas