Hemispheres
  
 My introvert side
 is glad to actually have a rest:
 Breathes, exhales slowly, sinks into his chair.
  
 He sets priorities, contemplates, makes plans
 yet accepts the folly of making plans - 
 releases all to its fulfillment.
  
 My extrovert side
 wants to eat sushi, drink draught beer
 experience the world beyond his front door.
  
 He cannot bear to stay inside
 while there is an outside which must be changed.
 In the distance a siren sounds, a call to action right now!
  
 It doesn't matter
 which side of my brain I would like to follow:
 At least I have passed five minutes of the pandemic.     

                                               
 
 Pantoum
  
 The smouldering fire of his heart
 stoked by hope borne of a long wait
 was yet truly the very start
 of uncovering such a trait.
  
 Stoked by hope borne of a long wait
 he learns the truth within the dream
 of uncovering such a trait
 beauty greater than what may seem.
  
 He learns the truth within the dream
 the radiant light in his eyes
 beauty greater than what may seem
 coaxing his desire to arise.
  
 The radiant light in his eyes
 was yet truly the very start
 coaxing his desire to arise
 the smouldering fire of his heart. 


 
  
 Big Time
 Local Player Makes Good
  
 First round lottery pick
 signed to a guaranteed contract
 it seems he has fulfilled
 the stuff of little-boy dreams.
  
 Even as a ruddy, raw upstart 
 clickety-clacking on coltish legs
 he showed signs this day might come
 if ever he grew into his promise.
  
 He watched how the game
 was being played and decided 
 to learn how to do it a different way
 and work as long as it took to seem simple.
  
 He never forgot where he came from.
 "I owe it all to my family, my coaches, 
 my teammates, and even my opponents, 
 because they forced me to be better."
  
 I asked him how he would celebrate
 having found what he was looking for.
 With a glint in his eye, he set his jaw,
 and said, "I've only just begun."

Return to Journal

Pat Connors first chapbook, Scarborough Songs, was released by Lyricalmyrical Press in 2013, and charted on the Toronto Poetry Map. He contributed 18 poems to Bottom of the Wine Jar, published in 2017 by SandCrab Press, and launched in Gibara, Cuba.

He has had work printed in Belgium, India, and the United Kingdom, in addition to the United States and Canada.

Past publication credits include: Spadina Literary Review; Tamaracks; and Tending the Fire, released this spring by the League of Canadian Poets.

Recent publication credits include: Poetry and Covid; Devour; Lummox 9 Anthology; Canadian Stories; Harbinger Asylum; Silver Birch Press; Poetry Pause.

His first full collection, The Other Life, is forthcoming from Mosaic Press.  

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/patrick.j.connors.3

Twitter: https://twitter.com/81912CON

Notes on Prior Publication   Hemispheres was posted on the Poetry in the Plague Year online anthology in August, 2020.   Pantoum was published in the Canadian Stories magazine June/July 2020 issue, and reprinted in the Lummox 9 Anthology, released in November 2020.   Big Time is currently unpublished, but submitted to Toronto Poetry Magazine.