There are already a number of tributes to Kroetsch posted [for those who have only read his name and not heard it, tha’s pronounced like “encroach” without the “en”], including Shane Rhodes at Arc, Gerald Hill, Shelley Banks, The University of Alberta Press, Armin Wiebe at CBC, Laurie Anne Fuhr, filling station, Todd Babiak, The Edmonton Journal and rob mclennan at Branta
All the Dead Husbands, a Robert Kroetsch chapbook has been put online at the Olive reading Series site here. A snippet from his Second thoughts exemplify the simple, direct but considered with room for wit.
2 Second Thoughts
I persist in believing that watching paint dry
is not such an idle activity.
Belief is an invitation to doubt.
The sun on the hoarfrost, for a moment,
looks everlasting.
That’s why we hide gold in vaults.
It puts one in the mind of Frost, and gold, and its habit of going away.
span-o (the small press action network – ottawa) will present a tribute/memorial reading for Robert Kroetsch Friday, July 15, 2011; doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm at The Carleton Tavern, 223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale; upstairs)