OCEAN POUNDS One Poem zine is released as a column on the OCEANPOUNDS.COM platform. It emerged in early 2026, when I began refining the website.
The
title traces back to something quite ordinary and very personal: a
vehicle license plate. Since the late 1990s, Holly had been using the
plate “OP OP.” In Ontario, you can apply for a personalized plate title
if it’s available. We learned that “OP” alone was too short for the
system, so we doubled it—“OP OP.” Over time, that small decision
accumulated new meaning.
“OP” comes from The Original Photograph Club, which we founded in Hong Kong in 1995. It later became OP Print Program and OP fotogallery,
first in Hong Kong and later in Toronto, and was eventually
incorporated in Ontario as OCEAN POUNDS. It carries a piece of our
shared history.
Holly was always the driving force when it came to poetry. In the late 1970s, it was she who encouraged me to revive Qiu Ying 秋螢詩刊, a poetry zine I had co-founded with Kwan Mum Nam in the early 1970s but had long ceased publication. As a result, Qiu Ying was relaunched in the mid-1980s—first as a poster, then as accordion postcards—and went on to receive wide recognition.
In
2019, Holly and I took a long drive to Napanee to visit Gary Michael
Dault. During that two-day visit, amid many conversations, we talked
about the idea of co-editing a poetry publication titled DOUBLE DOUBLE,
with four editors—Gary, Malgorzata, Holly, and myself. The project
didn’t materialize. On second thought, we simply didn’t have the
manpower to sustain it.
OCEAN POUNDS One Poem grew
directly out of “OP OP,” Holly’s license plate. A one-poem zine felt
clearer, lighter, and more manageable. It is also, unmistakably, a
remembrance of Holly—a project that continues in the spirit of her
poetic energy.
A poetry zine can publish a hundred poems in a
single issue; that is one way of doing it. Publishing one poem per issue
is another. Here, the focus is on reading one poem—perhaps more slowly,
more deeply—or including writings that respond to that single piece.
The idea of “zine” here is about momentum: a periodical rhythm, a sense
of ongoing presence. For now, it takes the form of a weekly column on
OCEANPOUNDS.COM, but it may evolve. In time, it could exist
independently, in other forms.
For the first three months, OCEAN POUNDS One Poem zine
will focus on selected poems by Holly from her past. In the seasons
that follow, my plan is to invite a guest editor each season to curate
the poems.
In short, this is an open concept. Let’s see how far this tiny thing can take us.