Poetry

He Wants Me to Describe It

The winner of Room's 2002 poetry contest, judged by Joelene Heathcote. My friend wants to know what I think of when I panic. I pause in front of lit shop windows of long wrap-around scarves, beaded necklines and Indian silks. Absence, abandonment are the words but...

A Visit

The second-place winner of our 2001 poetry contest. at Christmas I stare and stare at your daughters who look so eerily like you. your older girl seems all right, I know you’d be glad. she’s a regular kid, plays with ponies, laughs in shrieks. it’s only sometimes I...

Pink Lilies

The winner of our 2001 poetry contest. You are a woman who lusts after pink lilies, the open mouths of inlets blurred by mist. Nothing is ever simple. A man who says he loves his wife but runs his hands over you. You stamp and shiver, steam like a horse in rain. You...

Hot

She is waiting for the end of another beginning, woman, always changing: now the heat is in the core. She is waiting for the end of another beginning, woman, always changing: now the heat is in the core. She is saying goodbye to the moon’s pull, rhythm of tides;...

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ROOM 48.1 WITS END
In times of crisis, we laugh to offer tenderness, to ward off despair— so we can be brave. Gather round ROOM 48.1 WITS END and let humour be a mirror held up to the state of the world as we continue to resist.

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ROOM 47.4 FULL CIRCLE
Step back with Room into the past, to parents, to childhood homes, and to people once known and loved; dig into themes of grief and healing; and ultimately explore what it means to come full circle in literature.

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