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    Glasstown
    Glasstown
    Glasstown
    Ebook100 pages25 minutes

    Glasstown

    By Katje van Loon

    ()

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    About this ebook

    A collection of confessional poems on topics ranging from heartache to sexual awakening to rage. This is Katje's first collection of poetry.

    Katje van Loon is the clear, forthright voice of a generation as hooked on poetry as any in history. By turns yearning, outraged, wistful, and funny, these poems won't let us get away with forgetting the past or denying the present. Her muscular command of language demonstrates what it means to be a young word-wrighter today. Poetry's future rests in good hands.

    -Kaimana Wolff, Cured of Kings and the witless poisoner

    Katje van Loon is a runaway who not only clearly sees what she's fleeing, she definitely knows what she's seeking: a place where the world makes better sense and writing really can make, enrich, and save your life. Her instruments are ones "of soul and sass," and her good work will thoroughly kick that part of your anatomy that rhymes with the latter as she wrings your brain with necessary thought. Don't be glancing around as you read; she's speaking to you.

    -Eric Paul Shaffer, Portable Planet and Living at the Monastery, Working in the Kitchen

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe Pack Press
    Release dateSep 30, 2009
    ISBN9781386657248
    Glasstown
    Author

    Katje van Loon

    Katje van Loon, genderqueer author, poet, and menace to society, resides in beautiful British Columbia with zir spouse and their collection of books, DVDs, and video games. When not writing, Katje can be found knitting, baking, committing pixel homicide, or reading.

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      Book preview

      Glasstown - Katje van Loon

      Un-

      this poem is perfection

      this poem

      need no

      re-vision

      for unnecessary unreasons

      for unpeople in an unworld

      this is all after earth

      Earth after all is our place

      our unplace

      with our unpeople

      un

      transit stories

      my journal is filled with notes on bus routes

      schedules

      so i may safely get to where i’m going

      the next station in my life.

      and i desperately

      wish to break away from this,

      to just get on a bus

      without noting its number or name

      or asking what its sign is and just trusting

      in this perfect stranger that could run me over

      and make me part of

      the history of this city’s streets

      and to go, go farther than the eye can see

      and farther still

      till i know nothing of anything

      anymore

      and still keep going.

      and then,

      when i see something unfamiliar and yet

      home

      i’ll pull the string and hop off,

      letting my return-path

      squeal and screech away

      under its heavy burden

      of my fellow runaways.

      and i’ll stand

      looking around

      in my new place of existence

      a place to expand the zone

      of my conformity, my

      comfort,

      and someone walking by will stop

      and say

      how came you by

      this hidden land?

      ––––––––

      and i’ll smile and know

      all the stories i read

      are true.

      Growth

      i have sown the seeds of malcontent within us

      this composite being

      of what was you

      and me

      so fragile in its strength

      and these seeds

      will scatter

      our angers watering them

      until they sprout

      and the sun of our distance lending light

      to the thorn tree

      upon this mound

      of hurt

      in our garden

      and whether we have the strength or not

      to rip out this weed

      remains to be seen

      and whether or not

      we will simply reap

      what we’ve sown

      remains to be seen

      because hey

      it’s your tree too

      and what you lack

      is what i have

      Calliope 1

      She starts, there is nothing to scare her.

      The sky brightens

      on her arm, purple welts

      pulsing fade.

      Notes, words ordered with song

      all on one line

      she sings

      lilting lyrical

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