Monday, 5 May 2025

2 Poems by John Cole

BURIAL

Thirty-six swipes
to turn off the alerts.
Thirteen minutes to delete the apps.
Forty-seven stabs at the ground
to dig the hole.
Twenty-three hefts and stomps
to pack and tamp the soil.
Five hours of battery life.
Three hundred and twenty-three
unanswered calls.


THE WOODPECKER

A
Bird
Can
Delight
Even
Forest
Ghosts
Howling
In
Jest,
Knock-knocking
Lightly
Meandering,
Nesting
On
Parched
Quills,
Ransacking
Solemnly,
Tap-tap-tapping
Under
Vast
Woodlands.
Xerothermic
Yodeler.
Zigzagger.


Bionote

John Cole is a Canadian-born composer and poet based in Japan. He holds degrees from the University of Victoria (B.Mus), Simon Fraser University (MFA), and Elizabeth University of Music in Hiroshima (D.Mus). His poetry is deeply influenced by his background in composition, with a strong focus on formal and structural elements. His work has appeared in The LakePoetry Pacific, and Eskimo Pie, with forthcoming publication in Flora Fiction

No comments:

Post a Comment