New content has been posted

...at Northern Poetry Review.

And there's a lovely tribute to Peter Butala on Lemon Hound, a blog I follow.

And I've been hanging around That Shakespeherian Rag lately. I'm glad to see his review of The Raw Shark Texts, a book that I'd forgotten about. I was going to order it, but didn't write it down. With so many books coming at us all the time, it's easy to forget.

And the poor cactus is still on the step. H has been advertising it, but so far no takers. Not even a call.

A gaping hole

...devoid of all matter.

My order from Frog Hollow Press

...arrived a while back. The books are gorgeous. Last week I read the introductions by Shane Neilson. The introduction to Now That You Revive addresses the criticism of Moritz's work that came following the publication of Night Street Repairs. As I read, I recalled the hot exchanges on Bookninja regarding the reviews by David Solway and Carmine Starnino. By the end of the introduction, I felt anxious on behalf of the poems. Please be good, please be good, I kept thinking. I read a few, but couldn't shake the tension, so I decided to put the book aside for a while and let the introduction fade a bit.

The broadsheet is gorgeous, too. The blurb on the site says ""Achromatope" is arguably one of the best poems Zach has written."
I have to agree. It's a mighty fine poem.

A box of books I didn't order

...arrived on Friday. It came all the way from Washington along with a nice letter from the writer who'd sent it. I met him at the Fernie Writers Conference. There we had some great chats about books. I'd taken along a big box of Canadian poetry. As much as I could carry. We got talking about how tough it is to keep tabs on all the poetry in our respective countries, tougher yet to have an idea of what's going on across the border and elsewhere. He looked through the pile books and borrowed some titles that caught his interest, among them books by Anne Simpson, Don McKay, Karen Solie and Peter Van Toorn. Over the next few days, he mentioned a number of American titles that he thought might interest me. Now they're sitting on my shelf. Vice by Ai, Amplitude by Tess Gallagher, Where She Always Was by Frannie Lindsay, A Legacy of Shadows by David Lee, Pleasure Dome by Yusef Komunyakaa, and Wolf Tracks on the Welcome Mat by Paul Zarzyski.

He also sent along Cowboy Poetry Matters: From Abilene to the Mainstream. While I don't write cowboy poetry and nor does he, we share an interest in it. I became fascinated with cowboy poetry when I saw Ken Mitchell perform a number of years back. Mitchell is the editor of Rhyming Wranglers, an anthology of cowboy poetry released by Frontenac House this year. The book sold out after their great performance at the wind-up lunch at the Saskatchewan Festival of Words, so I wasn't able to get a copy while I was there, but it's on my shopping list.

I'll have these books until October. I'm thrilled and grateful. What a generous thing to do.

Check out the just launched

...website of the fantastic writer, mentor and friend Gerald Hill.

While you're at it, check out the brand new Hagios Press website.

It's Bookninja's birthday

...and they're holding a contest.

Small Song for a Hand Truck

Always manned by a fool who cuts corners
too sharply. The corner of what's carried
cuts into door jambs and the wall garners
large gashes when the object is hurried.

Held tightly by a mover - hands too rough
to notice the smoothness of the handle
they jerk in effort to steer - it proves tough,
dependable. Used, scuffed, but never dull.

When the weight is balanced over its wheels
it's tempting to move things quickly and far
too easy to neglect whatever feels
light. Mind the ledge of a first class lever.

Upright, sure. Exceeding its weight limit
leads to an ultra steel wreck. Fool in it.

A nine foot tall cactus is not the easiest

...to move, but H and I managed to get it out of the house in one piece without injuring ourselves. And so it begins. We are turning the living room into a studio.

I should dedicate my next book

...to this sesame and cilantro vermicelli salad. It's divine! Poetry on a plate. I could live on it. It fuels my work. Seriously though, this Bookninja post on acknowledgment pages leaves me wondering why they get such a bad rap. Not only do I enjoy them, but I think they are an important element of a book. I'd wager those who value acknowledgment pages far outnumber those who don't.

As for news, I spent the past week with a batch of poems. Today I hit Send. It was time.

After that I took a break and wandered around online. I stumbled across a few things:

Bookninja pointed me to McNally Robinson's great looking new site.

I see Geist has a nice new look as well.

Big changes are coming at Greenboathouse Books.

And dear old Lucy is in the news again.

Whatever.

Sometimes all it takes is one poem

...to spark my interest in a poet's oeuvre. Such was the case when I read "The General" by A. F. Moritz from Rest on the Flight into Egypt. That poem gives me the shivers every time I read it. Serious goosebumps. Just thinking of the poem is enough to put me there in the corn, feeling the dry stalks and all that's happened. The horrible weight. And whenever I see a field of corn, I recall the poem and become lost in it again. Few poems make my mind zoom in and out so dramatically on every single reading, never fail.

Needless to say, I was really excited to see the new Moritz titles at Frog Hollow Press. Tonight I ordered Now That You Revive and the companion Editing Moritz, which I'm really curious about.

I also ordered "Achromatope," a new poem by Zach Wells.

This order is my post-Fernie celebratory treat.

Can someone tell me how to pronounce Moritz correctly?

I received some strange gifts

...while in Moose Jaw, as I mentioned in a previous post. Take a look.



There's a story behind the t shirt. Ask me next time you see me.

Of course this means I'll be looking for the perfect gifts for them...

Speaking of gifts, here's the great book bag I got from the Fernie Writers Conference.


I pulled books out of it in the day 6 video. As you can see, I haven't unpacked it yet.

Update:

The latest issue of CNQ was waiting for me in the post office when we got home. You might have noticed it on the desk beneath the monitor in the video above. So far I've read "Responsibilities and Obligations, Masks and Alterities: On the Poetry and Prose of Peter Sanger" by Zach Wells. I started with that essay because I have Sanger's Earth Moth in my collection and I was curious to see what Wells has to say about his work. The essay is somewhere around 9000 words. Now that's a feature! I came away with plenty to think about.

In addition to a bunch of great looking articles and reviews, on the CNQ 71 contributors page I found what might be the most peculiar bio ever. Pick up an issue and look at the second bio in the second column. It's great.