Creative Writing Commons^™

Fungi Moves, Night Crawler, Tree Futures, Petra Kuppers

The Goose

Three Gothic Eco-Poems by Petra Kuppers.

Co-Editors Notes: Moving On Land? Choose Your Instrument, Tanis Macdonald, Ariel Gordon

The Goose

Editorial Introduction to The Goose Volume 20, Issue 1 (2023).

Sun In Eponymous Glasses: Two Poems, Angela Hibbs

The Goose

Scintillating nature imagery captured in nouns.

Before Showtime, Amy Kaler

The Goose

In this piece of creative nonfiction, I reflect on the experience of having time on my hands in peri-urban spaces that are characterized by transience, liminality, and contingency, while waiting for performance time at youth cheerleading competitions. I describe walking around these places, specifically Las Vegas and Abbotsford (BC). I connect my experience to other accounts of aimless wandering, such as the "derive" of psychogeography, and note the ways in which the exercises of power and potential world-ending catastrophe are present, but latent, in these landscapes. In particular, I consider the historic cold-war threat of a nuclear bomb as well …

Pink Telephone, Gary Barwin, Elee Kraljii Gardiner

The Goose

"Pink Telephone" is a psychogeographical exploration of walking in woods considering ideas of communication and internal monologues and situating oneself and one's place in community.

Tetrapod: Adapted For Locomotion Across Land, Amy Wang

The Goose

Poetry by Amy Wang.

Two Poems, Nicholas Bradley

The Goose

Poetry by Nicholas Bradley

When The Moon Rises And You Want To Sing, Frances Boyle

The Goose

Poetry by Frances Boyle.

Bindweed, Leanne M.R. Charette

The Goose

Poetry by Leanne Charette.

Reflections From A Maternity Leave: The Complex History Of Beaver Dam Flats And Refinery Park, Emily Ursuliak

The Goose

A personal essay reflecting on my relationship with Refinery Park and Beaver Dam Flats in light of its complex history.

On Foot, Dee Hobsbawn-Smith

The Goose

“On Foot” is an interdisciplinary examination of the importance of walking and running to the creative life. It is primarily a personal essay braided together with free verse poetry and a small proportion of inquiry into a few famous thinkers and writers who walked regularly. The essay traces a serious foot injury and the effects of that trauma, coupled with the threat of loss of sight, on a writer with a long history of walking and running as part of their creative process. The five poems unspool the sights and sounds of the natural rural world where they walk daily, …

Because The Muddiness Of Mud Must Be Uttered: A Personal Essay, Dorothy Ellen Palmer

The Goose

"Because the Muddiness of Mud Must Be Uttered," by disabled senior writer Dorothy Ellen Palmer, is a personal, braided, nonfiction essay tracing how her access to and understanding of moving on land has been shaped by ableism, ageism, and the pandemic.

Baby Steps, Amy Neufeld

The Goose

A creative non-fiction piece about childbirth and walking, situating the self and the new child, and climate anxiety and fear for the future.

Surface Tension, Kerry Ryan

The Goose

"Surface Tension" is a piece of creative nonfiction by Kerry Ryan.

Falling Into Action, Kent Hoffman

The Goose

Kent Hoffman explores human movement, his own mobility, and how it influences the way he moves on land. This personal essay, told through the lens of disability and accessibility, outlines his experience of living with Becker muscular dystrophy. Hoffman's approach to walking and mobility is heavily influenced by a fear of falling. As his mobility is changing, he's adapting and seeking out new ways to move on land. Different modes of mobility determine the way we experience personal movement, but accessibility determines who is welcome in spaces in the first place. Accessibility in the form of providing equal access is …

When A Saunter Starts To Taunt Her: Exploring The Outdoors With Disabilities, Jessica Cory

The Goose

This first-person creative nonfiction piece examines engaging with the outdoors, primarily through walking and hiking, while struggling with diagnoses of Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos (hEDS) and Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS). The author also considers how growing up with a parent whose disabilities made it more difficult to enjoy hikes impacted her own perception of the ableism inherent in the design, architecture, and infrastructure of many state and local parks. The author discusses the importance and struggle of teaching environmental literature through the lens of Disability Studies and advocates both for visibility as well as concrete changes to make hiking and sauntering …

Inclement, Susan Wismer

The Goose

"Inclement," by Susan Wismer, is from Hageography:

Hagios, a Greek word for holy.

Hag, an old woman. Hag, an overhang at the edge of a cliff

Rough notes. Foot notes. Choreographies of happenstance.

Long Before Gps, Leanne Shirtliffe

The Goose

Poetry by Leanne Shirtlife.

Surrender No. 40, Ken Wilson

The Goose

In June 2016, I made an improvised pilgrimage on foot through the Haldimand Tract in southwestern Ontario, the territory deeded to the Haudensaunee in 1784 and mostly stolen back by settlers since then. I grew up in Brantford, a city in the Haldimand Tract, ignorant of the history of the area. When I learned about that history, I decided to walk through the Tract as a way of understanding, physically, the scale of the land theft that had occurred, a theft that, as a settler, I had benefitted from. “Surrender No. 40” is an account of that pilgrimage.

Portal, Catherine M. Greenwood

The Goose

"Portal" is an ecoGothic poem from Siberian Spring.