we had no boys at our parties just tea and cribbage sometimes a bowl of bugles beatles 45s and one glass of pop each if mom was in a good mood she loves you ya ya ya 8 days a week baby it’s you we hung off each other and slowdanced a clumsy box-step shuffle […]
Writing
‘That Laurie MacFayden, she’s a howler’
Lovely review of Kissing Keeps Us Afloat from Michael Dennis over at Today’s Book of Poetry. And when I say lovely, I mean fan-fucking-tastic. Some highlights: kissing keeps us afloat is a sustained torrent, a laughing rush, a relentless scream/yodel of passion. This red boat has no oars as it crashes against the shores of love, breaks […]
12 words
her holy hands scorch me that effervescent grin the laugh that went into the candle wax those splashing eyes her fingers a myriad of vowels, of consonants that eclectic thing she does when she breathes me in her winsome writing dress introspection is where she stepped onto the bus murmuration is where she got off […]
Alberta Views reviews Quartet 2014
From Bookshelf, November 2014 issue: […] Laurie MacFayden’s Kissing Keeps Us Afloat relates the experiences of knowing, “by tenth grade,” that one would “never, not ever, be one of the cool kids,” and of recognizing “burgeoning yearnings,” yearnings “we never talked about / the kind two girls aren’t supposed to feel / for each other.” […]
Advance praise for Kissing Keeps Us Afloat
Honky-tonk tunes, swinging & searing verses, meditative narratives, and catalogues of favoured things (including what lovers bring — or leave behind), all merge to make Kissing Keeps Us Afloat a book for tongues and lips to sing. MacFayden knows painting and music, and she loves words and women. The result is art without limit, craft […]
Blueprints (excerpt)
i go back to my dark sad room and make a list of joyful things starting with marc chagall, his stained-glass genius rescued me in chicago and france also, i bought a banjo at a yard sale, music can save lives from Kissing Keeps Us Afloat Laurie MacFayden Release date: September 2014, Frontenac House
e/view of white shirt
Paula A. Kirman has some nice words about my first poetry collection, White Shirt, on the I Heart Edmonton blog. “How can I best describe MacFayden’s poetic style? Imagine poetry that is at times gritty and personal, that deals with love and lust and sex and broken relationships, that has a tone of a booze-filled night out […]
50 words
I’m thrilled to be part of this new motion poem video project by Randall Edwards. 50 words made its debut on March 31, with my poem Begin. 12 poets were asked to pen a 50-word poem on the theme of ‘Beginnings.’ PRECISELY 50 words. No easy task, as it turns out. We laid down the vocal tracks in […]