new from above/ground press: Map of What Was Taken, by Cara Goodwin

Map of What Was Taken
Poems by Cara Goodwin
$6

Little Fish

The river races down the mountain,
becomes a lake and washes your face.
You coo with delight, inflatable wings
on your baby arms. I have my eye on a hawk
circling the distant shore. Soon,
clouds will roll down the escarpment
and I will bundle you up and take us home,
but right now, the lake is singing.
I wonder how long the mountain will stay
in your lungs; how long you will carry me
in your heart. I want to tell you about
your grandmother, how she bathed me here,
too. Life is a wriggling, slippery thing:
vapor rises, rains down, again
and again, your little hands send ripples
across the water.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
August 2026
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

[Cara Goodwin launches Map of What Was Taken in Ottawa on August 22 as part of the above/ground press thirty-third anniversary reading/launch/party]

Cover art by TJ Bunz, you can follow them on Instagram at @tjb__art

Born in Cold Lake, Alberta, on a rainy day in April, 1992, Cara Goodwin is the daughter of a beautiful Cree mother and a doting military father. Her early years were shaped by movement across the plains: visits to her mother’s relations on reserve; months spent with her Kokum in British Columbia; a move to New Brunswick at age eight, where she developed an East Coast sense of humour; and a relocation to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, at 15, where she lived until high school graduation. 

After a year abroad in Australia, Cara moved to Ottawa, Ontario, at 19 for school, where she became roommates with her future best friend, and has built a chosen family of her own. Now 34, and a proud member of Fort McMurray 468 First Nation, she is focused on deepening her connection to her Cree heritage and considering how to leave the planet a better place for her nieces.

An Ottawa-based poet, Cara’s work has appeared in Bywords, flo. literary magazine, and Room. Over the past five years, she has received two Honourable Mentions for the John Newlove Award and was shortlisted for Room’s Annual Poetry Prize in 2023. In 2025, she read as a featured performer for the Riverbed Reading Series, where her poems traced her ancestral roots across what is now-Canada. Cara holds a BA (Hons.) in Social Communications from Saint Paul University and has completed numerous writing courses over the years. 

To order, send cheques (add $2 for postage; in US, add $3; outside North America, add $7) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com