10 SEPT 07
Well, it's taken me more than 3 months to get back to talking about our brief visit to Canada--but in the meantime I've had a chance to look at and read and listen to the work of some of the artists we met there.
Michael Maranda was at the soundboard for the reading that Sandra Alland and I did at Mercer Union in Toronto for Mark Truscott's Test Series. I came home with Michael's book Wittgenstein's Corrections, which he describes at his site as "a reproduction of all the notational marks and corrections in Wittgenstein's manuscript of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, absenting the text itself in order to underscore, pace Wittgenstein, that what is most important is often that which is not written."
Michael's site has links to quite a few fascinating projects. Another book I especially recommend is Four Percent of Moby Dick. You can see a pdf of it here, but that's not nearly as satisfying as reading the book, a surprising and beautiful object.
Recordings of the Test Series readings are archived here, including mine, Sandra's, and our Q&A after the reading. Sandra is a dynamic reader and just a great person. Her new book Blissful Times is terrific. ("Do any of us really speak the same language? Blissful Times is a collection of poetry that tries to find out." It really does.) She's just moved to Scotland--you can find out more about Sandra and keep up with her at her blog-like entity.
The inimitable a.rawlings joined me to read the "translations" poems from case sensitive. That was fun. Her recordings from Wide slumber for lepidopterists (she says they are "rough drafts") are being hosted now at PENNsound. You can listen to them here.
I was hoping that our host Mark Truscott would do one of those first-book interviews--but he's been kind of busy lately. Stacy Szymaszek described his Said Like Reeds Or Things as "a cellular study of our English communication system where pronouns and prepositions become more mysterious and muscular than verbs and nouns." (Ron Silliman's thoughts on it are here.) It's a Coach House book, so you know it's beautiful, but photos of the cover don't do it justice. Purchasing it is your best bet.
I've fallen way behind on updating the blogroll, but I'm trying to catch up before I leave the blog alone for a few months. Kate Sutherland's book blog is one I've been checking in with since talking with her after the reading in Toronto. I haven't yet read her new book of short stories, All In Together Girls, but I'm taking it on the road with me this week. (It looks good.)
You can't take Pontiac Quarterly on the road or to the bathroom with you because this literary and arts journal happens live, quarterly, at Toronto's Drake Hotel. "Reading a magazine has never been so hands-free." Fiction, photography, feature interviews, poetry, spotlight articles, musical diversions--there's even an advice column! I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to experience PQ while I was in town but I had a good long talk with its founder, Damian Rogers, who impressed me with her energy and vision. Liz Clayton has been the editor for the last year or so, but she's moving to New York and Damian will be taking over again. (I don't know if Liz will be doing the advice column, "Liz, what the fuck?" from New York or not.)
I did add Amanda Earl's blog a while back--and that's one you definitely want to read to know what's happening (poetically & otherwise) in the capital city, Ottawa. Her photographer husband Charles' blog, through the broken viewfinder, also documents the poetry scene, as well as many other things he's seeing.
Amanda's new chapbook E l e a n o r is just out from above/ground press. The mighty publisher of above/ground, rob mclennan, is the man to contact for a copy. While you're at it, pick up flow march n pwder blossom s by Max Middle. (Enjoy a taste of the Max Middle Sound Project on YouTube. There are lots of sound files at his site, vispo too.)
I had a wonderful time reading with Rhonda Douglas at the Ottawa Art Gallery in rob's Factory Series (Amanda Earl's report of the reading is here). Great to meet Rhonda and all the very welcoming gang gathered in Ottawa. Rhonda read from her potent chapbook Time, If It Exists (also published by above/ground). Here's a poem from that book:
Fifth Grade Essay
This is me and my house, my mom
and my dad and my forty-nine brothers.
My dad carries the weight of authority
and the inability to say no to women:
this will be our downfall, all of us,
these things that run in the family.
Once upon a time there was a city
and the people were happy. Or,
sometimes sad in daily ways,
small griefs given perspective.
In the city, a family; around the family, walls.
What happened next was like those fires
made when I was still learning--
many sparks, at first no hope and then
one catches and everything is ablaze,
uncontained.
That is all past tense now.
Future tense; my favourite
and the one we all fear.
Flashes of something normal: it's just your sister-in-law Helen
in a pretty dress, the gold on her neck like the warning rays
of the sun at noon in July--go inside, protect yourselves.
I tell this to my mother, she says "no, Cassandra,
today it's raining", takes me firmly to the roof
of our house, makes me hold my hand out
to feel the warm wetness ping
into the centre of my palm.
She holds me as if I'm blind
but I can see and this is the problem.
I know enough not to say
it feels like tears, the temperature of blood.
. . .
That night I read from my own above/ground chapbook, Rushes. Copies have been a little hard to come by, but I believe rob and I will both have some on hand soon. rob is a guy on the go and a prolific poet & publisher, as a visit to his blog will prove. Pick up a copy of his latest, The Ottawa City Project, at Chaudiere Books.
I was only in Canada for a couple of days--definitely a place I'll return to for further exploration. A country with beautiful land, an abundance of trees, water, space, cities with good energy and art in the air, and everywhere you go you run into Canadians. And poets! If you've never visited Canada or just haven't been there lately, autumn might be the perfect time for a trip. And if you're already living in Canada, thanks for the nice time.
. . .
