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Susan Robertson

@snullr.bsky.social

Borderline Luddite. Sometimes writes.

461 Posts937 Follower 597 Folgt

Helen Robertson @helendestroy.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Join me for an afternoon online reading. Indulge in love and lust and see me (attempt) to make my girlfriend cry with words of heartfelt devotion.

knife | fork | book@knifeforkbook.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The weekend just got a whole lot prettier. #KFB10 #Sunday @amandaearl.bsky.social @helendestroy.bsky.social @emdubbleu.bsky.social Slutflowers +Lesbia #Launch Sunday 3pm. Free. Link: knifeforkbook.com Hosted by @itsakirby.bsky.social www.patreon.com/posts/pretty...

Helen Robertson @helendestroy.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Some of my favorite poems of mine and an absolute GORGEOUS design. So very delighted to be part of @knifeforkbook.bsky.social's 10th anniversary season www.knifeforkbook.shop/store/p210/H...

HELEN ROBERTSON Lesbia

"Every book is lucky to have been written but they do not all have the fortune to hear the flutter of their own pages. No matter your reinterpretation, no matter what is found in me, always the same d...

knifeforkbook.shop

Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 4mo ago

@harperjean.bsky.social Could you please DM me?

Amazon Syren @amazonsyren.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Trans Library Telethon: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIOj... eTransfer to: donate@translibrary.ca

youtube.com

Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Can't wait to get my copy!

knife | fork | book@knifeforkbook.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Our first trifold (couldn't be sexier). #KFB10 HELEN ROBERTSON Lesbia OUT NOW www.knifeforkbook.shop/store/p210/H... Hear @helendestroy.bsky.social Here w/ @amandaearl.bsky.social #matthewwalsh #slutflowers Sunday, May 17th #zoom #launch (Deets to follow.)

phillip crymble @phillipcrymble.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Many thanks to Carmine Starnino and the folks @thewalrus.ca for taking a chance on this sentimental carte de tendre.

And the Fish in the Tide

BY PHILLIP CRYMBLE

Come find me on the bench behind the lighthouse--
on the back slope of the south pier wall. The place

we came to share a codfish supper--where the packet
to the island lists and knocks against the rollers

and our shadows played on rock the builders blasted
from the harbour floor. Come find me on the Schlossweg

in Tirolo--where the alpine valley meadows sway in parables
of sunlight and the breezes from the basin are as cool as air

from mountain caves. We'll linger over haselnüsse gelato.
Buy speck and German menthols. Make love until our bodies

ache. Come find me at the Seaport Farmers' Market. I'll be
waiting by the water at our table in the shade. Remind me

of the hilltop. Of the maple where we carved our names. Come
find me. I'll be waiting. Come find me. Help me on my way.

Jose Hernandez Diaz @josehernandezdz.bsky.social · 4mo ago

W.S. MERWIN

Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Congratulations, Nicola, and all long-listed poets!

Nicola Vulpe@nicolavulpe.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I am humbled & honoured, but mostly astonished. Congratulations to all! #PurdyPrize

phillip crymble @phillipcrymble.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Alden Nowlan

Bobby Sands
for Robert Weaver

I did not cry for Bobby Sands, but I almost did, thinking of my grandmother whom I loved, and who
loved me,
and of how her voice would break when she told me again how her grandmother died in a field in County Wexford with green stains on her lips, her hands filled with grass, and of how in that same year the English wagonso escorted by English troops carried Irish grain
down to English vessels for shipment to England.
Yes,
yes, that was a long, long time ago; but somebody should remember Mary Foley, somebody should weep for her, even if it is only a drunken listener
to lying ballads. Being human, we
each of us can bear no more than a particle
of pain that is not our own; the rest is rhetoric. Better to shed a tear for Mary Foley
than to rant or babble about suffering that is beyond our capacity to comprehend. And what of Bobby Sands? We talk too much, all of us. In common decency, don't speak of him unless you have gone at least a day without food, and be sure you understand that he loved being alive, the same as you. Then say what you like. Call him a fool. Call him a criminal. You'll get no argument
from me. I'll agree with everything
you say in dispraise of gunmen. Oh, but Mary Foley's ghost was left in my keeping.
I know in my heart that if he had come to me
for a place to hide I could never have shut him out.

Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 5mo ago

An incredible issue full of incredible poems including five by @cphillipspoet.bsky.social !

phillip crymble@phillipcrymble.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Another remarkable poem by Carl Phillips from our winter issue

Making a Sound Like Darkness

If it weren't immodest, I'd say modesty's
one of the few things left about me that I can
almost admire, still,
except it's hardly a thing worth
caring one way or another about, to have been
who one is.
Look at the trees,
not trying at all to be anyone's idea
of flourishing without
an instinct to make what can't be held
holdable:
the struggling first;
the bit of hush, just after; then the longer
shadows getting cast by everything I remember wanting.

Pearl Pirie @pearlpoet.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Sadly still revlevant

The Trans Debate
Do trans people exist
Yes
Do people who exist deserve human rights
Do you believe there are exceptions to the humans
for which human rights apply
If no - end of discussion
If yes - you have identified the problem And it's not trans people
@lucassjoness

Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 5mo ago

An honour and delight to be a Tuesday poet. Thank you, @robmclennan.bsky.social

rob mclennan@robmclennan.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Tuesday poem #675 : Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social : I BEGIN THE POEM WITH A LIE / dusie.blogspot.com/2026/03/tues...

Roberto Faria @betofaria.bsky.social · 5mo ago

To my Canadian friends, an acquaintance started a petition to allow US transgender citizens to claim refugee status here. www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en... If you’re Canadian please sign it. If you’re not, please share ❤️

Petition e-7195 - Petitions

ourcommons.ca

phillip crymble @phillipcrymble.bsky.social · 5mo ago

A heartbreaking poem by one of Canada's finest

A MARRIAGE

His paintings were small, suggestions
of houses, pinpricks of green for trees.
She'd set her glass down, say, Paint
like you're blind, from memory and passion—
two words he especially didn't care for.
She'd say, Paint like you're on fire.
But their house was already burning,
and he was going blind and deaf.
So he'd carry the painting back down
to the basement, resume with
his thinnest sable brush. He would
never touch her the way she wanted,
though she kept asking him to,
like this, in front of everybody.

— Julie Bruck

Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 5mo ago

What's better than a brilliant chapbook? Two brilliant chapbooks: Annick McAskill's "Verfondre | Wormmelt" and John Barton's "Labyrinth" both from Baseline Press.

A light cream rectangular chapbook on top of a large shale fossil fern. Verfondre | Wormmelt is centered at the top. Annick McAskill is centered under it. Below both is a reverse image of foliage including a fern. The background of the image is midnight blue.

A rectangular cream coloured chapbook lies flat slightly angled to the right. Labyrinth is centered at the top with John Barton centered below. A loosely drawn green spiral is centered on the bottom half of the cover. A brown and cream spiral shell faces outward overlapping the bottom right cover of the chapbook. The spiral on the shell echoes the spiral on the cover.

Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Two small ones. The first from "Verfondre | Wormmelt," Annick MacAskill’s new chapbook with Baseline Press, the second my little ditty for the day. #smallpoemsunday @tomsnarsky.bsky.social

Where is the star?

Hail winter’s roses

On the earth, rays white

The black knot of cloud

Traduction fondue: Les quatre vents de l’espirit, Victor Hugo.

I bought daffodils

for St. David’s Day

membranes white and sheer

wrapping round the stalks

like leeks before leaves

and buds break free.

I bought daffodils

for St. David’s Day,

today, no Welsh in me.

phillip crymble @phillipcrymble.bsky.social · 5mo ago

A poem of our moment as it first appeared over 20 years ago in the pages of The Stinging Fly

Quality Sixteen

Disaster films are in again: zombies
and apocalyptic nightmares--nature
as the enemy. Our culture's appetite
for science and catastrophe projected
now on several screens at once. Abbot
& Costello meet the Mummy scared me
half to death, but like a gateway drug
it led me on to harder stuff: Earthquake,
Lester's Juggernaut and Jaws--the purest
angel dust of features. Psychologists
believe our deepest fears are rooted
in the memories we share. Historians
might disagree--this turning outward
is a wartime theme. So's naked tyranny.

PHILLIP CRYMBLE

Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Thrilled and honored to be included. Thank you Phillip and @thefiddlehead@gmail.com.

phillip crymble@phillipcrymble.bsky.social · 5mo ago

From our winter issue, a new poem by Susan Robertson

Susan Robertson

After the Flood

Trees full-leafed
in the wooded lot

at the end of the street.
Limbs pendant with damp

umbrella the path. Drops
still fall

from the sodden leaves.
I can't see the houses.

It's May

and northern forests
are burning.

A red-eyed vireo calls
and calls.

Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Thank you, @bookgaga.bsky.social ! I so appreciate all your reading and boosting. And crocheting!

Vicki Ziegler@bookgaga.bsky.social · 5mo ago

"I named you after a small brown bird tittering in the hedge, guarding its speckled eggs." #TodaysPoem #poetry For a Trans Daughter by Susan Robertson (@snullr.bsky.social) (2026 The @fiddlehd.bsky.social) www.instagram.com/stories/snul...

Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 6mo ago

I received my contributor's copy of the winter issue of "The Fiddlehead." An honour to be included in such an incredible issue. Thank you to the editors.

The winter issue of "The Fiddlehead" resting on the seat of a rocking chair. The seat is covered in black and white pillow ticking. The journal cover shows a vague figure of a person standing in a bus shelter. It appears to be a winter night with snow on the ground and the roof of the shelter.

Heather Christle @heatherchristle.bsky.social · 6mo ago

You can't put anything into words; they are already full; you can only ask them to occur in an order and then notice how they respond to each other and you.

Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 6mo ago

"Right now the focus should be on supporting the community in mourning, not weaponizing this event as hate against a vulnerable group at large." expert reporting from the great @melwoods.me

Mel Woods@melwoods.me · 6mo ago

NEW from me today: Tumbler Ridge is mourning a horrific loss. But how the shooter's identity is being talked about online, and the dangerous links being made to trans people at large, will have resounding and dangerous impacts in the months and weeks to come. xtramagazine.com/power/tumble...

Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Woo hoo!

rob mclennan@robmclennan.bsky.social · 6mo ago

the schedule for the sixteenth annual edition of VERSeFest : Ottawa's International Poetry Festival is now online! / @versefest-ottawa.bsky.social ; robmclennan.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-...

beestung @beestung.bsky.social · 6mo ago

"I have brought you more tea (& I love you) I did the dishes (& I love you) I wrote you a poem (& I love you)" —Helen Robertson beestungmag.com/issue25/one-...

One Poem by Helen Robertson – beestung

beestungmag.com

Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Check out Baseline's 2026 lineup!

A poster announcing Baseline Press' 2026 poets. Photos of the five poets are posted top to bottom along the left side of the poster. Their names are posted on the left: Annick MacAskill, John Barton, Jaeyun Yoo, Susan Gillis, Sophia Cirignano.

phillip crymble @phillipcrymble.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Who would cut / her home to pieces and row away for that? Maggie Smith, from Good Bones (2017)

YOU COULD NEVER TAKE A CAR TO
GREENLAND,

my daughter says. Unless the car could float.
Unless by car you mean boat. Unless the ocean
turned to ice and promised not to crack.
Unless Greenland floated over here,
having lifted its anchor. Unless we could row
our country there. Our whole continent
would have to come along, wouldn't it? Unless
we cut ourselves free. What kind of saw
could we use for that? What kind of oars
could deliver one country to another?
She asks, Why is Greenland called Greenland
if it's not green? Why is Iceland called
Iceland if it's greener than Greenland?
Unless it's a trick, a lie: the name Greenland
is an ad for Greenland. Who would go
promised nothing but ice? Who would cut
her home to pieces and row away for that?

KIRBY @itsakirby.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Love me a good love poem (or two, or three...) @helendestroy.bsky.social @knifeforkbook.bsky.social www.knifeforkbook.shop/store/p210/H...

HELEN ROBERTSON Lesbia

knifeforkbook.shop

knife | fork | book@knifeforkbook.bsky.social · 7mo ago

First look. #KFB10 #Spring2026 HELEN ROBERTSON @helendestroy.bsky.social Lesbia Part of KFB's 10th Anniversary Season Available at a Preorder price: www.knifeforkbook.shop/store/p210/H... Cover art: Gordana Olujic

Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 7mo ago

I can't wait!!

Nancy Huggett@nancyhuggett.bsky.social · 7mo ago

This Sunday! Motherhood, Faith & Caregiving poetry reading with moi, @bethanyjarmul.bsky.social & @jessicawhippl17.bsky.social register here: us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Thank you, Vicki, for this and all you do to promote the love of words.

Vicki Ziegler@bookgaga.bsky.social · 7mo ago

"[Aileen walks to the field, clucks to a horse muzzling clover. Old Pearl raises her head.]" #TodaysPoem #poetry We All Discover the Unity of Time by Susan Robertson (@snullr.bsky.social) (2025 @pinholepoetry.bsky.social) pinholepoetry.ca/11822-2/

Tom Snarsky @tomsnarsky.bsky.social · 7mo ago

happy first #smallpoemsunday of 2026! 💜 feel free to participate by posting small poems you wrote, +/or small poems you love by somebody else :) in the spirit of new beginnings, here’s one I love by Steve Scafidi~

On the Birth of a Friend’s Child

Among the noises of the slaughterhouse
everyone is blinking—
a calf leaping in the trough.