I launched my new poetry chapbook on January 21, 2014, at the Words of Our Own evening hosted by the Editors’ Association of Canada at the Upper Crust Café!

It was lovely to share the poems that were conceived during Olivewood and Laurel’s September 2013 Writing Retreat in Athens and Kardamyli, Greece.

 

Tisane

Do you see? Do you see? Do you see?
Craven, carved, whipped and wounded.
How your argument bleeds me dry?
Dry as ironwort sliced from the mountain top
and offered in bundles for four euros each.

In Yiannis’s herbal shop we hear
that he was grandmother’s favourite boy, the thief
who was good with his hands.
He still slices carefully
with blunt nose scissors
the plant from Taygetos’s flank
only once a year, returning exactly to that sweet spot
fearful lest dishonest foreigners with their strong hands
might have pulled the thing – sideritis – by its roots.

Sideritis is a plant used for healing wounds caused by iron weapons and is used today to brew Mountain Tea, which is good for whatever ails you.