[Rachael Simpson of In/Words and Nina Jane of & Co. Collective] Another small press book fair come and gone. This fall, if you can believe it, will be the
twentieth anniversary of our little event. How did we get here?
Ottawa ON: I’m
intrigued by Chris Johnson’s Down Bank:
Ex Haibun (2014), a small folded chapbook produced through Carleton University’s In/Words magazine and press [see the profile I wrote on them over at Open Book: Ontario]. Composed as ten haibun written about an
ex-girlfriend, Johnson skirts the line between some very fine writing and a
simple re-telling of a post-breakup narrative. This provides for a pretty
uneven series of pieces, but the sections that work are really quite lovely,
especially when Johnson worries less about telling the story of how the breakup
was hard and more about focusing the language on a particular small moment,
stretched out across a couple of lines.
EX
HAIBUN Nº 2
When I said my foreskin
tore the last time we had sex and there was blood stains on the bed, I meant
your body is earthly and I have spilt blood into the thickening of your skin, tissue of skin, torn for another
planting, another seeding, and you never saw red until I called you honey, you also carried on your back yin and
embraced yang with your arms and shoulders, you were balanced perfectly, my
friends complimented your breasts when we went skinny-dipping in my friend’s
inflatable pool, equal parts attractive and classy, and still you hid your
tattoos for your grandmother’s funeral; honey, did the bees make you?
Test,
what day is today, hungry, who has not eaten in days
It
has been interesting to watch Johnson play with form and influence, from this chapbook
of haibun (referencing Fred Wah, who also worked with the form) as well as an
earlier chapbook that came out of his reading the work of Phyllis Webb [see my review of such here]. I like the exploration of these pieces, and the places his
writing attempts, far more ambitious than most of the poets around him. Despite
the unevenness of this small item, I think I would recommend Down Bank: Ex Haibun; Chris Johnson is a
young poet worth paying attention to. Who knows what he might come up with
next?
[Michael e. Casteels talking to Pearl Pirie] Kingston ON: Cobourg,Ontario poet, editor and publisher Stuart Ross continues his curious engagement
with the poodle in Nice Haircut, Fiddlehead (Puddles of Sky Press, 2014), a chapbook of twelve short lyric
poems. Admittedly, the most his ongoing muse, the mysterious poodle, appears in
the collection is on the cover, but any follower of Ross’ work knows well
enough to not simply pass over such a reference. Do I make too much of this?
ELEGY
Nice haircut,
fiddlehead,
juggling beneath
a slobbering dog
by the side
of a gold-veined
lake.
Ross’
poems are constructed out of a series of moments, composed nearly as single,
stand-alone points, that accumulate and build into pieces that one can’t even
imagine, or easily describe. His ongoing engagement with humour and the surreal
often work as a kind of distraction, allowing Ross to work through what he is
really doing within a particular poem, leaving the reader with something striking,
powerful and sometimes slightly sad and far more meaningful before one even
realizes. His poem, “ABECEDARIUM APOLOGY,” is magnificent, and might just have
to be heard to be believed, and his “SONNET” has an enormous amount that
happens in a very small space. Ross’ playful engagements with poetic forms
often brings a fresh take on what so many others have previously done, twisting
a variety of expectations around and away. In many ways, Stuart Ross might just
be one of the most published of Canada’s underrated poets. Why does humour get
such a bad rap?
SONNET
Bye Bye Birdie.
Going Down the Road.
The Ticket That
Exploded.
Al Purdy.
Felix the Cat.
Dennis Kucinich.
A Day in the Life of
Ivan Denisovich.
Doctor Rat.
Welcome to the Monkey
House.
Evelyn Lau.
I Can See Clearly Now.
Mickey Mouse.
Jack and the Beanstalk.
Talk Talk.
[Marthe Reed, tabling] Grand Rapids MI: Having
recently moved from Lafayette, Louisiana to Syracuse New York, we were able to
engage with a variety of American poet Marthe Reed’s publishing enterprises,
including her new chapbook, ROOMS
(Shirt Pocket Press, 2014). A collection of seven short poems, each exist as a
kind of point-form sketch of a different room, perhaps in the house they left
behind in Lafayette, which by itself suggests an interesting artifact on their
prior space. As bpNichol explored the body through his Selected Organs (Black Moss Press, 1988), a sequence later
published in full as Organ Music (Black
Moss Press, 2012), so too does Reed explore the body of a house, but reduced,
sketched, and down to the bare essentials.
Bed
broadside
bark abstraction
flamingo encyclopedia
poem
poem
folded enameled copper
oils on wood
alpaca alpaca
No comments:
Post a Comment