Friday, November 9, 2018

“poem” broadside #345 : “FALLS” by Claire Farley



What is a year in terms of falling water?
– Muriel Rukeyser


Nothing but lumber
falls dammed & city rezoned
material obstacle
to the flow of cars

For 10,000 years
this sacred pipe
is “river” now
open the viewer to zoom in

40,000 on the grid
I break it down in sections
who opposes & who supports
pavement or asbestos 

buried turbines
on contaminated soil
(preferred hire to stem
the flow Indigenous)

In the 1930s, Rukeyser
wrote hydro & silicosis

    All power is saved, having no end    
                                        
Water celebrates, yielding continually
         sheeted and fast in its overfall

now the green season is 
commerce, condos—
sometimes someone
chooses because

                            falling, the water sheet
    White brilliant function of land’s disease

another by-law
turns land industry
turns Crown municipal
duty to consult

cannot be delegated
to third parties
another resolution
whereas;


FALLS, by Claire Farley
produced in part as a handout during the fifth
Arc Poetry Walk, curated and hosted by rob mclennan, walking around Hintonburg, November 9, 2018
above/ground press broadside #345

Claire Farley is a doctoral candidate in the Department of English at the University of Ottawa and co-founder of Canthius, a feminist literary magazine. Her poetry has been published in several Canadian literary magazines and in 30 under 30: An Anthology of Canadian Millennial Poets. She is the 2016 recipient of the Diana Brebner Prize.

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