Excerpts from my poetry book: "The Wickedness Of Flowers"

Here are a few poems from my third book of poetry, ("The Wickedness Of Flowers" follow the link to purchase) and the first one that I self published (all self pub'd) as Josie Boyce rather than under my old name.

The first one is a poem that took me many years to get to 'finished', though like Walt Whitman, one of the very few 'heroes' I have, I consider all my work to be mutable, and open to later revision. It's a dreamy worded piece that speaks in those dreamy tones about my youth growing up in rural New Brunswick, specifically, Sunbury County. Here is a video, followed by the text for those who don't like videopoems (pretty much everyone based on my hits.)



In The Blue South Of Sunbury County

In the blue south of Sunbury County
a child with cherries    
smiles 
spinning knives
                  teeth paint screams
ghosted trains within 
                pink fingers
rusted nails in the deep green
              mother's morning dreams .
flesh of aquamarine   
silent St. John River
                  sentences
                  disappear 
with the gaspareaux through 
the rapid water  
words fly & fall 
with these fish   so slumbered 
                     in red & brown   
                     lazy a part   
from   the   trees
sky a part from
turquoise & green afternoons   
                    sparse clouded memory   
memories of mine 
of  Sunbury County .

voices... 

purply watered
imagination 
pass each dream & drown
                   quiet dimples   
other children ring round me
one by one
(burnt roses helpless 
thoughts virgin puddles)
everyone sings down 
among the violets &
              clover .  
tears borrowed maybe stolen 
                              twirl down  
mother's fish scale glittered skirt 
wearing mirrors 
that catch each glimmer 
                     crinkled 
blue green red brown 
splash 
             swirl down & 
grasp playing Mr.  
           & Mrs. Dressup  

30 years ago in

the blue south of Sunbury County .  

© 2013 Josie Boyce (Published in "The Wickedness Of Flowers" 2013)

The second showcased poem was written back in the mid nineties when I was at my most prolific. I had access to a vocabulary that these days really eludes my grasp. I don't think I have this kind of rhythm anymore. This poem usually goes over really well when I read it, especially here in Vancouver, as it's very Van centric. video and text below:


This poem was selected to be in the Vancouver visible Verse Festival a few years ago, for video poems. More people saw it that one night than have or ever will watch it on youtube. It got a nice response.

Gargoyle Weather

I can drink from a candle's supple flame,
singing my grey hair black walking amidst
East Vancouver's furious rainy dropspots.

I can remember to remember myself
as easily quickly as i do, my dead
friends and unrequited lovers.

I can walk across a river of drowning
words, my head a fire of gargoyles dancing
on glass screaming riddles in rhyme.

I can close my eyes melting wax; scald my 
fingers with tongues of smoke kissed by
gingerhairedgirls crying missing down home.

I can breathe in this flooded sky deeply 
slowly, hold myself clinging to white green 
limestone as i swim rippling in my fear.

I can listen with cold glass ears to sylvan 
whispers of a former-very-near-to-being-my lover
: a friend, "I love you but you're always asleep."

I can grapple with dropping falling to my knees
to my belly punched soft flattened kicked 
my face cracked cracked cracked with tears.

I can lay here under this stone-crafted weather
letting a beautiful city step over the grotesque
echoes descending upon me with a fury of silence.

© 2013 Josie Boyce (Published in "The Wickedness Of Flowers" 2013)

The last poem for today's post is one that I wrote while living in Japan. By the time I left Japan my poetry mojo had kind of dried up, as i was so focussed on the pain of feeling like I was never going to transition my gender. It took almost 3 years of phone calls, letters from me and my doctor to even get an appointment. 

I wrote almost nothing in that time, and feel like I am just coming out of that creative funk now. I published my earlier books, and this one in order to try and kickstart that writing urge, that thing that made me write poetry every day. that thing is gone, but I do have a lot to show for when it was firing on all cylinders. This piece is also something fun to do live, especially if there are Japanese folks in the audience who often squeal when I pronounce Karaoke and a few other Japanese words correctly.

It's called "Chet Baker Reincarnated"

Here is a video of me reading at Pride In Art during Pride week in 2013. the poem in question starts at 4:31 into the video.




Here's the text of that poem.

Chet Baker Reincarnated 

sings 
karaoke in Tokyo 
every second 
          night he croons 
funny valentines 
&
the american girls 
             swoon
and smile 
       splendidly 
squealing clapping: 
                "sugoi, sugoi"

Chet Baker reincarnated 
is coy is
           flirting 
                 within 
           the melody
of his legendary sorrow
his blush of songs
                    seem 
a piped in dream 
a heavy desire 
just 
to get lost.

Chet Baker reincarnated
sips androgynous 
        cocktails
        between 
Japanese lullabies
           and he 
drums time 
on the table
as others 
     try in vain
to hit the notes 
he can and
does every 
        second night
Chet Baker Reincarnated.

© 2013 Josie Boyce (Published in "The Wickedness Of Flowers" 2013)






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