New Poem and Notes: “The Pyromancer”

For those of you who missed it, Goblin Fruit ended 2014 in style by posting their last issue with one minute to go before the year ended.

It is a beautiful issue as usual; I particularly adore the poems from Rose Lemberg, Alena Sullivan, and Neile Graham, but everything is scrumptious.

And one of the poems is mine!

“The Pyromancer” was inspired by me watching 4th of July fireworks with my family at Boldt Castle in, oh, 2012? 2011? A while ago now. (We’re Canadian, but at that time we lived just next to the American border, and my mother’s side of the family is American.) The whole “lights of boats on the water” thing was a thing I didn’t have to make up; I’ve always loved the look of many small lights in darkness, whether that’s the stars, a bunch of tourist cruise boats, or even just the street lights and porch lights of nighttime suburbia. That was where the poem started. Any statements in the poem that may be construed as being about magic, perception, resilience, etc, came afterwards. 🙂

(“Turning to Stone“, published earlier this year, was conceived at the same time and on the same excursion. I was in a busy holiday city and had a bad meltdown… You win some, you lose some, I guess! And then you can write about both.)