Mark Callanan – Poetry

Chris Banks has written a nice blog post on Gift Horse. You can read his piece here.

Lobsters

We wander aisles, the kid and me,
past pans of ice
that chill the flesh of fillets,
arriving at the lobster tank
where a behemoth with claws
the size of children’s mittens
plods across the floor
in segmented centurion’s armour,
beady eyes the black opacity
of glass domes that shield security
cameras in department stores,
antennae set to channel
waves from distant radios
or call in airstrikes
against a bunkered foe.
The small ones form
a pep squad pyramid,
weigh in against oblivion.
My daughter, leaning in,
makes a fish face
at the lot of them.

***

Reprinted from Gift Horse, Véhicule Press 2011.

Last weekend, I read at Memorial University’s SPARKS festival. Here’s a picture by Maria Penney to prove I was there.

I’ve added a Reviews page on the site. Over the next while, I’ll be placing links to reviews I’ve written. I’m starting out with old Quill & Quire reviews.

Gift Horse made the National Post‘s best-of poetry list for 2011. Read the whole list here.

I’m reading with GG Award-winning poet Richard Greene at The Ship Pub in St. John’s. Here’s a poster I just made:

To find out more about the series, click here.