the middle ground by Ellen Chang-Richardson

               Yan Tyazhlov CC



​the middle ground
for caroline monnet


uncertain violence traverses an 
ancient route, brutalities hidden while we
are taught the wisdom of human
commerce and capitalism.

we are cogs, a whole 
made of parts
standing in shadows 
of inference    abstraction.

bound by spaces, where spheres move
a womb into a double 
moon sphering a path that winds itself
around and across our tombs.

             creatures of dada,
the Atlantic Ocean is raw 
the Atlantic Ocean is heavy 
the Atlantic Ocean is a wild passage 
between three territories.

             children of data,
the Atlantic Ocean is raw
the Atlantic Ocean is heavy
the Atlantic Ocean is a wild passage 
full of dead bodies.



                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
Poet’s Note: “the middle ground” is the Atlantic Ocean as described through the words of contemporary artist and filmmaker Caroline Monnet. Monnet looks with a critical eye to the history of movement between Europe and Canada – from slavery to the commerce trade today. This poem is inspired by Transatlantic (2018) and Proximal I, II, III, IV, V (2018), purchased in 2019 by the National Gallery of Canada. “the middle ground” is written in a poetic style reminiscent of the work from Shazia Hafiz Ramji’s port of being (Invisible Publishing, 2018).
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Ellen Chang-Richardson (she/her) is a Canadian poet, writer and editor of Taiwanese and Cambodian-Chinese descent. Winner of the 2019 Vallum Award for Poetry, Ellen's work has appeared in Ricepaper, Bywords.ca, Cypress Press, and more. Her debut chapbook Unlucky Fours is now available with Anstruther Press (2020). In addition to her writing, Ellen is the founder of Little Birds Poetry and the cofounder of Riverbed Reading Series. She splits her time between Ottawa & Toronto. www.ehjchang.com.

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