Today, while hurrying

...to complete a couple days worth of gardening in the space of four hours in order to beat the heavy rain that's on its way, I stopped briefly to watch a Tiger Swallowtail feed on a Siberian Iris. I then remembered the shots I had taken of a swallowtail a couple weekends ago at the very outhouse in my last video post. Well, it was between the outhouse and the filleting shack.


Tonight I started reading Little Eurekas: A Decade's Thoughts on Poetry by Robyn Sarah. It's a very readable book, at least so far. I'm on page 35. In the chapter titled "Poetry's Bottom Line: Towards an Essay on Poetics" she lists six signs of a good poem. All six ring true, but the last one came as a surprise: "It makes me want to write a poem myself." I know I sometimes need to write after reading certain poems. The urge strikes and I act on it. Without question. I hadn't thought about why until now. That's what surprises me.

Update:
June 26 - It rained all day. Rained hard. The cat slept. Groaned off and on. And so it was raining when I came upon "No Road" by Philip Larkin, a poem Robyn Sarah looks at in Little Eurekas. It's funny because when I was in Saskatoon last week, I bought Philip Larkin's Collected Poems, the very book from which this poem was taken. [I should note that the version I linked to above is not the same. The version on the site goes "And still would be followed. A little longer, / And time would be the stronger " while the version in the book goes like this: "And still would be allowed. A little longer, / And time will be the stronger".]

Update:
June 27- It's sunny today. Right now I'm reading Quick by Anne Simpson. I really should start packing. I'm taking Quick and Little Eurekas along on this road trip. Have a great Canada Day!

Those of you who know me

...will marvel at my coordination in the following road trip video, which I shot myself as we were heading home yesterday. Ok, I admit it's bad. The camera's image stabilization helped, but it can only do so much. Too bad there isn't a horizon stabilization feature...



And the hat really was nice.

Then came the excitement, or the post-excitement excitement, courtesy of Mother Nature. I didn't shoot this video, by the way, just in case the last one left you skittish.

There was a good crowd

...at the launch of Torch River by Elizabeth Philips last night. Philips and Don Domanski both gave fine readings. Afterwards I had some great chats with writers, some of whom I hadn't seen in years. And even though I was talking away, somehow I managed to eat too much brie. I hate when that happens.

One of the poets there gave us the heads up about the great lattes and cheesecake at Museo Coffee at the Mendel Art Gallery, so we beetled over there this afternoon. Oh my! Too too good. And the roasted veg panino was unreal.

After we finished our lattes, we spent time with the British drawings from the National Gallery of Canada. It's a great exhibition. Being an Edward Lear fan, as I mentioned in a 2005 post, I was thrilled to see his View near Andritsaina, Greece. And being a fan of limericks, as my terrible muse tshirt shows (I wear it often), I was even more thrilled to see the beginning of a limerick that he'd written on the drawing: "There was an old Man of Andritzena, / Who possesses a sack - & he sits in her." Latte-fueled giggles followed.

Tomorrow afternoon the JackPine Press launch takes place at Museo Coffee, launching chapbooks by Maureen Scott Harris and Sean Virgo. I'll be tied up in a meeting then, so no readings and lattes for me.

Oh yes, I bought a lot of books today, but one still eludes me. McNally has it on order, but it's not in the store yet.

Now I'm going to dip back into In the Lights of a Midnight Plow by David Hickey, a poet new to me.

The latest from my desk

Update:
What follows is a 28 second video review of the above video.



Update:
What follows is a video review of the above two videos. This is the last. I hope.



All five are fabulous writers.

Small Song for a Ring-necked Pheasant

Deep People

...performing "Smoke on the Water" with a guitar and a Saskatchewan grass whistle.



A Saskatchewan smooth brome grass whistle to be precise. Anyhow, I thought I'd post this little video from Saturday before I get to the email. It's amazing how quickly the inbox piles up when you're away from the computer. We spent the entire day on the road. It was a gorgeous day for traveling. Overcast and a bit rainy.

Update:
June 12 - As a few of you may have noticed, there was a more serious note to this post last night, but I pulled it off this morning when I learned that the blog post to which I'd linked was gone. Oh well. I was going to find something to replace it with, but ended up working on a poem instead.

Update:
June 13 - Some of you may have noticed that I changed the video in this post. It's essentially the same, minus the black bars and two seconds at the beginning. Also, as I mentioned in a previous video, I've gone into summer mode, so the blog will be a bit lighter than usual. By summer mode, I don't mean holiday mode. I'm currently hard at work on two books, finishing one and developing another. As well, I'll be spending a great deal of time on the road over the next couple months, doing research and writing. I'll be attending some events as well. I hope to see some of you next week in Saskatoon at the Brick Books launch of Torch River by Elizabeth Philips and All Our Wonder Unavenged by Don Domanski. I also plan to be at the Saskatchewan Festival of Words in Moose Jaw. From there I'm off to the Fernie Writers Conference in Fernie, BC. Expect a video heavy blog for the next few months!

Bliss

...is a great word, but the current OED definition falls a bit short. What follows is a video expansion of its definition. It was inspired by rockstarpoet's recent video. Due to technical difficulties, these videos, like the one I did last weekend, are well below par, but I'm happy to say our video issues will be rectified by this weekend. In the meantime, I humbly offer you this youtubian triptych on bliss.

Bliss: Take 1


Bliss: Take 2



Warning: The following video is intended for a nature audience. Viewer discretion is advised.

Bliss:Take 3

I'll likely pull this poem down

...shortly, but here it is. For now.

The Photo Lab at Extra Foods

The line-up is long. Extra long faces.
A woman scans photo after photo,
likely grandchildren, great-grandchildren.
Scans a little girl. A girl hugging a dog,
a tractor in the background,
a steel bin, blue sky. Scans
the photographer’s long shadow.
If Darwin were alive and in line
he’d surely nod at the investment,
at the typical machine. The long
line of genes. Twenty-five 5X7s later
the line-up remains. Faces change.
People come and go. Snapshots
slip into an envelope. The origin
glossy side up. Like it matters.

Update:
June 4 - I just received a lovely email with some excellent "tweaky suggestions." Many thanks to the editor! Here's the new, edited version:

The Photo Lab at Extra Foods

The line-up is long. Extra long faces.
A woman scans shot after shot,
grandchildren, their children,
scans a little girl: a girl hugging a dog,
tractor in the background,
steel bin, blue sky. Scans
the photographer's long shadow.
Were Darwin alive and in line
he'd surely nod at the investment,
at the typical machine. The long
line of genes. Twenty-five 5X7s later
the line-up remains. Faces change.
People come and go. Snaps
slip into an envelope. The origin
glossy side up. Like it matters.

Out of the 10 books that I ordered

...back on May 7, Amazon has canceled four from my order, saying they were unable to obtain the items. The first order update came on May 21, telling me I wouldn't be getting three of the books. Notice of the other cancellation arrived this morning. All four are spring 2007 books by Canadian poets. That concerns me. In fairness to the publishers and authors, I won't mention the titles that were canceled here, but this morning I did email a publisher to let them know.

Just call me

...Puck...



You can call me Puck, you can call me b, just don't call me late for dessert. Ok. Clearly something went awry with this video. But it does speak to the way my head has been these days as I drift in and out of my work. To the overall lack of clarity.

This morning I learned

...that Dry by Barbara Sapergia is up for a big award. From there I went to the Coteau Books website and wow! They've redesigned their website and it's brilliant.

Speaking of brilliant...