It seems to be a consistant problem: If I don’t blog about something while it happens, I’m too tired afterwards and life presses on, adding to the tottering pile.
I read at Art Bar with rob mclennan and Shannon Maguire recently.
Shannon Maguire’s poems in her new chapbook Vowel Wolves & Other Knots is the first set from a longer manuscript which are translations and transposing to current old German poems of wolves and tweaking around the syntax.
rob was reading from a (short) history of l. and new prose poem pieces. Hub and I thought there were among the tightest and most musical. Something shifting in the work which is always interesting to see.
I rarely appear in photos here because I’m always on the other end of the camera or the only one documenting so when I read, I don’t exist outside that time and space. In this case number one in fan club was at the reading too so he photographed me.
Reading from Thirsts. Copies are now at Collected Works along with 3 other titles by me. One even sold this week. Woo.
Reading from the new chapbook I edited and designed. People are saying very nice things about how it all works together. The second print run is about 1/3 sold already. By time we do the official launch reading, it may be to third printing. Odd but interesting.
There was an open mic of 10 people. I took no notes under my new practice of attempting to retain rather than transcribe. It was nice to see some slam slipped in there with Emily’s poem on accepting body and gender and self as is, by how she sees fit. Emily rocked. ‘I want to have the brain of Hilary Clinton and the body of Beyonce.’ There are more photos in the stream to either side of here.
It was a good night. Good vibe in the room. Good turnout. Open mic was well-controlled for time and number of people and not bad. Some good pieces. And I made $160 between book sales and honorarium. (The Ottawa Small Press Fair by comparison yielded over $200 in sales.) So even by train, material costs of getting there was covered, even if cost of time is slim. It’s partly a matter of pleasure of being among like-minds, meeting people in person.
I’ve been thinking about slam versus poetry where the performance is more often designed for one-on-one, reader to page. Conversations around it bring up the distinctions of intent from the point of conception of the poem. Is a poem I make to communicate? If it is not meant to communicate, why would it be published? Is a matter of access? Is it a matter of demand? Slam poets charge admission to attend the performance and are rewarded in some series by a literal payoff after a runoff for most resonating performance and winning the night with cash in the pocket. For book poetry the admission charge is buying the book but seeing it read is often free, or free-will offering. How does it all jive? I feel like I’m missing considering a piece.
We’ll see how Toronto goes again. Dec 10th and 11th we’re back there at the AvantGarden Series where I read with Christine McNair. It’s a longer set. Instead of 20 minutes of reading each, this one is up to 40 minutes each.
With a name like AvantGarden, how can it not be cool? And we’re at the Toronto Press event the day before. See details of when and where here.