My poem, On Watching Him Work From Home, is now part of Lydia Horne‘s ongoing archive of micro-reflections on the pandemic, Pandemic Prose. Like a living anthology, this project allows people to share, in 100 words or less, the everyday oddness of right now.
literature
Lunate’s Micro Competition Winner!
What does one do during a laid-off lock-down? Write about love and Pride. My micro-fic, Toronto Pride, 1995, is now up at Lunate. Go, enjoy this very short shot of love set in a time of social closeness, before social media.
Three Poems in Terse Journal
Three of my poems are in the December issue of Terse Journal. The journal seeks to publish poems that share nostalgia for lost futures.
Take A Look – I Am In A Book!
Celestial Echo Press/Gemini Wordsmiths‘ first collection, The Twofer Compendium, is now available for purchase. It features 36 short stories on the theme of twins, including my tale, The Tyndarids.
Buy it for $2.99 on Smashwords!
What are folks saying about it? Nice stuff!
“The Twofer Compendium is a robust twin anthology, a creative montage of voice and style with no two stories the same. It’ll keep you page turning all night.” – Daniel Arthur Smith, USA Today Best-selling author
That IS nice! Well, I’m sold. I’ve clearly got no ulterior motive on this one.
In some-but-not-all seriousness, it’s a fun book and you can’t go wrong at a dime a story! I’ll post as soon as the physical book is available for those who still like to hold pages in hand.
Daughteret is not a made-up word
I wrote a sonnet, entitled Daughteret is not a made-up word, to honour Tarana Burke and the work she has been doing for decades to give girls a voice. It was published today in Writers Resist magazine. Click here to give it a read.
If you enjoy the poem, please feel free to donate to Burke’s work here.
The Twofer Compendium
What’s that? What’s that? My short story, The Tyndarids, will soon be featured in Celestial Echo Press’ collection, The Twofer Compendium. This collection includes intriguing mysteries, thrillers, psychological essays and high fantasy using the theme of twins — all within the short-story format!
My tale is a very personal urban slipstream story about twins named Geri and Jerry. (Admittedly, their mother was not a stellar human.)
As soon as the collection is available, I will post a link to it, with info on how to purchase it.
Rest In Peace, Mr. Dionne
My new creative non-fiction piece, Rest In Peace, Mr. Dionne, is live and free to read in the second issue of Stonecrop Review. It’s the true story of two deeply urban kids finding a way to interact with nature in order properly send off their beloved guinea pig, Mr. Dionne. The artwork, which is both charming and uncanny, is by Holly McKelvey.
The rest of the issue is also beautiful, featuring fiction, non-fiction, poetry, art and photography from around the world exploring the theme of Roots/Routes in urban nature.
In Christie Pits
by H. E. Casson (CW: Homelessness)
The wading pool is emptied out
The trees have left their leaves about
You wear no coat, but breathe a cloud
In puffs that float above the crowd
At play in Christie Pits
Last night the swings were flipped around
You try to reach them from the ground
Your sister climbs to set them back
While father mimes a heart attack
Brought on at Christie Pits
You snack on fruit and carrot sticks
On cans of pop and peanut mix
You heed the words from all the mums
To feed the birds but not the bums
Who sleep in Christie Pits
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
H. E. Casson 