Fall 2022

Welcome to volume 45.2 of CV2—the latest instalment in our very special series of annual Poetry Only issues. We’re pleased to share in this issue work by poets including Niamh Burns, Ọbáfẹ́mi Thanni, Joyce Liu and Cara Nelissen. We hope you’ll enjoy Bob Riopel’s three beautiful poems written in French, E.A. Wang’s delightfully titled “Poem Addressed to Dwayne the Rock Johnson, After His Signature Raised Eyebrow Soars from His Face and Becomes the Crescent Moon” and Chris Johnson’s “elegy for chris johnson,” which contains some familiar and lovely name-drops.

You’ll also get to enjoy the winning poems of the 2022 2-Day Poem Contest, written in just 48 hours by poets Dessa Bayrock, Dominique Bernier-Cormier, Leanne Shirtliffe, Karen Massey, Jade Y. Liu and Britt McGillivray, using the contest’s infamously dastardly ten-word list.

A highlight of this issue are the two poems written by the great Lorna Crozier and her late partner Patrick Lane, translated into French by Jean-Marcel Morlat, and shared here with Lorna’s generous permission. Another highlight is Smokii Sumac’s epic “poem after the Bengsons ‘sovereignty hymns’ Instagram post following the overturning of Roe v. Wade,” a poem for these times if ever there was one.

Wherever and however this issue and its many beautiful poems find you, we hope they bring you peace, joy, or something in-between.