Excerpts From Deep Fried Kodak: Poems by Denis Robillard
Three New Poems From Denis Robillard
Denis Robillard has released a new book of poetry called Deep Fried Kodak. It's been 6 years since his last volume, Ask The River (Black Moss Press). Denis has kindly allowed us to share three poems from this volume.
Maroon Bastion Citadel Hill
Halifax 2021
During Covid
Brushed by the segue of time zones
Our eyes roam across old buildings
And ancient water here
Take survey of the expanse of harbor
In this historical town. See
Governor’s island in the distance.
At the Citadel we walk in the crowded
Concourse
The pleasant land mark on the hill
An inner sanctum of light
Where the gift of silence
Opens up another door through time.
I think of the Maroons who laid these
Bloody rocks down hundreds of years ago
Down across this inner bight of bay
Their bloody stories lodged in stone.
I marvel at these interlaced blocks
Arranged in cold masonic efficiency
Built and brokered by work’s
Human bondage
These timeless plinths
Broken by the crack of a whip.
And in turn I touched this very stone
Fastened from dark hands
Built piece by rough piece
By the slave’s fardel.
When we walked down the steep haunch
Of the Citadel that day, silent
when the hot afternoon angled
Down the well- worn trail
And cornered us in the eyes affliction
When I spotted a clump of starlings
Sitting on the lawn all I could think about
Was flight.
Ophelia
You remind me of
a Millais painting
Where I see you through
the pallor of the misty
curtain gauze.
Your recumbent body
caught between
death and splendour
Your bulbous dress
floating over
A serene pool of lilies
With the weight of water.
A silent white Ophelia
in her drowning pose
With innocence taken
innocence lost.
Your skin still milky white
and pure
caught in the tendrils
of your hopeless silent
crucifix.
Magpies in a foreign land
Restrictions. Afflictions. Interventions.
Paternal permissions needed.
In a house of dead flies
We lie in insect coffins too afraid to sleep.
And you remember decades
Of a rosary falling between your fingers
Kneeling in the dining room
Boys to one side and girls on the other.
How long must we wear the pure veils
Of an unknown catechumen?
How long with this tainted imposition?
The roseate glow of perfection
Etched in the crucible brain
Of sacrifice and pain
Praying only to a white man’s
God.
Like fawning animals made to kneel.
The cold impetus of months and years
Stamped on the psyche.
Under the command of paternal
Catechisms
Venerating statues
Repeating vows like magpies
In a foreign tongue.
Denis Robillard is a 58-year-old poet and retired educator born in Northern, Ontario. He now resides with his wife and children in Windsor, Ontario. Robillard was first published in 1986 and has had over 500 poems published in Canada, USA and Europe since 2000. Recent publications include Ristau (Kentucky), Rampike (CAN), Ekphrastic Review (CAN), Windsor Review, LUMMOX (Calif) The Nashwaak Review (2020) and Gently Mad Magazine (2024). He is the past winner of the Ted Plantos Poetry Award in 2015 and the Cranberry Tree Press Award for his book, THE HISTORY OF WATER. His poetry book, ASK THE RIVER was published by Black Moss Press in 2018. His most recent book is called DEEP FRIED KODAK (2024).
The ISBN for DEEP FRIED KODAK is # 978-1-0689484-0-4. Please support your local bookseller!