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How to Polish a Poem

Language as a Way Home

Poet. Storyteller. Rememberer.

I TOLD NO ONE AND STILL, IT IS TRUE

I am small,

growing beside a river

until I’m a switchblade of truth

I lay down in honesty and

remember how the sky starts

to bruise without ever being touched

much like I have done

 

look at me,

breathing underwater

a tiny pink fist of a lung

gasping for someone to hear her

Learn more about me

NICOLE DALCOURT is an award-winning Canadian writer and poet living on the outskirts of Toronto, Ontario. Her debut poetry collection, What Remains, uses a confessional voice to explore themes of grief, heartbreak, rebirth and belonging. Dalcourt’s work has appeared in Writerly Magazine, The King City Mosaic and on Howl Radio and the Viewless Wings Podcast. When not writing, Nicole hosts and participates in open mics around the region and pursues her passion for teaching poetry skills through in-person and online workshops.

Read My New Book

Some stories aren’t told all at once – they unravel in fragments, in the remembering of the past and in the deep, often unspoken grief, that shapes who we become. IN THIS STUNNING DEBUT COLLECTION, award-winning Canadian writer and poet Nicole Dalcourt takes us on a journey from the tangled roots of childhood, to the quiet complexities of adulthood, exploring the pain we must sometimes carry through life.

What Remains is for anyone who has ever mourned a person, a place, a version of themselves — and wondered how to begin again. At its core, this collection of poetry is a testament to the resilience it takes to keep reaching for love and for healing, and documents the tender process of becoming whole again. 

Buy the book

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  • "With lines like 'I am a switchblade of truth', Nicole Dalcourt slices to the heart of this collection's raw, vivid emotions. Prepare to be moved by her fearless journey through loss and the fierce resilience she uncovers. The declaration, 'I carve my name into the floor - just to prove that I exist', resonates with a defiant spirit that, for me, culminated in a powerful sense of hope."

    James Morehead
    Poet Laureate Emeritus - Dublin, CA

  • “Soulful. Fresh. Elemental. Nicole's work is filled with depth, strength, embodiment and tenderness as she explores the terrain of being a woman moving through this world, walking the beautiful line of both exquisite sensitivity and learned confidence, all while drawing you in with rhythm and a felt compassion for our shared humanity.”

    Victoria Erikson
    Author of Edge of Wonder and Rhythms & Roads

  • “Nicole Dalcourt has written a dazzling reflection on loss, grief, and the surviving that comes after. Full of poignant and evocative language, these poems will hold your hand tenderly across a river of grief only to emerge at the other side, just as the first light of dawn begins to break.”

    Ollie Schminkey
    Author of Dead Dad Jokes and Where I Dry the Flowers

  • "Nicole Dalcourt’s debut collection arrives like a hand extended in the dark: steady, unflinching, and impossibly human. These are poems that walk us through grief and fracture, through the tender wreckage of childhood shadows and a marriage unraveling, and yet they never collapse beneath their own weight. Instead, they rise. Dalcourt doesn’t shy away from pain, but she also doesn’t leave us there. In every page, there’s a reminder that grief can make room for tenderness, that endings can clear the ground for love, that even when we feel broken, there is still a chance to come through luminous."

    Allison Bothley
    Editor and Publisher of Bangs Literary Zine

  • “An absolutely stunning collection of poems Nicole hasn’t written. What an incredible gift her voice is - with her resilient spirit, tender heart and language that pulls you into every moment of her moving journey , I felt every word, every wound and every emotion”

    Chantal W

  • "Each poem feels like a quiet confession; beautifully written and filled with raw emotion."

    Karen S

  • "This book is a true gem: it shows how even in the darkest moments there is beauty, and it leads you to light on the other side."

    Jody J

  • "The title What Remains could not be more fitting. Trauma leaves scars, but this story shows that those scars do not have to define us. What remains is the ability to carry on, to reclaim one’s identity, and to transform survival into resilience."

    Roxann A