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Jessica Lee McMillan

@jessicaleemcmillan.com
652 followers 602 following 962 posts

Poet, civil servant, music nerd | CV2, Malahat Review, QWERTY, ROOM, Crab Creek Review, The New Quarterly & others. jessicaleemcmillan.com 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘥𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘳𝘵 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘯 (Pinhole Poetry) pinholepoetry.ca/product/shine-like…

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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 8h
RIP Karina Zeviani youtu.be/hu6EoQtpHcM
Thievery corporation’s album Saudade resting on top of a turntabledust cover—both reflecting a tree in the window. 

Album is a granular black and white print of a sorrowful looking woman with psychedelic poster-style swoops of blue and green surrounding her and psychedelic-style lettering “Saudade”
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 01/10/2026
Finally got my hands on a copy of this double LP (at Rick Roll Records in North Burnaby!) and it's deliciously ominous for October. youtu.be/RIrLjAq8eUc #BoardsOfCanada #Inferno #NowPlaying
Boards of Canada album Inferno resting a top the reflective cover of a Technics turntable in play. Cover art is diffuse photo of people standing outdoors and a ravaged treeline silhouette at the very bottom. Predominant colours are red and yellow conveying an ominous tone.
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 08/09/2026
#NowPlaying #ChicoBuarque #Vida
Photo of Chico Buarque album resting atop a Technics turntable dust cover with spinning blue-green vinyl. Album is Vida but only displays artist's name in green with a sepia-filtered portrait of a young Chico Buarque and a white background.
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 07/09/2026
"The new math" from Bob Hicok's This Clumsy Living (2007)
The new math

There are these notions of how the world would be better. Shoot all the anti-Semites. Wear only red socks. Hunt truth like the wolf hunts elk, in packs, with relentless teeth. Make language stand up and be something like a house, give it the force of wind, the courage of a storm to destroy itself. What we think of as wild I think of as honest. Doing, not what you think, but what you are. The difference between counting the rings of a tree and finding a place in the sky. A theory toward wolf would be a fine addition to the history of advice. Train the spine to walk on fours. Claim only that which your urine can touch. Find faith in the scent of things. Humans are metaphors. Chagall was a synagogue dreaming of being a man. When his paintings meet, they lick each other like wolves. I go nowhere without alienation, I carry it like a pouch of anvils, not belonging is the way I belong.
This brings us to the strange math of our heads, the impossibility of dividing by zero. If we could solve that equation, we'd be happy. I give you pencil, I give you paper, I wish you luck. Wolf would make a better denominator. Divide any number by wolf, you get wolf.
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 27/08/2026
Stylized poster of Tim Curry as Dr. Frank-N-Furter (in lingerie, glorious curls and luscious red lips) with the text “Don't Dream It, Be It”.
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 27/08/2026
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 17/08/2026
Fond memories were made last night at Jaeyun Yoo’s chapbook launch with Lauren Peat, Robin Susanto, and Christina Shah. The world has more spark after a night of poetry and banter with these folks. @jaeyunwrites.bsky.social @christinashah.bsky.social @robin-susanto.bsky.social
Group of 5 poets smiling with their books in a white cafe with large windows behind. From left to right: Lauren Peat, Christina Shah, Jaeyun Yoo, Robin Susanto, and Jessica Lee McMillan.
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 01/08/2026
Michael e. Casteels has outdone himself with STUMPT Ninth and accompanying treasures. I’m very proud to have a micro-poem within its pages. Order an issue or chap from Puddles of Sky Press and have an anaolg summer. #Chapbooks #Micropress www.puddlesofskypress.com/index.html/
White mailer envelope with many Canadian stamps, a comic book of collages (The Raw Id Kid issue 2, the second issue of his aesemic, cubist Western, hand-collaged by Michael e. Casteels) and hand-made micro-chapbooks (some in small envelopes) with stamped text, an art card with assembled photos  arranged together on a wooden desk.
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 30/07/2026
Grateful for @kevinspenst.bsky.social's “Chuffed about Chapbooks” in subTerrain💚 In #103, he reviews my chapbook @pinholepoetry.bsky.social as “big concept poetry” that “has its foot in the door of our everyday sensorial reality”. A true aim of mine (and to review more #CanLit)! www.subterrain.ca
Photo of subTerrain, Issue #103. Cover design has light beige background and geometric illustration--centred-- in faded blue, yellow, green, purple, with two abstract faces facing opposite directions.


subTerrain Magazine link: https://www.subterrain.ca/
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 26/07/2026
Join us for the launch of Jaeyun Yoo's @jaeyunwrites.bsky.social chapbook “when a country teaches you” along with Robin Susanto @robin-susanto.bsky.social, Lauren Peat and host Christina Shah @christinashah.bsky.social August 15 (Sat) 5pm @ DALINA 687 Main St. Vancouver
Event poster with pale blue, grey & cobalt hues and central, monochromatic illustration of women crouched in a meadow.

Text:

HOSTED BY: Christina Shah
GUEST READERS: Jessica Lee McMillan, Lauren Peat, Robin Susanto


August 15 (Sat) 5pm
DALINA Main St.
687 Main St
Vancouver

QR code for RSVP
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 19/07/2026
“In It” from Jeff Blackman’s chapbook In The Briny via Puddles of Sky Press for #smallpoemsunday @jeffblackman.bsky.social www.puddlesofskypress.com/index.html/
In It

Honestly
I want less to do 
with my body

but the body 
has a poem
I want

(poem is rubber stamped on beige, toothy paper).
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 12/07/2026
Inspired by @raoulfernandes.bsky.social another rain poem for #SmallPoemSunday by #Rolli rollistuff.com/wp-content/u...
Sketch of man on bend in rain with poem under:

Central Park, 9 a.m.

Dear Diary:
In the green of spring 
and the rain 
(of a sudden)

the watercolor walkers running 
for cover

one man lay down 
his green brief-
case

stretched 
on a bench

his tongue thrust 
out now

and tasted the rain

- Rolli
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 07/07/2026
I love wandering the Alouette watershed while kiddo is at horsecamp. Good for the soul to return to these ancient rocks in the middle of the river. I forgot my poetry & notebook. I just sat, listened, dipped my feet, with no book, no scrolling. Nothing can capture that blessed feeling.
Still Alouette River with large rock on right.Exposed rock and still water with tall trees lining river basin.Closeup of crosscut, smoothed stone. Smoothed stone overlooking moving river and fallen tree with roots exposed.
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 27/06/2026
Andrew French will launch their Pinhole Poetry chapbook TONIGHT at Cross & Crows Books (on The Drive) in Vancouver with guests Aidan Chafe, Lauren Peat and Natalie Lim! @allegorically.bsky.social @pinholepoetry.bsky.social
Event poster with ivory background, curvilinear border with simple flower illustrations on each side of chapbook cover. Chapbook, “Fists You’ve Called Home” is image of beaten-up sideboards of hockey rink.

TEXT:

CHAPBOOK LAUNCH
"FISTS YOU'VE CALLED HOME"
BY ANDREW FRENCH

FEATURING GUEST READERS
AIDAN CHAFE, LAUREN PEAT, AND NATALIE LIM

7PM, JUNE 27TH
CROSS & CROWS BOOKS
2836 COMMERCIAL DRIVE, VANCOUVER
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 21/06/2026
One of my many dad poems. Published in The Malahat Review, Issue 228
ORINOCO
by Jessica Lee McMillan


dad cranked it loud enough
for the synthesizer to wrap around
the chassis of our Astrovan
resonating in 4 ribcages
arpeggios I'd try on my Casio SK-1 
like Enya on her Roland Juno-60.
and that day driving to the library event
advertising a hot air balloon
Orinoco Flow lifted us up
like the new car smell. 
it had a tenor, spacious as our hope
and dad, who'd as soon play Neil Young 
or The Cult, was never too cool 
for tunes he liked. 
I could never read his tastes 
by his stern German profile
and the changing genres of his beard
but I caught a glimpse of him
when his voice merged with the chords 
ebbing from the cassette
—sonorous as the word Orinoco—
then out the driver's window
over his one, tanned arm. 
at the last haunt of D sharp,
he cued it up again
despite the van's fated repo ahead.
I couldn't decide 
if I was embarrassed or proud.
arriving late, we never sailed away 
but the ride that day felt like flight.
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 15/06/2026
This Friday, June 19th! Join us for another epic Open Mic at Moodswing! Sign up starts at 5:30pm, starts at 6! Feature poet Aaron Hunter Hosted by Jenny Garcha & presented by SAPP zine See you there!
Event poster with purple fleck background and diffude rainbows over black & white stippled image of hand holding old-fashined mic.

Text:

SAPP x moodswing
FEATURING AARON HUNTER
WITH HOST JENNY GARCHA

open mic
FRIDAY, JUNE 19 6PM
SIGN UP STARTS-5:30

655 FRONT STREET
MOODSWING COFFEE
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 13/06/2026
See you there in a few hours!
Event poster with a simple, cream background and illustrated swirling patterns. Hosts photos are near centre of poster: Jónína Kirton on the left and Cecily Nicholson on the right. 

TEXT:

reading circle
Saturday June 13, 1-3pm

hosted by
Jónína Kirton &
Cecily Nicholson

Bring a poem to share or just drop in to listen and visit.
Free, everyone is welcome.
Masks are encouraged.
Books available for purchase.

Wildfires Literary Lounge
712A 12th Street, New
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 01/05/2026
From Wayson Choy’s novel The Jade Peony. #WaysonChoy #AsianHeritageMonth library.torontomu.ca/asianheritag...
Excerpt from Wayson Choy’s novel The Jade Peony pg 158

If visions and good sense didn't combine to make us pay atten-
tion, what then was the meaning of anything? Grandmama would
have understood perfectly: signs and portents were her lifeblood.
She had always said t o her friend Mrs. Lim, "You only need to pay
attention."
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 29/04/2026
Shore by Thomas Doerksen in today’s Poetry Pause @canadianpoets.bsky.social poets.ca/shore-by-tho...
Shore
By Thomas Doerksen

What did I want from this short life.

In the middle now.

I have loved the sea when she is angry.

Always I have run her shore when she is angry.

What did I want.

From poetry.

From philosophy’s premature decisions.

See how things go silent on the shore.

I loved you I loved you, sea.

I will die.

I will leave only a few scraps.
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 28/04/2026
Now playing Lowell George’s one and only gem on an album. #LowellGeorge #MusicSky The opening track, “What Do You Want the Girl to Do” was written by Allen Toussaint. youtu.be/_M13EphSl3I
Photo of Lowell George’s “thanks I’ll eat here” album cover resting on reflective dust cover of turntable in motion. Cover art is by Neon Park-and features George in a painterly style with the background, a spoof of Edouard Manet’s The Luncheon n the Grass with central figures replaced by Bob Dylan and Fidel Castro
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 19/04/2026
This Friday, April 24, 2026 at Anvil Centre, celebrate my chapbook launch and listen to poems from most awesome poets @janetkvammen.bsky.social @allegorically.bsky.social @daletracy.bsky.social @winstonle.bsky.social
Blue poster with title Chapbook Launch in capitals and a picture of author’s chapbook on the right (a cyanotype of leaves and a dime) and the following text:

Royal City Literary Arts Society / Pinhole Poetry

CHAPBOOKLAUNCH

Jessica Lee McMillan
will read from her new chapbook

SHINE LIKE A DIME
IN THE DIRT
UNDER THE MOON

at the Anvil Centre Studio 417, 4th floor
777 Columbia St,
New Westminster, BC
APRIL 24, 2026 6:30 - 8PM

with special guests Janet Kvammen,
Aidan Chafe, Dale Tracy & Winston Lê

Copies will be for sale at the event

The organizers acknowledge the League of Canadian Poets, the Canada Council for the Arts & the Department of Canadian Heritage for their financial support. poets.ca
192
Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 18/04/2026
Photo of office with wooden desk with burnt orange chair sandwiched between bookshelf and teak cabinet. Wall has photos, framed art, plaque, calendar, etc. Desk has Apple computer (with word program hidden!) paper, glasses, pen, book, recipe card, fizzy water.
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 17/04/2026
Pre-orders picked up from Wildfires Bookshop @wildfiresbookshop.bsky.social
Two books and bookmark (with Wildfires Bookshop logo) on wooden table. 

Book on left is hardcover with white sleeve and circular graphic image. Title is: The Edge of Space-Time: Particles, Poetry, and the Cosmic Dream Boogie by Chandra Prescod-Weinstein. 

Book on right is burnt orange paperback. Title is stylized in lower case: it’s only forever. labyrinth. By jes battis.
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 13/04/2026
I’m giddy to be included in Qwerty's Pearl: The Best of Qwerty Magazine—Part II, 2011-2025 with all these magnificent poets, artists, and writers. Thanks so much to @qwertymagazine.bsky.social and UNB. Print issue here: www.qwertymagazine.ca/product/qwer...
Cover for Qwerty Pearl: The Best of Qwerty Magazine—Part II, 2011-2025 Edited by Jamie Kitts et al. resting on wooden desk. Cover is a patchwork of covers in an amber sepia filter.Back of Qwerty Pearl: The Best of Qwerty Magazine—Part II, 2011-2025. Contributors names in black frame:

FOREWORD BY BRITT MACKENZIE-DALE

ANNE BALDO
KATE BARSS
OLIVIA DREISINGER
JOEL ROBERT FERGUSON
CELINE GORHAM
YUME KITASEI
SHAYLEN MAXWELL
RYAN OET
CATHERINE OWEN
C.R. RESETARITS
SHAUN ROBINSON
MALLORY TATER
MW
EMMA RHODES
LAURA BARKER
WILL CORDEIRO
BENJAMIN C. DUGDALE
KATH G
LINDA JUDGE
MATTHEW LANDRUM
JESSICA LEE MCMILLAN
PATRICK O'REILLY
MELANIE PIERLUIGI
ROBIN RICHARDSON
OBI TASWELL
OLIVIA THOMSON
WITH GAIA RAJAN
AND REBECCA SALAZAR
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 04/04/2026
Tracksuit Mafia from Hawkeye standing in front of green truck with “Trust a Bro” logo.
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 03/04/2026
The League of Canadian Poets’ @canadianpoets.bsky.social theme for National Poetry Month this year is Land & Sea. More here: poets.ca/offerings/pr...
Earthy green and yellow poster with diffuse topographical map and Land & Sea logo with compass on upper left corner and QR code in upper right. 

Text: NATIONAL POETRY MONTH
LE MOIS NATIONAL DE LA POÉSIE

ORGANIZED BY THE LEAGUE OF CANADIAN POETS
ORGANISÉ PAR LA LIGUE DES POÈTES CANADIENS

PRESENTED WITH / PRÉSENTÉ AVEC

NATIVE WOMEN IN THE ARTS
ONTARIO ARTS COUNCIL
CONSEIL DES ARTS DE L'ONTARIO
Canada Council Conseil des arts
TORONTO
ARTS_ COUNCIL
Canada
023
Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 03/04/2026
One of my many odes to Stanley Park. Thanks to @canadianpoets.bsky.social for featuring me in today’s Poetry Pause. #PoetryofPlace #Vancouver
August 25, Third Beach 
by Jessica McMillan

the peninsula spins evergreen 
aroma braiding Pacific 
current and mountain breeze 
dressing down to cherry trees 
stretched in whitewashed sky 
framing the cliff, their limbs 
the saviours of naked space. 
the forest in the city, 
cool with ancient boulders 
anchors cedar heavens
dangling sunned silk 
dusted with leaf dander. 
from bedrock to soil alights 
dandelion seeds, filaments of ecstasy 
flicker among White Cabbage wings 
and tiers of bleeding hearts
drip petal fat, soapy as the sea-foam 
at the shore sluicing across waves 
of sienna green, belly rolling
crab exoskeletons back up to mossy sandstone. 
seagulls echo the granite seawall 
rimmed with weekend bathers warming skin 
and you are on my hip in a bucket hat 
collecting a minute of mirth, 
making seaweed bracelets
in the name of today, which is praise 
for all we truly need.


Copyright © Jessica McMillan

Jessica Lee McMillan (she/her) is a poet and civil servant with recent/forthcoming work in CV2, The Malahat Review, Canadian Literature and others. Her chapbook Shine Like a Dime in the Dirt under the Moon is now available via Pinhole Poetry. Jessica lives in New Westminster, BC with her little family and large dog. www.jessicaleemcmillan.com

                                                                                              poetry pause
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 01/04/2026
My chapbook is now out with Pinhole Poetry! @pinholepoetry.bsky.social To Order: pinholepoetry.ca/shoppoetry/
Photo of chapbook. White frame with cyanotype centre image. Image gas white sphere/coin and “ghost impressions” of fallen cedar leaves, clover and flowers.

Book title is: shine like a dime in the dirt under the moon
by Jessica Lee McMillan
0102
Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 26/03/2026
Treasures from above/ground press! @robmclennan.bsky.social
Open Canada Post mailer box with letter resting on lid, letterhead has "rob mclennan” Brown box has dozens of chapbooks and is divided in two sides. On one chap facing down bears above/ground press address, the other chap is face up with an orange cover and a picture of a bearded monkey. Box is resting on a burnt orange chair.
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 24/03/2026
My chapbook launch is coming April 24, 2026 at Anvil Centre with very special guests @janetkvammen.bsky.social @allegorically.bsky.social @daletracy.bsky.social @winstonle.bsky.social
Blue poster with title Chapbook Launch in capitals and a picture of author’s chapbook on the right (a cyanotype of leaves and a dime) and the following text:

Royal City Literary Arts Society / Pinhole Poetry

CHAPBOOKLAUNCH

Jessica Lee McMillan
will read from her new chapbook

SHINE LIKE A DIME
IN THE DIRT
UNDER THE MOON

at the Anvil Centre Studio 417, 4th floor
777 Columbia St,
New Westminster, BC
APRIL 24, 2026 6:30 - 8PM

with special guests Janet Kvammen,
Aidan Chafe, Dale Tracy & Winston Lê

Copies will be for sale at the event

The organizers acknowledge the League of Canadian Poets, the Canada Council for the Arts & the Department of Canadian Heritage for their financial support. poets.ca
1175
Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 22/03/2026
Got my 3rd cup (Sundays only) and ready to join the next #TWSsprints
Mug shaped like deadly nightshade bottle from Tim Burton‘s Nightmare before Christmas (grey, textured and tapered on top). Book with pen in the background and round soft lamp
030
Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 21/03/2026
“In a Fit of Sadness” by Vaishnavi Pusapati from B O D Y Happy #WorldPoetryDay! www.bodyliterature.com/2025/06/24/v...
IN A FIT OF SADNESS

there is no time for tears, there never is;
no time for breathing deep.
A fit of sadness is like pulling a door that says push,
again and again, into eternity;
Trapped like cattle on this side of the kissing gate.
I too know sadness, know well indeed,
our mutual friend, the fog that walks with us.
It is a gangrene, the sadness that grows, like long black hair,
like vines upon gates: A tree that hides
the sun, the rain, from us.
“Will the sadness stop?”, I ask, knowing there are no
wrong questions, only wrong answers.
Someone reading this is sad too, perhaps more than I am
and our collective sighs are the sound, the music,
the noise of the world.
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 20/03/2026
That time my husband and I met James Graham from The Twilight Sad at Neumos in Seattle and got an autograph.❤️ First album in 7 years March 27! #TheTwilightSad #MusicSky youtu.be/hTGUnELHOIk
The Twilight Sad’s Forget the Night Ahead album cover withphotocopy collage of person who hands covering face and a red background. LP is standing on top of reflective turntable cover. Turntable is in motion
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 20/03/2026
A tie with my other favourite take. This one I asked my daughter to keep even though she’s grown out of it.
Rectangular child’s book titled “Goodnight Goon” in neon green letters. By Michael Rex. Central image is a goblin looking into a castle room writhing with creatures.
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 19/03/2026
"Disturbing Church" by marilyn letts @mletts.bsky.social via @canadianpoets.bsky.social on today’s Poetry Pause. poets.ca/disturbing-c...
Disturbing Church
By marilyn letts

Little Rose hears about Judas’s betrayal and Peter’s denial,
instead of listening to “Hey Jude” and “Peter Cottontail.”
She perches on her seat
obediently quiet, occupied,
sketching with wax crayons.

If you had been there
you might have said,
Tell me about your drawing.
Rose would have shown you red robins
building nests in green trees
instead of a man dripping
blood on a cross.

Rose would have told you
In the nest
the robins will put blue eggs,
then—baby robins!
Her voice would have struck
sunlight
through the sombre service.
011
Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 17/03/2026
It came. It’s beautiful🥹. My deepest thanks to @pinholepoetry.bsky.social Order here: pinholepoetry.ca/shoppoetry/
1125
Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 06/03/2026
From James Baldwin’s essay “Dark Days”.
The reality, the depth, and the persistence of the delusion of white supremacy in this country causes any real concept of education to be as remote, and as much to be feared, as change or freedom itself. What black men here have always known is now beginning to be clear all over the world. Whatever it is that white Americans want, it is not freedom—nei-ther for themselves nor for others.

It's you who'll have the blues, Langston Hughes said, not me.
Just wait and see.

                                                                   Esquire, October 1980
020
Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 03/03/2026
I can’t believe I finally finally finally scored a copy of Soul II Soul’s Club Classics Vol. One/Keep On Movin’. After 1989, they only pressed it once again in 1999. Finally found an affordable copy on Discogs.❤️ #SoulIISoul #Soul #R&B #Dance #Disco #HipHop youtu.be/TB54dZkzZOY
Soul II Soul LP cover resting atop of reflective turntable cover. Turntable is in motion. Image is tan and black photograph of sharply-dressed dancer in vest, shaved sides of hair with dreads on top raising arm in dance.
130
Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 02/03/2026
Found a minty 4th edition yesterday. Hope it can take me through the week. #FrankOHara #Poetry
Vintage copy of lunch poems by Frank O’Hara on wooden desk. Cover is cerulean blue and orange.
1161
Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 22/02/2026
And he takes it up a notch when he finds his surf-punk brethren.
Adolescent (Bobby) with dark, spiked hair and leather jacket with spikes sitting on beach  surrounded by adult punks. Bobby is holding a credit card.
000
Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 19/02/2026
"Stag photographed with wire wrapped around antlers” by the incomparable Tolu Oloruntoba @tolu.ca for today’s Poetry Pause @canadianpoets.bsky.social
Stag photographed with wire wrapped around antlers
by Tolu Oloruntoba 

Your modern crown of green fence
does make you larger than you were. 
I too, would like to wear my confinement 
as antlerpiece, to have discovered 
the rutting of the green of forest and 
the eternity of hydrocarbons, to be 
thus followed by worshipful watchers 
as I anoint and lift up the twisted child
that must inherit all earth. Eido. Lo. Ecce! 



Note: Poem title is from Bullock, C. (2024, October 1I). Stag photographed with
wire wrapped around antlers. BBC News.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg901kj2neo
2209
Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 16/02/2026
This is really creepy, but tempted to invoke Beavis here.
Cartoon character Beavis with blue t-shirt hooded over his head and caption “Are you threatening me?!”
010
Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 15/02/2026
Damn. Great find thanks to Ken at #ReloveRecords #NewWestminster. #Brazil #BossaNova #Samba #Tropicala #Psychedelia #MrBongo #Jazz youtu.be/iznmqDG3iFA
LP cover resting on reflective turntable in play (with mustard yellow inner label). Album is a vintage photo from a boat of Rio De Jeneiro. Various framed portraits rest on the inner bow of the boat. The album is Hidden Waters “Strange and Sublime Sounds for Rio de Janeiro, Mr. Bongo.
142
Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 15/02/2026
Said goodbye to The Pattullo today and hello to stal̕əw̓asəm Bridge (Riverview Bridge). 89 years. I took a huge bolt from the Pattullo’s deck for a keepsake. Today bridge was very much a verb. #NewWestminster
Approaching main truss of the Patullo. Empty lanes, some pedestrians and orange girders against blue sky. Orange-painted struts (looking up), framing blue sky with white clouds.Closeup of diagonal steel bridge beam with flaking orange paint overlooking new suspension bridge. Suspension bridge with white cords disappearing into the top right. Bridge deck divide horizon with river before and blue sky above with large, cumulous clouds.
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 13/02/2026
“Memento Mori” by Minab Yetbarek @canadianpoets.bsky.social poets.ca/memento-mori...
Memento Mori
By Minab Yetbarek

(the Schara Tzedeck)

Black headstones blossom

even in winter


like rows of spring buds

frozen in the snow


on the everyday commute to work—

the second third of life beside sleep—


in the grave garden

from 22nd Street to Edmonds


staring back at the skytrain

moving, from mundane to mundane


and the plot expands every year

as the black plaques multiply


and the sight bookends each day—

passing a cemetery from the sky each way


what we were told not to do as children—

and the Star of David hangs over it all


like a reminder of some evil long ago

how death, though in the distance


must always be remembered

or how some other has died today

in some country far away


and how powerless one is

in the face of cyclic history


of black stones blossoming

even in winter.
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 11/02/2026
My chapbook is now available for pre-order on the Pinhole Poetry website! pinholepoetry.ca/shoppoetry/
Cyanotype with white sphere/coin and fallen cedar leaves, clover and flowers.

Book title is: shine like a dime in the dirt under the moon
by Jessica Lee McMillan
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 09/02/2026
A Martian Sends a Postcard Home by Craig Raine
A Martian Sends a Postcard Home
Craig Raine

Caxtons are mechanical birds with many wings
and some are treasured for their markings--

they cause the eyes to melt
or the body to shriek without pain.

I have never seen one fly, but
sometimes they perch on the hand.

Mist is when the sky is tired of flight
and rests its soft machine on the ground:

then the world is dim and bookish
like engravings under tissue paper.

Rain is when the earth is television.
It has the properites of making colours darker.

Model T is a room with the lock inside --
a key is turned to free the world

for movement, so quick there is a film
to watch for anything missed.

But time is tied to the wrist
or kept in a box, ticking with impatience.

In homes, a haunted apparatus sleeps,
that snores when you pick it up.

If the ghost cries, they carry it
to their lips and soothe it to sleep

with sounds. And yet, they wake it up
deliberately, by tickling with a finger.

Only the young are allowed to suffer
openly. Adults go to a punishment room

with water but nothing to eat.
They lock the door and suffer the noises

alone. No one is exempt
and everyone's pain has a different smell.

At night, when all the colours die,
they hide in pairs

and read about themselves --
in colour, with their eyelids shut.
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 30/01/2026
Finally have a copy of No Room for Squares. #HankMobley Now when will Blue Note press Dippin’?
Hank Mobley LP cover resting on reflective turntable (in motion). LP cover is yellow & black and features Mobley smoking.
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 03/01/2026
My heartfelt thanks to the editors and community organizations I got to work with in 2025. This list is mostly poetry (with some reprints) and does not even include music writing—including 4 interviews. 2025 was abundant.
Work Published in 2025


    •  3 poems in Tokyo Poetry Journal, Vol 16,Winter 2025 
    •  2 poems in Fire from the Heart: Winners from the 2025 Muriel’s Journey Poetry Prize, 
   Three Ocean Press, November 2025
    •  3 poems in Heron Tree, Volume 12, December 2025
    •  Interview, “The Art of Writing”, talking about strawberries all of the time, October 2025
    •  “Outpatient”, Pinhole Poetry Volume Three Selected, print edition, Spring 2025
    •  Excuses to Mark a Day, Stone Circle Review,  August 2025
    •  Pain in the Reverie: What is a good poem and how does it begin? periodicities, July 2025
    •  “72” Tiny Spoon, Superstition/Issue 13, Spring/Summer 2025
    •  The Day Shane MacGowan Died, Contemporary Verse 2, Spring 2025
    •  “Bridging the Gap” RCLAS Cooperative poem, April 2025
    •  “Mother Lode” Poetry Pause, League of Canadian Poets, April 2025
    •  “Almanac”, pacificREVIEW 2025, the AFTER:words Issue, May 2025
    •  The Air Itself Is One Vast Library, ROOM Magazine (online), April 2025
    •  5 poems in talking about strawberries all of the time, April 2025
    •  “Avocado”, Poetry Pause, League of Canadian Poets, March 2025
    •  “Ambient”, The New Quarterly, Issue 173, January 2025
    •  “Principally Uncertain”, Lover’s Eye Press, Issue 9, January 2025
    •  “Time Out”,  Kinds of Cool: A Collection of Jazz Poetry, Jerry Jazz Musician 
    Unsolicited Press, January 2025

Readings:

    • Ode to the Pattullo Art Salon, Saturday, April 12, 2025 at Anvil Centre, New Westminster
    • SAPP: a poetry zine, Volume 3 launch, September 13, 2025 at Wildfires Bookshop, New West
    • RCLAS Poetry in the Park Host: July 16 & 23 at Queen’s Park, New West
    • SAPP Pride Edition, June 25 at Wildfires Bookshop, New West
    • National Poetry Month Poetry + Art Salon, Saturday, April 12, 2025 at Anvil Centre, New West
    • “Ambient” for The New Quarterly feature, March 2025
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Jessica Lee McMillan @jessicaleemcmillan.com · 01/01/2026
Happy New Year! An amazing find a Relove Records, New Westminster. So damn good. This album has a track stolen and made famous by Rod Stewart. #JorgeBen #Brasil youtu.be/HLbW0cyZXDE
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