That Afternoon in Toronto

September/October Poetry Update

Hi friends,

I haven’t written in a while. Things have slowed down a bit since the summer. But I still have some news I’m excited to share.

First of all: I’ll be doing a poetry reading in Toronto in the afternoon of November 22 with

D.S. Martin

. Mark your calendars!

I’ll provide more details on the reading below. But first I want to share some new poetry.

Since my last update, I’ve had two poems published in the latest issue of THINK Journal. THINK is a print journal, but for each issue they feature a few poems online. This time, they included one of my poems, called “Whale Song.” It starts like this:

Unseen ocean, open wide
your pangalactic reach.
Flay your fading spiral tide
on this too-solid beach.

If you’re curious, you can read the rest of it here.

Fr. Justin (Edward) Hewlett

compared it to Star Trek IV, which I was pretty pleased with. Maybe this is the song the whales are singing to the spaceship.

There’s another related poem in that issue of THINK called “Unseen Ocean.” You’ll need to actually get the paper copy to read that one. Or wait for my next book!

Also, The Brazen Head recently republished my award-winning poem Continuing City. Not only that, but they published it alongside two other really wonderful poems: Ælfstan the Illuminator Begins a Work by Marly Youmans and The Exiles from Judah in the Court of Nebuchadnezzar by

Steven Searcy

. Both are well worth your time.

One other fun thing that happened recently: the wonderful

Zina Gomez-Liss

featured my book in her article on the Sealey challenge.

Now back to the upcoming reading in Toronto. Here are the details:

Date: November 22, 2025

Location: St. Thomas’s Church, 383 Huron Street, Toronto

Time: 2:30 in the afternoon

The event will be part of the St. Thomas Poetry Series. I’ll be opening for D. S. Martin, who is among other things the Poet-in-Residence at McMaster Divinity College and the Series Editor for the Poiema Poetry Series. He will be launching his new book The Role of the Moon. I’ll probably treat this like a belated Toronto launch for The Living Law, though I have lots of new poems I’m excited about too. If you’re able to come, and there’s something you want to hear, let me know!