jessi
@jessisays.bsky.social
Poet, teacher, scholar in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. Cut Side Down (2025) and A Number of Stunning Attacks (2021) available from the small, scrappy, Canadian press Invisible Publishing. https://linktr.ee/jessisays
From Eric Schmaltz’s I CONFESS.
October 13, 2025 at 7:31 PM
From Eric Schmaltz’s I CONFESS.
From “I Don’t Want to Get Adjusted to This World” in Ryan Fitzpatrick’s NO DEPRESSION IN HEAVEN
October 13, 2025 at 4:58 PM
From “I Don’t Want to Get Adjusted to This World” in Ryan Fitzpatrick’s NO DEPRESSION IN HEAVEN
Received my copies of the lit mag P-QUEUE today, featuring nine new poems by me. Happy to be alongside the likes of Michael Boughn & Patrick O’Reilly in this issue. See their archive for work by luminaries Eunsong Kim, Stephanie Young, Divya Victor & more: pqueue.wordpress.com/pdf-archive/
July 29, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Received my copies of the lit mag P-QUEUE today, featuring nine new poems by me. Happy to be alongside the likes of Michael Boughn & Patrick O’Reilly in this issue. See their archive for work by luminaries Eunsong Kim, Stephanie Young, Divya Victor & more: pqueue.wordpress.com/pdf-archive/
Just terrified my partner with the guttural scream I let out in response to seeing Jeff Hiller receive an Emmy nomination for Somebody Somewhere.
July 15, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Just terrified my partner with the guttural scream I let out in response to seeing Jeff Hiller receive an Emmy nomination for Somebody Somewhere.
Rain continues; reading continues. Stevie Manning’s JOAN WOULD SAY from @knifeforkbook.bsky.social.
Tonight I swear / on Leaves of Grass, I am your girl. / I have learned the sex of your wrist with my mouth, I know / your tallest knuckle is always going to be fussy
#poetry #queer #beauty
Tonight I swear / on Leaves of Grass, I am your girl. / I have learned the sex of your wrist with my mouth, I know / your tallest knuckle is always going to be fussy
#poetry #queer #beauty
July 13, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Rain continues; reading continues. Stevie Manning’s JOAN WOULD SAY from @knifeforkbook.bsky.social.
Tonight I swear / on Leaves of Grass, I am your girl. / I have learned the sex of your wrist with my mouth, I know / your tallest knuckle is always going to be fussy
#poetry #queer #beauty
Tonight I swear / on Leaves of Grass, I am your girl. / I have learned the sex of your wrist with my mouth, I know / your tallest knuckle is always going to be fussy
#poetry #queer #beauty
Reading @itsakirby.bsky.social’s SOFTIE from @knifeforkbook.bsky.social during a summer thundershower.
is it really so strange
to think you have
a right to sit in the
light of day without
violence?
#poetry #queer #beauty
is it really so strange
to think you have
a right to sit in the
light of day without
violence?
#poetry #queer #beauty
July 13, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Reading @itsakirby.bsky.social’s SOFTIE from @knifeforkbook.bsky.social during a summer thundershower.
is it really so strange
to think you have
a right to sit in the
light of day without
violence?
#poetry #queer #beauty
is it really so strange
to think you have
a right to sit in the
light of day without
violence?
#poetry #queer #beauty
And here is "Roses." All poems originally quoted by Maggie Nelson in the book Women, The New York School, and Other True Abstractions.
June 29, 2025 at 6:04 PM
And here is "Roses." All poems originally quoted by Maggie Nelson in the book Women, The New York School, and Other True Abstractions.
This is from "The Screen of Distance."
June 29, 2025 at 5:48 PM
This is from "The Screen of Distance."
Reading little snatches of Barbara Guest today. This is from "A Reason."
June 29, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Reading little snatches of Barbara Guest today. This is from "A Reason."
Contorting the body and/or book to read Adam Haiun’s I AM LOOKING FOR YOU IN THE NO-PLACE GRID.
June 18, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Contorting the body and/or book to read Adam Haiun’s I AM LOOKING FOR YOU IN THE NO-PLACE GRID.
I love The Cranberries, of course, but I do wish something other than “So ugly, so ugly…” was being sung while I shimmy out of a too-tight dress in the changing room of a vintage store.
June 5, 2025 at 5:22 PM
I love The Cranberries, of course, but I do wish something other than “So ugly, so ugly…” was being sung while I shimmy out of a too-tight dress in the changing room of a vintage store.
Reading Rachel Blau DuPlessis’ THE COMPLETE DRAFTS (Vol. 1).
June 5, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Reading Rachel Blau DuPlessis’ THE COMPLETE DRAFTS (Vol. 1).
I am reading poetry at The Printed Word in Dundas today on Easter Sunday!
“I could not help but rise. / My companions became notorious / sculptors being slowly opened / by the teeth.”
“I could not help but rise. / My companions became notorious / sculptors being slowly opened / by the teeth.”
April 20, 2025 at 2:15 PM
I am reading poetry at The Printed Word in Dundas today on Easter Sunday!
“I could not help but rise. / My companions became notorious / sculptors being slowly opened / by the teeth.”
“I could not help but rise. / My companions became notorious / sculptors being slowly opened / by the teeth.”
As a lapsed Catholic, it does feel wonderfully blasphemous to have planned a trio of poetry readings over Easter weekend. Join us in Toronto tonight (Sat Apr 19) to take in the voices of drunk bishops and family gossips.
April 19, 2025 at 3:18 PM
As a lapsed Catholic, it does feel wonderfully blasphemous to have planned a trio of poetry readings over Easter weekend. Join us in Toronto tonight (Sat Apr 19) to take in the voices of drunk bishops and family gossips.
Reading poetry from CUT SIDE DOWN in Guelph tomorrow night to celebrate Zane Koss and COUNTRY MUSIC! Hope to see you there: Silence. 7 PM.
April 16, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Reading poetry from CUT SIDE DOWN in Guelph tomorrow night to celebrate Zane Koss and COUNTRY MUSIC! Hope to see you there: Silence. 7 PM.
I will be taking my poetry book CUT SIDE DOWN (@invisibooks.bsky.social) on a mini reading tour of Ontario and the Maritimes. Please join me in Guelph, Toronto, and Dundas on Easter weekend (Apr 17-20) or Fredericton, Charlottetown, and Sackville later this month (Apr 28-30).
April 14, 2025 at 9:39 PM
I will be taking my poetry book CUT SIDE DOWN (@invisibooks.bsky.social) on a mini reading tour of Ontario and the Maritimes. Please join me in Guelph, Toronto, and Dundas on Easter weekend (Apr 17-20) or Fredericton, Charlottetown, and Sackville later this month (Apr 28-30).
Montréal! I hope to see you at my book launch on Sunday, April 13! The fun starts at 7 PM and you’ll find the poetry party at BMP Co-op (3714 Parc).
April 10, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Montréal! I hope to see you at my book launch on Sunday, April 13! The fun starts at 7 PM and you’ll find the poetry party at BMP Co-op (3714 Parc).
Montreal, please join my BOOK PARTY at 7 PM on Sunday, April 13 ft. a line-up of wonderful readers, the worker-owned and operated Co-op BMP, alcoholic & non-alcoholic beverages. All to launch my poetry book CUT SIDE DOWN (@invisibooks.bsky.social). Books available for purchase!
April 3, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Montreal, please join my BOOK PARTY at 7 PM on Sunday, April 13 ft. a line-up of wonderful readers, the worker-owned and operated Co-op BMP, alcoholic & non-alcoholic beverages. All to launch my poetry book CUT SIDE DOWN (@invisibooks.bsky.social). Books available for purchase!
So overwhelmed with today’s mail that I went straight into the kitchen. I only had the ingredients for banana bread, so a loaf’s now in the oven. This book I cooked up some time ago. Pre-order now through @invisibooks.bsky.social: invisiblepublishing.com/product/cut-...
February 28, 2025 at 7:49 PM
So overwhelmed with today’s mail that I went straight into the kitchen. I only had the ingredients for banana bread, so a loaf’s now in the oven. This book I cooked up some time ago. Pre-order now through @invisibooks.bsky.social: invisiblepublishing.com/product/cut-...
Typing up the strange lines I’ve recently scrawled in notebooks while turning over the cards of Leonora Carrington’s Major Arcana. Deeply exhausted by the thought, not yet the action, of carving something like a poem from each figural study.
January 24, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Typing up the strange lines I’ve recently scrawled in notebooks while turning over the cards of Leonora Carrington’s Major Arcana. Deeply exhausted by the thought, not yet the action, of carving something like a poem from each figural study.
Aris Keshav’s “Trans Day of Gossip” in Yolk (September 2024):
Who’s on top? The thrill of
fact wears thin and distance, distance
thinner still. Here we go, respect the pact:
here’s news for news. Then fashion
smatterings of love-me tulip and tears
from folds of tulle.
Who’s on top? The thrill of
fact wears thin and distance, distance
thinner still. Here we go, respect the pact:
here’s news for news. Then fashion
smatterings of love-me tulip and tears
from folds of tulle.
January 10, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Aris Keshav’s “Trans Day of Gossip” in Yolk (September 2024):
Who’s on top? The thrill of
fact wears thin and distance, distance
thinner still. Here we go, respect the pact:
here’s news for news. Then fashion
smatterings of love-me tulip and tears
from folds of tulle.
Who’s on top? The thrill of
fact wears thin and distance, distance
thinner still. Here we go, respect the pact:
here’s news for news. Then fashion
smatterings of love-me tulip and tears
from folds of tulle.
The uncropped screenshot caught an incoming message from a friend disclosing she had slept with someone the night before.
January 4, 2025 at 5:49 PM
The uncropped screenshot caught an incoming message from a friend disclosing she had slept with someone the night before.
Montréal! Join me, Jacob Wren, and Gail Scott for the launch of Geneviève Robichaud’s new book The Poetics of Translation. Readings and celebrations will take place at 2 PM on Sun, Dec 1 at Librairie Paragraphe (2220 McGill College).
November 29, 2024 at 5:11 PM
Montréal! Join me, Jacob Wren, and Gail Scott for the launch of Geneviève Robichaud’s new book The Poetics of Translation. Readings and celebrations will take place at 2 PM on Sun, Dec 1 at Librairie Paragraphe (2220 McGill College).