iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Susan Robertson

Helen Robertson @helendestroy.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

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.

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Helen Robertson @helendestroy.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

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...

knifeforkbook.shop

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...

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Amazon Syren @amazonsyren.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

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

youtube.com

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phillip crymble @phillipcrymble.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

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.

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Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Congratulations, Nicola, and all long-listed poets!

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phillip crymble @phillipcrymble.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

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.

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Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

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

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Pearl Pirie @pearlpoet.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

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

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Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

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

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Roberto Faria @betofaria.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

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 ❤️

ourcommons.ca

Petition e-7195 - Petitions

13918897

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phillip crymble @phillipcrymble.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

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

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Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

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.

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Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

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.

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phillip crymble @phillipcrymble.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

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

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Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

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

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Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

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

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Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

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.

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Heather Christle @heatherchristle.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

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.

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 11/02/2026

"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

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beestung @beestung.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

"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-...

beestungmag.com

One Poem by Helen Robertson – beestung

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Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

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.

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phillip crymble @phillipcrymble.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

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?

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Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

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

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Tom Snarsky @tomsnarsky.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

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.

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Amanda Earl @amandaearl.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

Bywords.ca invites current & former Ottawa residents, students & workers to submit poems. Deadline of February 2026 issue is January 15, 2026. See guidelines on site. Queries: amanda@bywords.ca. Please share this call.

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Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

I can't be there, but you should if you can.

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Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

So timely. But it shouldn't have to be timely for these stories to matter. I just registered.

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Evan Jones (Ευριπίδες Ιωάννου) @evanpjones.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

Meanwhile in the social media multiverse. My poem for Steven Heighton.

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Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

What a treat to meet and hear Steve McOrmond and Jeremy Luke Hill.

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Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

Come out Friday for poetry and ghosts galore!

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Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Michael Goodfellow's chapbook Cleft is gorgeous.

The front of a beige, tall rectangular chapbook on a dark wood background. The left side features an etching of a snakemouth orchid. The title, Cleft, and the author's name, Michael Goodfellow, are printed in the upper left hand corner.

The back of a beige, tall rectangular chapbook on a dark wood background. The right side features an etching of a snakemouth orchid.

The title page of a chapbook. A mirrored image of a snakemouth orchid is printed in dark ink on the top of a beige sheet of paper. The title, Cleft, is printed, also in dark ink, in block letters underneath, and under that the author's name, Michael Goodfellow, in italics. The author has initialled the bottom.

One page of a long poem printed on beige paper. Three text reads:

Cleft stone, then the eel
then the room within water
it happened before
then he used another name
a stream bed, stone heaved
it happened by rivers
places I would never see
bog fern, granite, pebbles, dark soil
below also meant inside

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Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

Come hear Steve, Jeremy, and me and help celebrate Baseline Press!

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Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

It's not fall without the Small Press Book Fair!

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Susan Robertson @snullr.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

Come help Dagne Forrest and me celebrate our Baseline Press chapbooks along with special guest @nancyhuggett.bsky.social. Saturday, September 20, 2:00 p.m. at the Sunnyside Library, 1049 Bank St., Ottawa.

A poster announcing a Baseline Press chapbook launch on Saturday, September 20, 2:00 p.m. at the Sunnyside Library, 1049 Bank St., Ottawa. The top third of the poster contains the location and time information in white letters against a teal field. The bottom third contains headshots of the authors arranged in horizontal row: Dagne Forrest first, then guest reader Nancy Huggett, and Susan Robertson. The authors’ names are printed above their photos.

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Scrivener Creative Review @scrivener1980.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

One month only. Submit now: scrivenerreview.com/submit

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