Category: Niagara Poet

water child by atlantic

water

“onitariio”
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡is Huron
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡it means
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡“beautiful lake” (and it is)

I was born
‡‡between Lakes Erie and Ontario (onitariio)
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡bracketed
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡north
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡and
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡south
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡by water

born in the winter,
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡I am child
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡of ice

but I find solace
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡and warmth
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡standing on their shores

I think that the water
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡makes a certain music
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡that calls out to me
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡and all who live here

Source: The author, 2019

atlantic was born and raised in Niagara Falls, where he still resides. A selection of his work is available on Instagram

Also by atlantic:
•    Baby Steps IV
•    burgoyne bridge
•    carnival tunes
•    Robert Frost

Robert Frost by atlantic

trees

The neighbourhood where I live
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡is surrounded
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡by
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡Trees.

So everywhere you look
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡There is a thin green canopy

A living, breathing enclosure
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡away from the bustle of
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡the city
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡and nearby highways.

I don’t know
‡‡‡‡‡‡about fences
‡‡‡but trees?

‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡Trees make good neighbours.

Source: The author, 2019

atlantic was born and raised in Niagara Falls, where he still resides. A selection of his work is available on Instagram

Also by atlantic:
•    Baby Steps IV
•    burgoyne bridge
•    carnival tunes
•    water child

burgoyne bridge by atlantic

burgoyne

we were not meant
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡to take Flight
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡in such a manner

a brief act
‡‡‡‡‡‡of desperation
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡will cause lasting wounds
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡that can never heal

please

‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡stay grounded

Source: the author, 2019

Burgoyne Bridge was infamous as a place to commit suicide, as it crossed high over the Twelve Mile Creek. Suicide barriers were installed when the Burgoyne Bridge was replaced in 2016.

atlantic was born and raised in Niagara Falls, where he still resides. A selection of his work is available on Instagram

Also by atlantic:
•    Baby Steps IV
•    carnival tunes
•    Robert Frost
•    water child

carnival tunes by atlantic

carnival
Clifton Hill Photo by Kosta Bratsos on Unsplash

try to imagine
Niagara as music
there are the Falls themselves, of course
sombre and awe-inspiring
but also:
the din and shriek of Clifton Hill
“at the house of Frankenstein… kill a little time with us”
if you tell me
you didn’t hear those words?
I’ll call you a liar.
the cacophony of sights and sounds
from the Midway on a busy day
or from Casino Niagara, the adults equivalent
endless cries and bellows from these arcades
a bazaar of peoples delights, backlight by ringing, screaming machines
bellowing players, young and old
while the fireworks echo out a beat of joyful thunder
busy traffic on Queen Elizabeth’s Way
summer tourists, coming to visit
residents fleeing to Muskoka, summer tourists themselves
the harsh buzz of helicopters
over Stanley Avenue and River Road
contrasts nicely with the steady whock
of golf balls on countless courses beyond number
the Boulevard’s nightclubs and bars
keep their own pulsing, sensual rhythm
the great Horseshoe is a hymn
to nature’s power and might
but Niagara itself is calliope music
a happy carnival tune

Source: The author, 2019

atlantic was born and raised in Niagara Falls, where he still resides. A selection of his work is available on Instagram

Also by atlantic:
•    Baby Steps IV
•    burgoyne bridge
•    Robert Frost
•    water child

Flow State by Ryan Racine

“Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water.”

 -Bruce Lee

racine
CN train yard with Falls view towers & the mist from the Falls in the background, 2004. Photograph by Tammy Frakking. Courtesy of Niagara Falls Public Library

Graffitied train carts mock the lineup of
halted vehicles, forcing us to direct our attention
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡to the tower in
the distance whispering
the swelling breath of
tourism.

Thick mist plays hopscotch on
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡the front windows, shielding us as spectators
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡from the Falls’
‡‡‡‡flow.

Upon parking on the Hill,
our newspaper umbrellas
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡become wishing wells,
where cacophonous cellulous break down
to form
unfamiliar intimacies of newly amalgamated
‡‡‡‡‡‡narratives.

As we get close to the
seventh wonder,
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡secreted ink
swim into
a symbiosis that roll further down our face, where Bush is
‡‡‡‡‡seducing Bin Laden and police
brutality has
become a national sport.

Ryan Racine earned his master’s of English language and literature from Brock University. Racine is currently working as a high school teacher and college instructor in Ontario. His poetry can be found in The Steel Chisel, Pauses/Words/Noises, The Brock University Anthology, Pictures & Portraits, Ekphrastic, Joypuke, Weekly Poems, and PACE Magazine.

See other poems by Ryan Racine on the Niagara Falls Poetry Project website:
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