The Ottawater 7 launch was a full house on Friday. The annual pdf magazine clocks in at 80-odd pages this issue. (There are pics on Fb if you’re there.)
There were readings by a.m. kozak, Amanda Earl, Monique Desnoyers, rob mclennan, Pearl Pirie and Chuqiao (Teresa) Yang.
Chuqiao (Teresa) Yang reading at the launch of Ottawater 7 Jan 28. The Prairie lady has been Ottawa just over a year. She published recently in Grain, with upcoming works in filling Station and on CBC Saskatchewan.
Here’s an excerpt from one of her poems in the issue entitled (self)-portrait, p. 83
your daughter is a fenced line, is a sunset.
the police kicked your bundles away, said loitering was forbidden
I thought about flashing my passport, how it might work like a stop sign here.
how canadian of me.
the shoe polisher in the fashion district tells you here,
we make a living out of anything because we must.
Such a lovely cadence and enjoyable turns in her poems, of phrase and image.
If you’ve ever sat thru a reading you found painful, the series of poems by Rhonda Douglas, page 26-27 might delight you. Lovely mix of consternation, humbling, impatience and how does it end as it turns about? You have to read for yourself.
Peter Norman has some poems in the issue as well including “Manual for a Partial Machine”, p. 66. An excerpt of it to end on:
To start, press start.
(The button should be there
within a year, at most.)
Run your fingers through the absences.
Enjoy the perks and luxury
of promise.