This week we’re pleased to bring you Antonia Facciaponte’s first book To Make a Bridge. But that’s not all, on Friday at 7pm we will be premiering a video interview as part of our Poet’s Voice Reading Series. Bruce Meyer (Grace of Falling Stars, 2021) kindly sat down with Antonia and spoke with her about the writing and publishing process for her first book.

 

To Make a Bridge is an operatic collection of poetry about Antonia’s experiences growing up Italian Canadian; featuring themes of food and family. Her poetry is honest, lyric and at times humorous. Available now from fine book retailers near you, or you can order a copy directly from our website.

 

 

 

 

Snapdragons

 

Nonna Maria’s garden (the mute,

slender one enclosed by grey stone) hugs

the house’s brick, crams a community

of snapdragons. The peeping pink

 

and brisk white petals curl over themselves,

miraging two lips, a functional jaw

(a closed pouch for buzzing secrets).

As a child, I’d squeeze blooming mouths

 

open by crushing honeyed heads

between fingering prints, skin sticky

with orange cream-sickle, hoping florals

would flute laurel lines. But the dragons

 

never spoke. The stories grew choked

in green stalks, truncated in dirt, clinging

to worms beneath a blank sheet of grass.