Intended Outcomes Complete Archive

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Intended Outcomes

5 min readOct 10, 2017

Hi everyone. Thanks for reading my work so far. I’ve been on Medium since December 2015, running a poem or occasional article twice per month. Medium’s archive requires some power-using to make it show every piece, so this simpler archive lists every intended outcome. Since the newest poems are already at the top of the main page, let’s put the oldest ones first…

2015

Windy Haiku

The wind is like one caressing my hair’s full length with sweet-smelling hands.

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What I Did on My First Christmas Alone

Our culture treats having Christmas alone like it’s the worst thing in the universe. I don’t get that.

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2016

Roadside Flower Senryu

O! to give an old woman a flower from the side of the road!

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3 Canadian Picture Books in English for Refugee Kids and Their Parents

Canada is welcoming Syrian refugee families this year, and they’ll have varying ages and levels of English. For readers…

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Control Disguised as Kindness Is Control.

That you do for me, without me, you do to me.—Burundi saying

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How to Do Your Best Creative Work

When I was in Grade 1 I drew a graphic. I don’t have it anymore, but from what I remember it looked like this:

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Duck Senryu

I have no bread, but the ducks on the river come just to sit with me.

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The Day I Ran Away With

Today, the day ran away with me. We ran to the cliffs overlooking the sea. The day said, “The sea is always fine.” But…

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Floating Feather Haiku

Tiny white feather of a gull floats back and forth on its curvature.

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Feather Haiku

Feather on finger I blow flies not away before willy-nilly.

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Toy

It is not my place to declare people fools and not my position to call people dogs. Yet, I am harassed from all sides…

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Sparkling Haiku

Rain striking pavement in the streetlight beam: zone of randomized sparkling

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Senryu to a Lover

When I press my own mouth against your chest, and scream, can your heart hear it?

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Doggy Senryu

Skin, fur, warmth, stink, drool… I give my puppy a hug, get wet and smelly

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Kite Ribbon Haiku

Kite hanging on wall: ribbon waves back and forth in computer fan breeze

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Empathy for Ashraf Fayadh

I am, for now, living in mercy, yet still paying for other peoples’ sins against my self I cannot pay for other peoples…

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Twinkling Haiku

Stars in the deep sky; fireflies in the grass and trees: twinkling on all sides

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Of Spiders

How much of space and time must humans understand to equal in proportion a spider’s understanding of human-sized…

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Breathed

I am the baby that breathed when it first felt the frigid air.

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Buttery Haiku

On a cold morning, I fill my stomach with warm milk and butter cake.

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The Star

When, in the house where stars can still be seen, I wake not to the Sun but to the Star Leading him closer by from East…

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Witch Does Laundry

I did the laundry by hand. I stirred it with a broomstick and chanted, “Damn! Women used to work hard! They got no…

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Desert Haiku

When the desert place gets too hot, the desert mouse goes into torpor.

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Why An Internet Tax Will Make Poverty Even Worse

In northern communities like Muskoka we need more affordable internet. But Mélanie Joly, the Minister of Canadian…

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Paper Snowflake Tanka

In Christmas season, pass by windows displaying square paper snowflakes.

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Snow Senryu Prayer

When you make snow, I feel warm looking out at it from inside the house.

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2017

Thin Ice Haiku

Mallards napping on thin ice in the sun melt through and float on water.

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Old, Wise People

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away…

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Golden Creatures

How biodiverse is Muskoka, that in public gardens, I discovered two new insects: male and female ladybirds, yet shining…

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I tried to take pics of graffiti for #FreeKeywanKarimi but the graffiti sucked

Canadians can’t do graffiti. Canadian graffiti is shit mixed with weed and light beer scribbled onto train cars before…

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The Laughing Ducks

The ducks on the river laugh forever in the sun. I can stare out my window, but not for long

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The End of the Ice

I hiked to the last corner of the lake beyond the train tracks, in the shadow of the wood

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Balance

Alice’s arms between vote-rigging neocons & coinless bohemians

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The World

I was walking in the world, the beautiful and terrible world at the foot of an airy, rocky, woody mount. The grass was…

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Wishbone Tanka

We take the wishbone in our pinkies, close our eyes… but I pray, instead.

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Worship Music

Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs from the land of the free and the home of the brave When Momma goes to church, she…

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Heaven

I was taking a bath and I thought, what I would like to do in Heaven is swim in water and be able to drink the water I…

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Crayon

I wonder how it is that Dmitri Shostakovich was creative in a straitjacket sneaking homages into his symphonies but…

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#PrayForNice

I am on the other side of the ocean, where things like that don’t happen except on Twitter I did not turn on the sound…

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Plums?

I don’t like my plums ice cold. Sweet, yes, but a more sensuous fruit is warm applesauce or hot cider from the…

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Loon Haiku

A loon in the river dives, disappears, and the water remains smooth.

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Re: Raif’s Introduction

In a Saudi prison, writers cannot stop writing, even with stylus of fingers on tabula of shit on the wall. The National…

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Choices?

Violence, suicide or enslavement: which would you rather?

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The Note

Watchman Nee in his prison cell stole a slip of paper and a pen, wrote that Jesus Christ is Lord, and slipped it under…

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Hire Deadpool Chant

Hello there, readers. I’ve written this little song as ASCII sheet music using this character chart, since I don’t like…

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You don’t have to

You don’t have to convert to Bolshevism to fight Nazis You don’t have to convert to Trumpism to expose the Soviet rape…

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Thank you for reading

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