The local universe was smiling, heralding the event with a rainbow pointed at the Red Bird. Often a concert venue, the space was well-shaped for a reading, which isn’t as common as one might think for poetry readings. Apparently there were a/g t-shirts on offer but my paper-magnet brain saw only chapbooks.
rob opened the night welcoming the first reader, Mahaila. (mahailasmith.ca). Her poems are from the surreal tradition. As an example, from their third chapbook Enter the Hyperreal by Mahaila Smith (above/ground, 2024),
Sparrows ask me to sign their petition. I ignore them.
The career centre advises me to be a taxidermist or
a shadow puppet. Both have high union fees, though.
I write my will, leaving my things to my basil plat,
and wait for my umbrella to eat me alive.”
She has such a shining energy and owned the stage. Running through the poem are eggs [well, not runny eggs] and pinks and sparrows. Such impressive poems I had to take the chapbook home.
(Alrightly, I got photos into the post, but darned if I can figure out how to change their order so it’s a bank of them in random order. So be it.)
Following her, was the launch of footnotes after Lorca by Carlos A. Pittella (above/ground, 2024), his first English poetry chapbook (see part of sample poem at my IG). The concept of it and the exploration of exploding narrative and examining one’s own relationship to the narrative is interesting. He’s taking a century-old Spanish poem and trans(e)lating it culturally to modern xenophobic police action.
Third at the mic was Chris Banks, who I’ve read a few books of, but did not realize he had 7, so I’ll have to go hunting for more. I adore how his brain leaps. Tiny Grass is Dreaming by Chris Banks (above/ground, 2024) got puffs of laughter at its wit going around the room. He recommended reading his long poem “Boys Don’t Cry” as a tour of Canadiana, and I’d second that. What a roll! So interesting to hear him read aloud. Some are better on page than air, some better on air than page but he was perfectly complementary to the page.
Breaktime. If you get the chance, everything on menu got rave reviews, brownies, hot pretzels, croissants, Nanaimo bars. And they are very careful to not cr0ss-contaminate cases of gluten and gluten-free.
After break, was the launch of Cartesian Wells by Gil McElroy (above/ground, 2023), “the room into which we/dragged light &/unknotted yesterday’s/hair” from which he did not read, but from his 2004 book, NonZero Definitions (Talon) and Long Division (U of Calgary, 2020) with its “money’s store of denial.” He’s been publishing since the late 70s so there’s a lot of poems he could draw on and bring into dialogue. Many of his collections have a high concept, based in mathematical structures, much like R. Kolewe.
After Gil, I was up with Rushing Dusk (above/ground, 2024), and a couple new poems to test drive that came out of reading Pepys Diary, which I’ve been doing again since June. I got a gratifying amount of chuckles of poems that tickled people. Seems the poems have legs, which is good to know. Gives more hope for the whole collection.
The closer of the night was the chapbook launch of It’s Here All the Beauty I Told You About by Shane Rhodes (above/ground 2024) which is a new direction for him from what I’ve seen before. These were poems to reconcile feelings of his mother’s decline and death, memories of her life versus after. He quipped since it is white text printed on black, it’s worth the cover price in toner alone. What a different reader than back in AB Series years when he shook and sweated. He was calm and present. Of course, that was a long time ago. And much more personal poems than the last I heard back at Writers fest.
It was lovely to see friends and chat more than I have taken the chance in month. In the case of some people, it’s been years or only met in word, not in face. How relaxed was I? I didn’t even count and recount the number of people in the room. Maybe 50? I don’t know if I’m lowballing that.
Such a wonderful night of poetry tho. I like how rob takes risks with what he publishes. Welcomes strangeness and left of centre and braodcasts the less common like so many weird wildflower seeds.
