Blondin Performing a Stunt on the Tightrope at Niagara Falls, 1860. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress
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Source: Ryan Boggs, 2026
This poem won an Honourable Mention in the Niagara Falls Poetry Project 25th Anniversary Poetry Competition. It will be published with all the other entrants in a print anthology to be published by Phylum Press. To reserve a copy of the anthology please email aporteus@niagarapoetry.ca. A companion volume exploring the poetry over 6 centuries will also soon be available, and may be reserved ahead of time.
Ryan Boggs is a writer and teacher living in southern Ontario
I came from another part of the world
to see Niagara as a tourist.
But Niagara does not feel unfamiliar.
It feels like something I have already known
without being able to explain where.
A child is running near the edge of sight,
not looking at the Falls for long.
He is more interested in his brother,
in the way they keep running
as if the ground belongs to them.
No one tells them to stop.
They just keep moving
as children do
when something larger is nearby
but not more important than play.
I stand there longer than I expected.
At one point, a sudden gust of wind
pushes the mist into my face.
For a second, I cannot see the Falls at all.
Only water in the air.
Only breath becoming wet.
Then it clears again,
and nothing has changed.
I lower my phone without meaning to.
I do not take the picture I was about to take.
I notice a piece of driftwood
caught in the metal of a railing,
held there as the water keeps pulling below—
a quiet struggle between structure and force
that does not end either way.
For a moment, I find myself looking
for something that looks like damage—
a pause, a weakness, a break in the rush—
but everything holds too firmly,
even in motion.
The ground hums beneath my shoes,
a low pressure I feel more than hear,
as if the earth is carrying something
too large to explain in stillness.
The water does not change
because I am watching it.
It keeps falling
as if it has been doing this
long before anyone arrived
to name it.
People take pictures
and then leave slowly.
Some look back once,
as if checking whether it is still there.
It is.
It does not move closer.
It does not move away.
Niagara does not feel like a place I am visiting.
It feels like something
that has been present in me
without asking permission.
Not a mother.
Not a symbol.
Just something steady
that lets everything else move freely
around it.
I walk back toward the parking lot,
my phone still dark in my pocket,
carrying the cold, wet weight of the air
that will eventually dry
but never leave.
Source: Kunal Sharma, 2026.
Kunal Sharma is a poet from Delhi, India. He explores memory, travel, and the emotional presence of landscapes in his writing.
The Niagara Falls Poetry Project Poetry Map showing the pin for the Underground Railroad
One of the features of the Niagara Falls Poetry Project is the Poetry Map. A link to this map can be found on the menu bar at the top of every page.
The Poetry Map features poems that are linked to a particular place, most in the Niagara Falls vicinity but others both up and down river to the Buffalo / Fort Erie area and to the Niagara-on-the-Lake / Youngstown area, with a few incursions inland to Welland and St. Catharines areas, but they must have some sort of connection to Niagara Falls to get on the map.
The map currently has 84 pins, each marking a specific location, Each of these pins has one poem written out in full attached to it, along with a link to the poem on the Niagara Falls Poetry Project website. If there is more than one poem written about the location then links to these poems are included after the poem that has been written out in full. For example, The poem The Fugitive Slave’s Apostrophe to Niagara by E.D.H. is pinned in Lewiston, NY at the site of the Freedom Crossing Monument on the eastern bank of the Niagara River. When the pin on the map at Lewiston with the pin title “Underground Railroad” is clicked, the full poem appears along with a link to the poem.
The Niagara Falls Poetry Project Poetry Map showing the links to more poems in the pin for the Niagara Whirlpool
Many poems are very general to the Niagara Falls area, and have no specific location mentioned so are not included on this map. As the Poetry Map was not started until a number of years after the website went live poems that were posted earlier and do have a specific loaction may not appear either. As more poems are added they will be added to the Poetry Map if they have a particular location as their main focus.
Please join me at Local on Thursday, September 17, from 7pm-9pm for an open mic event.
This event is being held during the Niagara Falls Night of Art 2026 celebration. The Local is a few steps south of The Exchange campus, the principal Night of Art venue.
