Train : a journal of social distance

Issue #10 : Kim Fahner Joel Robert Ferguson Patrick Grace Dan MacIsaac Jeff Parent Cale Plett

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Kim Fahner lives and writes in Sudbury, Ontario. She was the fourth poet laureate of Sudbury (2016-18), and was the first woman appointed to the role. Kim's latest book of poems is These Wings (Pedlar Press, 2019). She is a member of the League of Canadian Poets, as well as a supporting member of the Playwrights' Guild of Canada. Currently, she is Ontario representative for the Writers' Union of Canada. Kim has recently had poems published in Room, Riddle Fence, and Prairie Fire. She may be reached via her author website at www.kimfahner.com

Joel Robert Ferguson is the author of The Lost Cafeteria (2020, Signature Editions) and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from Concordia University in Montreal. His poetry has appeared in numerous publications including Arc, The Columbia Review, The Honest Ulsterman, The Malahat Review, Orbis, and Southword Journal. He lives in Winnipeg, Treaty 1 territory, with his partner and their three cats.

Patrick Grace is a queer writer from Vancouver. His work has been published in Canadian journals such as Prairie Fire, EVENT, Arc Poetry Magazine, and recently, Grain’s Queer Writers issue. His poetry has been longlisted for CV2’s Young Buck Poetry Prize and twice for PRISM international’s Pacific Spirit Poetry Prize, and his poem “A Violence” won The Malahat Review’s Open Season Award for poetry in 2020. He is the managing editor of Plenitude Magazine.

Dan MacIsaac served for ten years as a director on UVIC’s Environmental Law Centre board. Brick Books published his collection of poetry, Cries from the Ark. His poetry has been published in a wide variety of literary magazines, including filling station, Stand, The Malahat Review, and Arc. Dan MacIsaac’s work has been short-listed for the Walrus Poetry Prize and the CBC Short Story Prize. His website is www.danmacisaac.com. 

Jeff Parent is a poet and stay-home dad from Québec’s Eastern Townships. He has an MA in Creative Writing and English Literature from Concordia University and his poems have been published by The Fiddlehead, Montréal Writes, The/tƐmz/Review, FreeFall Magazine, Shrapnel Magazine, and The Quarantine Review amongst others. Jeff’s first chapbook, This Bygone Route, is now available from 845 Press.

Cale Plett (he/they) is a nonbinary writer who lives in Winnipeg, where they are watching and listening for stories. Some they remember, some they forget, and some they turn into poetry, prose, and lyrics. Cale’s poetry and fiction are published in Grain, CV2, The Anti-Languorous Project, and Riddle Fence.

An interview with Dan MacIsaac

Dan MacIsaac served for ten years as a director on UVIC’s Environmental Law Centre board. Brick Books published his collection of poetry, Cries from the Ark. His poetry has been published in a wide variety of literary magazines, including filling station, Stand, The Malahat Review, and Arc. Dan MacIsaac’s work has been short-listed for the Walrus Poetry Prize and the CBC Short Story Prize. His website is www.danmacisaac.com. 

How did you begin writing, and what keeps you going?

I turned to writing after studying music because I found that words offered the kind of precision that I was not reaching in melody and harmony. I keep writing because, paradoxically, in words I am seeking the clarity and unity of music.  Walter Pater asserted: “All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music.” One of my goals is to write poems about aspects of music that are as accomplished as Sue Sinclair’s “Learning the Waltz” where she celebrates “the third beat that catches/ us off guard.”

What poets have influenced the ways in which you write?

I have joked about the impact of my poetical 4-H Club, getting steeped in soil by Hardy, Heaney, Hopkins, and Hughes. From Earle Birney, ee cummings and Joe Rosenblatt, I learned much about loosening up and playing with language. For sheer lyricism, I still turn to William Blake, Robbie Burns, John Keats, Federico García Lorca, Gabriela Mistral, Dylan Thomas, and William Butler Yeats.

But there have been a host of other influences, including: Margaret Atwood, Margaret Avison, John Donne, Carla Funk, Sharon McCartney, Publius Ovidius Naso, P. K. Page, Sappho, Edward Thomas, Phyllis Webb, and Jan Zwicky.

Have you noticed a difference in the ways in which you approach the individual poem, now that you’ve published a full-length collection?

Yes, now I am often considering theme—where the poem might fit in a collection, what hole it could fill. One looks for compelling patterns and shuns crass repetition. Or, to put this in musical terms, can the individual poem be like a chord that is part of a pleasing progression?

How important has mentorship been to your work? Is there anyone who specifically assisted your development as a writer?

Regrettably, I did not take a creative writing seminar or course until about 10 years ago. Although I came to this process late, my work has benefited greatly from workshops with Don McKay and Lorna Crozier. Don has a keen eye and trained ear for accurate natural detail. Lorna’s attention is unfailingly focused on what is best in a poem and what needs to be revised. Nick Thran, my editor at Brick Books, quietly encouraged me to learn how to cull the dull lines and highlight the words that worked.

Can you name a poet you think should be receiving more attention?

In the U.S., Molly McCully Brown: her collection, The Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded, is a harrowing verse account of eugenic sterilization.

In Canada, Julia McCarthy: this superbly lyrical poet shows in her Return from Erebus and All the Names Between the stellar radiance of ephemera.

In Scotland, George MacKay Brown (1921-1996): his work is as starkly and powerfully formed as the standing stone circles of his Orkney Islands.

In Spain, Gloria Fuertes (1917-1998) exhibits persistent, impudent wit that reminds us that poetry is serious play.

Bullhead

Dan MacIsaac

From murky water

between tarred pilings,

through a dark

labyrinth of currents,

the bullhead sculpin

spirals to lush bait

torn from the mussel’s

gunmetal shell,

ripe flesh draped

like a matador’s

undulating cape

over the bright

barbed hook

that pierces

the scaled lip

and forces

the horned fish

up through a helix

of cross-currents

to corkscrew

flailing, gills

splayed, gasping

into the sere

maze of air.

Dan MacIsaac served for ten years as a director on UVIC’s Environmental Law Centre board. Brick Books published his collection of poetry, Cries from the Ark. His poetry has been published in a wide variety of literary magazines, including filling station, Stand, The Malahat Review, and Arc. Dan MacIsaac’s work has been short-listed for the Walrus Poetry Prize and the CBC Short Story Prize. His website is www.danmacisaac.com.