Synkroniciti is excited to welcome poet Paul Edward Costa, based in Toronto, with two poems reflecting the current socio-political climate, particularly in North America. In “LUMIERE UNLIT,” Paul speaks of the discomfort of having guests leave his home unexpectedly, intolerant of his views on life, creating absences and loss of connection. He describes the experience in a way that people on either side of the political spectrum can grasp.
“Strange, then,/ how spaces exchange/ physical contents/ for emotional weight…”
Over time, he has learned not to assume shared values and to spot the people who are already gone over to the other side. It’s much easier if he doesn’t let those people into his confidence. Paul keeps the tone from getting oppressive by injecting humor, evident in the title, which recalls Lumiere, the welcoming candlestick in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Lumiere’s hospitality has been abused and he’s done with setting himself up for disappointment.
The second poem, “THE FRANKEN-CONTINENT,” one of our poetry contest finalists, is an alternate vision, an appeal for unity across the American continent(s).
“I know it’s going to be difficult, akin/ to folding bed sheets while still within them,/ but leaving this puzzle permanently pulled apart/ in the tight borders of our universe/ isn’t an option/ if we still want to keep/ its heated, communal core.”
Paul acknowledges it will hurt as we re-establish connection, and that we will have to air and work through our grievances, but the alternative is worse. These poems featuring engaging and apt imagery delivered within energetic alliterative music.
Read Paul’s fresh and insightful poetry in Synkroniciti’s “Patterns” issue, Vol. 7, No. 4, available for purchase here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Paul Edward Costa is a poet, spoken word artist, organiser, and teacher. He directs Toronto’s Outer Haven Poetry Night series and is a former Poet Laureate for the City of Mississauga. He won the Mississauga Arts Council’s Emerging Literary Arts Award in 2019 and has published in many journals such as Home Planet News and Stanziac Journal. He has recently published Vigils of the Night Office (DarkWinter Press) and Some Half-Human Creature Thing (Mosaic Press). He has featured at many poetry reading series across Canada.