Fern G. Z. Carr - Poems

FERN G. Z. CARR is the President of Project Literacy Kelowna Society, a lawyer, teacher and past President of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.  A Full Member of and former Poet-in-Residence for the League of Canadian Poets, this Pushcart Prize nominee composes and translates poetry in six languages including Mandarin Chinese.  Carr has been published extensively world-wide from Finland to Mauritius.  Honours include having been cited as a contributor to the Prakalpana Literary Movement in India as well as having had her work taught at West Virginia University, set to music by a Juno-nominated musician, and featured online in The Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper.  Her poem, “I Am”, was chosen by the Parliamentary Poet Laureate as Poem of the Month for Canada.  Carr is thrilled to have another one of her poems currently orbiting the planet Mars aboard NASA’S MAVEN spacecraft. www.ferngzcarr.com

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                    Snapshots

​Submissive. Out of focus;
background imagery
camouflaged by
misplaced arms
in contrived poses
snatching
attention
with bombastic swagger
and the braggadocio
of corncob rows
of bleached teeth
mugging behind
artificially parted lips
ventriloquist-like
speaking in goudas, bries,
emmenthals and gruyères,
oblivious to our iconoclasm –
our omnipresence
in the travel photos
of strangers.



 

                In Passing
 
​Iron bars do not a prison
Make love not
War and
Peace in our
Time is
Money makes the world go
Round off to the nearest decimal
Place the ring on her finger and repeat after
Me? I never touch the
Stuff that dreams are made
Of course I don't
Mind your
Step to the front of the
Line of
Fire burn and cauldron
Bubble
Wrap up the
Meeting one-on-
One swallow does not a summer
Make
Merry Christmas one and
All for one and one for
All hell broke                                     
Loose lips sink
"Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing,
Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness;
So on the ocean of life we pass and speak one another,
Only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence." *
                                               
               * Tales of a Wayside Inn. Part iii. The Theologian’s Tale: Elizabeth. iv.
                                                                by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
                                               
 

                        
 

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                        Liminality
 
Liminality
                                    transience
undefined borders 
where the spume of inky swells
 
meets sandy shores
            surf meeting sand
sand meeting surf
 
where footprints of the soul
soon disappear
 
much like the life they possess –
liminality
                                                            transience
 
 
 


            every headstone

​every headstone
a story –
a friend, a neighbour,
a lover
 
every headstone
a life lived,
some dramatic,
some not
 
every headstone
a marker
of an existence that was,
an existence that mattered
 
every headstone
a story
ignored