Floating Bodies

By Julie Roorda

Bodies float in rapture, and in death, transported by waves of pleasure, or lapped by failure, fallen, having flown too close to the sun. The poems in this collection are at once macabre and ecstatic, probing the body by means of metaphysics and transcendence through pure sensuality. They describe the disintegration of story that occurs in the face of false love or faith, revealing the ironies, the non sequiturs, the sacrifice. Witty and bereaved, Floating Bodies offers a complex interweave of intimate and public moments, turning again and again on the same question: can suffering be said to have meaning? {Guernica Editions}

• Language: English
• Publisher: Guernica
• Release date: Jan 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781550715408

Julie Roorda

Julie Roorda is the author of three volumes of poetry, a collection of stories, and a novel for young adults. Her fiction has appeared in periodicals across Canada including The Fiddlehead and The New Quarterly. Her story, “How to Tell if Your Frog is Dead,” was included in the 2014 Journey Prize Anthology. She lives in Toronto.

Book preview

Julie Roorda

FLOATING BODIES

Guernica

Toronto – Buffalo – Lancaster (U.K.)

2010  

Contents

                                                                             I

Standing on the Shore

Found Floating Body 

Reality as a Second Language 

Words Misread on the Lips 

Falling to Pieces 

Depth Perception 

Given Wings 

Grey and Silver: Mist – Lifeboat 

II

Still Life with Ghost 

Grail 

Licked 

The Real Thing 

The Irresistible Grace of Falling 

Icarus’ Epiphany 

Corpus 

The Bomb-Testing Site 

III

Bleeding Silk 

If You’ve Nothing to Hide 

Stockholm Syndrome 

By Reason of Insanity 

Rapture Ready 

Garbage Eve in Rosedale 

Dream of No Consequence 

Smog

                                                                                   IV

The Word 

In Your Hands 

Curse 

Glass Floors 

Out of the Blue

Thirst 

Flight Recorder 

                                                                                  1

Standing on the Shore

How often have I been stymied

                by the limits of my skin. Why 

                                 should consciousness be

so confined, inside alone – condition

                that belies desire. But pleasure, 

                                 too, occurs at edges

and your touch has made me wish

                 I had surface boundless as the oceans