Category: Niagara Poet

Rally by Keith Inman

rally
Keith Inman

Donna needed bras;
Jesse socks; the kids
candy. So they said
yanking her sleeve,
their heads tilted, pleading
as they trooped
through the Monday mall.

The food court draped
with jean’d students,
spread across tables,
sleeping on the floor.

Lines of dominoes lead
up a ramp to a rocket ship;
multiple lanes ran to spinning wheels
and a Chinese tomb of soldiers.

A sign said they were building
a computer.  Donna wondered
what dominoes could answer
when Rachel pulled her finger,
“Why are some missing?”

“Jesus tiles,” an old man said,
a poppy tray in his arm. “They save
the whole thing from going off.”

Just then a clinking hail of glass
ran across the floor to end
before the rocket.

Rachel’s face lit up, “I’d like to see that.”

“You have no idea,” he said,
placing a poppy in her outstretched hand.

Source: John B. Lee (comp.) Arborealis: A Canadian Poetry Anthology, 2018.  Toronto: The Ontario Poetry Society, 2018.

Rally was a winner of the Judge’s Choice award of the Ontario Poetry Society contest.  Inman’s poem Figure Eights won the first prize, his poem  Rock Paper Scissors  won the third prize, and his poem Crewed  also won a Judge’s Choice award in the same contest.

Declared a ‘people’s poet’ by John B. Lee and Dr. Elspeth Cameron, for his blue collar style, Inman’s work has earned him a variety of grants and contest awards. A first chapbook, Hanging on a Nail, with two other Niagara Poets at Sigilate Press, sold over 500 copies. And a first Trade book, The War Poems: Screaming at Heaven from Black Moss Press, received a review from Canlit #223, who compared his work with Atwood and Itani. Keith lives and writes in Niagara. 

Crewed by Keith Inman

crewed
Interior of a Headstone Manufacturing Factory, Believed to be Rigg Brothers Monuments on Queen Street , Niagara Falls, ON.
Image courtesy of Petrie Collection, Niagara Falls (Ontario) Public Library

Jenny started to know
the passing faces of nightshift
who said, “You go, girl”
better than friends and family
that first summer of mismatched hours

as whispers breezed the mill
about ‘kids abandoned at day-care,
partner on the juice’
turned to soft winds of divorce
under-heard in the salt machinery
of the factory cafeteria.

On the floor, she kept her broom
between the yellow lines, even when steam
screamed from a torn gasket

’til she spotted Bob’s silver mane
along the carton line, roaring
his shit at someone’s ear-muffed head.

“Wipe yourself when you’re done,
prick. Or, see that machine over there?
I’ll drive it so far up your ass
It’ll clean your moustache.”

The girls on the line keeled 
and reeled like feeding gulls.

Source: John B. Lee (comp.) Arborealis: A Canadian Poetry Anthology, 2018.  Toronto: The Ontario Poetry Society, 2018.

Crewed was a winner of the Judge’s Choice award of the Ontario Poetry Society contest.  Inman’s poem Figure Eights won the first prize, his poem  Rock Paper Scissors  won the third prize, and his poem Rally also won a Judge’s Choice award in the same contest.

Declared a ‘people’s poet’ by John B. Lee and Dr. Elspeth Cameron, for his blue collar style, Inman’s work has earned him a variety of grants and contest awards. A first chapbook, Hanging on a Nail, with two other Niagara Poets at Sigilate Press, sold over 500 copies. And a first Trade book, The War Poems: Screaming at Heaven from Black Moss Press, received a review from Canlit #223, who compared his work with Atwood and Itani. Keith lives and writes in Niagara. 

Rock Paper Scissors by Keith Inman

rock
Keith Inman

Gary clipped the measuring tape
on his coveralls, bit the pencil,
and started cutting.  Sparks flew.

Someone yelled over his shoulder
about safety glasses.
He laid the grinder down, checked the cut,
pulled his glasses on,
and stood up.
“Afternoon, sir. What brings you
to our section?”

A General at ease, the VP gazed around
the plant.
“You know Gary.  My father used to say,
‘Eat your supper son.
People are starving in China.’  Now,
they have brand new factories over there,
and do twice the work for half the pay.  And what is that
you’re building?   It looks like a trailer.”

“Ah, this thing?  Nah.  It’s a…
An overhead bracing system for the ah…
lime tank we’re repairing.”
The VP nodded, “Where’s your unit leader?”
“Interpolating fuel numbers at the depot dock.”
A smile spread across his face, “Hope I don’t
see your car pulling that brace around
any time soon.”
“You definitely won’t sir.”

Simon climbed the stairs as the company car
pulled away, and racked his clipboard
on the wall of stats.  “What’d he want?”
“Nothin.”
“You didn’t tell him about my trailer, did ya?”
“Nope.  But, it’ll be ready tomorrow.”

Source: John B. Lee (comp.) Arborealis: A Canadian Poetry Anthology, 2018.  Toronto: The Ontario Poetry Society, 2018.

Rock Paper Scissors is the Winner of the third prize of the Ontario Poetry Society contest.  Inman’s poem Figure Eights, also featuring Gary, won the first prize in the same contest.  and his poems Crewed  and Rally each was a winner of the Judge’s Choice award in the same contest.

Declared a ‘people’s poet’ by John B. Lee and Dr. Elspeth Cameron, for his blue collar style, Inman’s work has earned him a variety of grants and contest awards. A first chapbook, Hanging on a Nail, with two other Niagara Poets at Sigilate Press, sold over 500 copies. And a first Trade book, The War Poems: Screaming at Heaven from Black Moss Press, received a review from Canlit #223, who compared his work with Atwood and Itani. Keith lives and writes in Niagara. 

 

Figure Eights by Keith Inman

keith
Keith Inman

Jesse held the ladder as the heat of machinery
whirled with production.

A shower of grit fell on his head.

Overhead, Gary rustled about
on the rack of pipes near the ceiling,
one foot resting on the top rung,
the other kicked free.

“Hold the fricken thing steady.  If I fall,
I’m fallin’ on you.  Where was I?  Oh yeah.
Lost the house last strike,” his hammer
rang steel.  He took another swing and clipped
the wing of a bracket as the ladder twisted, pulling
out of Jesse’s hand; a jilted
dance partner doing a stilted, stiff-legged step
across ice
it bowed
into the cogs
of the machine.

Mangled aluminium whirled
down the gears like a thrown skater.

Alarms pealed, the machine
chewed to a stop.

Gary’s feet swung high above Jesse’s head.
“We better get our story straight.”

Source: John B. Lee (comp.) Arborealis: A Canadian Poetry Anthology, 2018.  Toronto: The Ontario Poetry Society, 2018.

Figure Eights won the first prize of the Ontario Poetry Society contest.  His poem  Rock Paper Scissors  won the third prize, and his poems Crewed  and Rally each was a winner of the Judge’s Choice award in the same contest.

Declared a ‘people’s poet’ by John B. Lee and Dr. Elspeth Cameron, for his blue collar style, Inman’s work has earned him a variety of grants and contest awards. A first chapbook, Hanging on a Nail, with two other Niagara Poets at Sigilate Press, sold over 500 copies. And a first Trade book, The War Poems: Screaming at Heaven from Black Moss Press, received a review from Canlit #223, who compared his work with Atwood and Itani. Keith lives and writes in Niagara. 

Stephanie Vigh Nielsen’s Have You Ever Been to Niagara?

vigh
Stephanie Vigh Nielsen’s poem Have You Ever Been to Niagara? has now been published as a children’s book, with illustrations by Bronagh Morgan. It can be ordered by contacting vnproductions@cogeco.ca

Local arts newspaper reviewer John Law reviewed the book in the St. Catharines Standard on December 29, 2025.