Category: Niagara Falls Poems

On Preservation by Kimiko Hahn

Listen to Kimiko Hahn perform On Preservation

 

Four hundred million years ago, a shallow sea
languished across the northern continent
and pressured layers of mud, silt, and marine shells
into varying layers of varying resistance until
the shale entertained a miles-thick ice sheet
that scoured the land into great basins. Meltwater
and glacial debris were ushered over the face.
Undercutting and collapsing yielded the gorge,
the falls, the whirlpools. Then man harnessed the flow,
and the inevitable retreat slowed thus preserving
a home for honeymoon and poetry.
                                                                     Not preserved
is the origin of the name Niagara–possibly adopted
from the Iroquois, Huron or Seneca languages
of which, today, only a few people can still speak.

Source: Kimiko Hahn, 2026kimiko

Kimiko Hahn, New York State Poet Laureate, wrote and performed this poem for the Niagara Falls Poetry Project’s 25th Anniversary, where it was featured at the April 9, 2026 event launching the Poetry Contest. Click here for information about the contest and the event.

About Kimiko Hahn

Maud Willard and Her Niagara Falls Stunt, 1901 by Kimiko Hahn

Listen to Kimiko Hahn performing “Maud Willard and Her Niagara Falls Stunt, 1901”

hahn
Maud Willard With Barrel

The barrel with Maud and her dog
shoots into the rapids’ familiar tossing
then to a swirling of strange currents.

Into the whirlpool, they sink from sight,
sucked into its merciless depths.
The barrel with Maud and her dog

then springs from the maelstrom, 
courses far from tourists on shore
in the swirling of strange currents.

Now dark–a search light into the gorge
illuminates the thrashing waves and
the barrel with Maud and her dog.

Five hours–the woman’s been imprisoned
in the rolling, revolving waters
till from that strange swirl of currents

the men catch the cask though only the pet
—nose seen in an air hole—leaps out.
The Tale of Daredevil Maud and Her Dog
is still strangely swirling. And current.


Source: Kimiko Hahn, 2026

Kimiko Hahn, New York State Poet Laureate, wrote and performed this poem for the Niagara Falls Poetry Project’s 25th Anniversary, where it was featured at the April 9, 2026 event launching the Poetry Contest. Click here for information about the contest and the event.

About Kimiko Hahn

Congratulatory Certificate from MPP Wayne Gates

MPP

As part of the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Niagara Falls Poetry Project on April 9, 2026, Shannon Mitchell on behalf of MPP Wayne Gates presented this congratulatory certificate.

At the celebration, each speaker was introduced with a limerick, and each of the speakers was invited to write and perform a poem of their own.

MPP Wayne Gates speaking in the Ontario Legislature

The introduction to MPP Wayne Gates, written and recited by Andrew Porteus, read:

Our dear MPP is Wayne Gates
And havoc at Queen’s Park he creates
He’s got quite the ‘stache
That makes such a flash
When a cabinet minister he berates

Shannon Mitchell wrote and recited a haiku at the event:

Ontario budget
Deep cuts across the board
Community rises

At this event, the Niagara Falls Poetry Project 25th Anniversary Poetry Contest was announced. Click here for the rules and submission guidelines. 

25th Anniversary Poetry Competition Rules & Submission Guidelines

contest rules

 

Welcome to the Niagara Falls Poetry Project 25th Anniversary Poetry Competition, a juried competition with poems in any form, on the theme of Niagara Falls, (the waterfalls and/or the two cities), with a special award for the poem that best exemplifies the “Spirit of Niagara Falls.” Poems will be added to the website, and published in an anthology of Niagara poetry.

There will be a first place prize of $200, a second place prize of $100, and a third place prize of $50. In addition there will be a $200 prize for the the poem that best exemplifies the “Spirit of Niagara Falls.”

Niagara Falls Poetry Contest Rules

Theme:

  • Niagara Falls (waterfalls & 2 cities) & Niagara River
    • Poems can be descriptive, philosophical, spiritual, historical, personal, or anything else as long as there is some connection to Niagara Falls, and not just a casual mention (see the NFPP website at https://niagarapoetry.ca to see the range of poetry accepted).
  • There will be a first prize winner of $200, a second prize winner of $100, and a third prize winner of $50
  • In addition, there will be a $200 prize for the poem that best captures the Spirit of Niagara Falls

Format:

  • No AI generated poems
  • Any poetical form accepted
  • Maximum 100 lines
  • English language or translation – judging will be on the English language translation, not the original language
  • May be previously published or already on the NFPP site
  • $5 entry fee, covers a maximum of 3 poems 
  • No gratuitous sex, violence, racism, or hate speech
  • Judges may not submit a poem to the contest, but will get a free entry on the website & in the anthology, and a free copy of the anthology

How to submit:

  • Submit in both a standard editing format and as a .pdf
  • Include a cover page with name, contact information, title, and biography, with an optional head shot (300 dpi minimum)
  • No identifying information on poem page
  • Optional Include an image illustrating the poem (min 300 dpi, 600 preferred, jpg), your copyright, copyright free, or from a place copyright can easily be obtained.
  • Submit to poetrycontest@niagarapoetry.ca
  • Submit payment through etransfer (preferred) or PayPal to poetrycontest@niagarapoetry.ca with message “Contest entry for [Your Name]”
  • Once submitted the poem cannot be changed
  • Contest closes at 11:59 pm August 15, 2026  (Eastern Daylight Time)

By entering the contest you:

  • Agree to have your poem published on the NFPP website & in the 25th anniversary anthology, at the NFPP curator’s discretion (Not all entries will necessarily be published online or in the print anthology)
  • Receive a 15% discount when ordering the print anthology
  • Agree that the judges’ decision is final

 

 

Town of Niagara – Late 1940’s by D. R. Wagner

town
Falls Street, Niagara Falls, NY, 1948
Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Here is where the railroad tore
Through the edge of our town.
Black earth, black air and the perfect
Angel, steam, sung by whistle
Toots and a language of flags,
Brakemen’s lanterns and the booming
Freight cars tearing dark holes
Through all the seasons.

 
We were Town of Niagara boys.
The city boys knew it because
We walked in the streets when
We crossed Hyde Park bridge
To go into the city together.
We didn’t have sidewalks.
 
Our barber shop in a drear
Apartment building called
The Ten Commandments.
Mr. Brunettit’s grocery store,
Where he reigned, cigar mashed
In his face, his wife, small,
Watching from the shadows.
 
Brownie’s gas station “If you can’t
Come in smile as you go by”, the sign
Facing cobblestones of Hyde Park
Blvd. There was a war in Europe,
Japan. It seemed exotic until
The dead came home and we
Knew their names and faces,
Their mothers and fathers.
The flag-draped boxes and crisp
Ceremony. Taps at Riverdale.
 
It was good to be from there.
Where the air always smelled.
Chemicals and hot slag in the night
Poured into open fields from
Midnight trams, glowing as our
Lives glowed, brighter than radio
Dials tuned to the news and spoken
Fictions churning it all together.
 
The town, the trains, the Ten
Commandments, the cigar, the dull
Gas station and nights filled
With the crazy wonder of it all.

Source: The Real “Old Falls Street” People Facebook Group, April 6, 2017. Originally published in D. R. Wagner, Private Archaeology, Bottle of Smoke Press, 2013.