Create AccountLog in

The Road Ahead: Poems at the Crossroads

A Poetry Mixtape Edited by Neil Surkan

J-Card (PDF)

piv-liner_the-road-ahead.pdf

The Poems

Regardless

Aisha Sasha John

If I am judged

If I am punished

If I am dismissed

If I am misunderstood

If I am celebrated

If I am envied

If I am competed with

If...

VISIT THIS POEM

The New Experience

Suzanne Buffam

I was ready for a new experience.

All the old ones had burned out.

...

VISIT THIS POEM

19

Brandi Bird

I triage the landscape. The prairies

are numb today and so am I.

I am too thin. Built

like I won't explode on hot

afternoons, a mirror

to the sky. My...

VISIT THIS POEM

Wishing Well

Sachiko Murakami

My fist holds as many coins

as I can carry. All are stamped with the Queen's effigy;

Elizabeth, D.G. Regina, the resident of pockets,

a woman I've never met though I...

VISIT THIS POEM

But I’m No One

Weyman Chan

for M. Maylor

Dear Anne Carson:

My friend read me the poem where your mom

said that the dead walk backwards.

You thought this myth arose...

VISIT THIS POEM

When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

Chen Chen

To be a good

ex/current friend for R. To be one last

inspired way to get back at R. To be relationship

advice for L. To be advice

for my...

VISIT THIS POEM

Comfort

Joshua Jennifer Espinoza

11 am. Time to wake up.

Muscles sore, jaw clenched, warm light

scattering dreams of violence across

the bedroom. I've chosen a self...

VISIT THIS POEM

Eclipse

Jessie Jones

In every which way, I am living

for potential. I’ve mined cadmium

enough to roulette with Death

and Mars, bloodshot brute,

is swollen in my honour.

...

VISIT THIS POEM

From Whereas

Layli Long Soldier

Whereas my eyes land on the shoreline of “the arrival of Europeans in North America

opened a new chapter in the history of Native Peoples.” Because in others, I hate the act

...

VISIT THIS POEM

The Playlist

We are currently adding to the Mixtape playlists, so check back soon and often! Send us your recitation of one the poems in this Mixtape, and we may add it to the Playlist!

William Zhang: “But I’m No One” by Weyman Chan

Rebecca Marchetti: “The New Experience” by Suzanne Buffam

Al Gilbert: "Comfort" by Joshua Jennifer Espinoza

Recommended Reading

Neil‘s Liner Notes

The poems in this anthology are about transitions, transformations, and trepidations. At the crossroads of big decisions, the speakers prepare themselves for the journey ahead with matter-of-fact maxims, enthusiastic affirmations, and/or recollections of past resilience. Some of these crossroad poems are offramps, as speakers swerve toward new ways of being; others are cul-de-sacs, as speakers turn back to safety; and some are freeways, as speakers stay the course feeling (re)affirmed or inspired. No matter how they forge on, you’ll notice that the speakers repeatedly remind themselves who they are – and, in turn, who they can be.

The choices we make don’t occur in a vacuum. In turn, each poem in this anthology is inextricable from its contexts: gender, race, queerness, history, and place are important to the way each speaker approaches a dilemma or challenge. Such contexts are also sources of pride and strength. For instance, in the excerpt from the Oglala Lakota poet Layli Long Soldier’s poem “Whereas,” the speaker’s refusal to hide her emotions when in pain, and her decision to pass that stance on to her daughter (“In our family we are ourselves, real feelings. Be true”), reflects her empowering choice to confront, rather than ignore, the painful legacy of colonialism. In the case of Mary Jean Chan’s poem “Notes Toward an Understanding,” the speaker describes her mind as “tuned to / two frequencies” – suspended between two languages, two cultures, and, simultaneously, two ways of being – and recognizes she must soon choose between her family and her partner before she loses both. And in the case of J. Jennifer Espinoza’s poem “Comfort,” the speaker continues to search for safe space in a world that brims with “news reports” of violence against trans women, even though she feels like she is trying to “describe a colour” she has “never been allowed to see.” Contexts matter. And although contexts are sometimes restricting, they can also be liberating. What makes me me?, the speakers ask, And how might my experiences in this body, in this time, in this place serve as fuel for the next stretch?

Hopefully these poems make inspiring company in your own moments of discernment as you reflect, reckon, and choose. As you read them, you might ask yourself the following questions: When did I show resilience in my past? Which beliefs, values, and legacies have I inherited? What do I celebrate about myself? Who do I want to become? May they carry you across the threshold with courage and confidence. May they inspire you, in the words of Jessie Jones’s poem “Eclipse,” to “flourish / even without permission.”

About Neil

Neil Surkan was born in Penticton, BC. He is the author of the poetry collections Unbecoming (forthcoming Fall 2021) and On High (2018), both from McGill-Queen’s University Press, and the chapbooks Their Queer Tenderness (Knife-Fork-Book, 2020) and Super, Natural (Anstruther Press, 2017). His poems and reviews have appeared in numerous Canadian literary magazines.

Neil earned a PhD in English from the University of Calgary in 2021 after completing an MA-CRW at... More

My Favourites

Search form

The Road Ahead: Poems at the Crossroads

A Poetry Mixtape Edited by Neil Surkan

The Poems

Regardless

The New Experience

19

Wishing Well

But I’m No One

When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

Comfort

Eclipse

From Whereas

The Playlist

Recommended Reading

Neil‘s Liner Notes

About Neil