Ayaan Agane: Introduction to Poems by Aimee Gagnon

Aimee’s work hinges on its ability to alter perception. As she writes in one of her poems, “Perception. All false.” Avoiding cliché, Aimee takes what her readers would expect and inverts it. Her poems often find the eerie or uncertain in ordinary subjects, like the changing of seasons or a first date. In “The University Children” she lends a frightening view of higher education, so that it seems more like a sacrifice than an opportunity. Aimee’s poems, however, are not focused on the disturbing. She takes a rather playful perspective on Halloween in her piece, “Midterm Monster,” again breaking from expectation.
Aimee’s form varies from poem to poem, revealing her keen understanding of structure. She often uses very compressed lines, allowing single words to suggest larger contexts. Numbers play a key role in much of her poetry, serving as concrete images that are still open to multiple interpretations. In “13,” for example, she plays with the many implications of that loaded number. Her work engages the reader, inviting them to see from a different vantage point.
Inspired by anecdotes, memories, and passing thoughts, Aimee’s poetry intrigues.




University Children

The children drive off with their cars full of belongings
And every night the mothers walk the streets
To collect bills, Franklin, Grant and Jackson,
That converse in multiple tongues.

And across the border
Are those who wait covetously
In grand offices for payments.

How symmetrical are the boxes
In which the children pass
Their papers of five to thirty pages,
Which crawled from printers at daybreak.

The institutions will instruct them with vigor
And the mothers shall scour businesses for a way out,
Finding their phones and answering machines silent
Bringing so little encouragement.


-- Aimee Gagnon




13

13 years.
mini skirt. Lustrous legs.
Visual exploration only.

13 thousand.
Burger King Cashier.
Lowly life.
Have it your way… not mine.

13 Friday.
Raging nerves
shackling sheets.
Life stands still.

800 Million
monetary Crash.
Solution to be found?

12-month calendar.
12 steps instead of 13
or skip right over it.
House 12 then 14.

Ramification of religion
departed from conscious.
Coveting convention.
Society’s Suits.

-- Aimee Gagnon