In the Poem

Karen Shklanka is a writer, a family physician and, with her husband, an Argentine Tango dance instructor. Her poetry was included in the 2004 chapbook anthology, Letters We Never Sent, edited by Patrick Lane. She was twice a finalist in ARC magazine's international poem contest, in 2005 and 2006, and has been published in numerous other literary periodicals. The poem is from Sumac's Red Arms, her first book, published by Coteau Books:

http://coteaubooks.ca/bookpages/SumacsRed%20Arm.htm

Born in Toronto, Karen Shklanka spent 18 years practicing rural and emergency medicine in small and medium-sized Canadian communities. She has lived in Vancouver, Australia, Regina, Houston, Los Angeles and Moose Factory, Ontario, and on Salt Spring Island. She currently serves as a Clinical Instructor in the Department of Family Medicine at UBC, and returns to being a student in September 2009 when she enters the MFA program in Creative Writing at UBC.

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about us ::: guidelines ::: contact ::: order ::: chapbooks ::: Monday's Poem ::: Monday's Archive
Monday's Poem
Photo by Julianna Slomka		© 2009 Karen Shklanka (from the collection Sumac's Red Arms, published by Coteau Books ... see link below) In The Poem I won't tell you about how morning stretches under the clouds on English Bay like a bright skin, how its edges blur tenderly into the dark, how all moments accordion into this one where we touch a stranger's fingers, how our steps echo in the street, how you measure this, the Pont Neuf, my stride, how you read my back with your hand, how my sidelong thoughts slip by the Seine, out of streets of the Marais, sniff around you, intercept a glance, a sudden kiss before the inevitable commutation, the door closing and the gleaming train.
Karen Shklanka is a writer, a family physician and, with her husband, an Argentine Tango dance instructor. Her poetry was included in the 2004 chapbook anthology, Letters We Never Sent, edited by Patrick Lane. She was twice a finalist in ARC magazine's international poem contest, in 2005 and 2006, and has been published in numerous other literary periodicals. The poem is from Sumac's Red Arms, her first book, published by Coteau Books: http://coteaubooks.ca/bookpages/SumacsRed%20Arm.htm Born in Toronto, Karen Shklanka spent 18 years practicing rural and emergency medicine in small and medium-sized Canadian communities. She has lived in Vancouver, Australia, Regina, Houston, Los Angeles and Moose Factory, Ontario, and on Salt Spring Island. She currently serves as a Clinical Instructor in the Department of Family Medicine at UBC, and returns to being a student in September 2009 when she enters the MFA program in Creative Writing at UBC. about us ::: guidelines ::: contact ::: order ::: chapbooks ::: Monday's Poem ::: Monday's Archive