as we descend past story and inventory and word into the shape almost words suggest, like a micro facial expression of mood that only gut and camera can catch.




More poetry photos and excepts at humanyms.

Ruth Foley does ghazals using the constant word at end of line variation that is a shout out to missing Italy. Who’s this person? She runs Cider Press, a Journal of Contemporary Poetry
Press release of helping this master visual poet in need, jwcurry.
Joseph Massey’s latest out, Areas of Fog (soon to get another out with BookThug) gets a mention at Jacket in context of minimalism lyric tradition, and an odd bit at Third Factory
War on Women poem by B. L. Wagner who read at the Vertigo Series in Regina.
Dan Weber interview from last year.
An interview with Kate Greenstreet [via Poetry Blog Hut]
Odd these spates of coincidences. Having not heard of him before, I see 3 instances of him within the week, one through a person I just met who mentioned him off the cuff, one an interview in the current Descant and now Lawrence Ferlinghetti interviewed earlier in the year at the blog of New Directions.
Heather McHugh at PBS is the top new story of their poetry series (one poem of being a domestic worker to the shedding dogs “while they lay around on couches like poets and ponder the human condition”).
Strangers on a Train processed thru the Language Removal Project [Ron Silliman mentioned it in one of his roundups.] It does a funny distortion to the head to hear only the non-vocal sounds, the lip smacks and breaths with all the language extracted. It makes it hard not to hear around language for a while.
“First drafts rarely look close to the final product. I might discover a poem begins on line 18 of draft # 42. But by keeping at it, crab-like; I move into territory that’s fruitful. Sometimes I have to do two or three completely different studies of a poem the way I imagine a painter does several different sketches of a subject to find the angle, the point of view, the right mix of light and shadow. It’s spadework. ” – Peter Richardson at 12 and 20
Ontario Arts Council has a new literature links page.
Be Blank Consort sound poetry from Australia performs Saturday night, competing in the timeslot with Capital Slam with Danielle K.L. Gregoire’s launch of her CD, “Optimism is a constant struggle”. She also performs Sunday at Dusty Owl. The same evening Michael Dennis launches his newest book, Coming Ashore On Fire at the Manx pub. (See Bywords listings for details.)

As part of the rejigging of Tree reading series, the feature readers are going to go on youtube where they can be archived and viewed from wherever poetry wants to be seen.
There will be theory talks before the feature reader. Susan McMaster did the first, I did the most recent one [see pic insert]. Roland Prevost, Max Middle, then November 24th, Dean Steadman will be the next special invitation speakers.
The open mic will continue to start at 8 p.m. in the Arts Court at 2 Daly Ave on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month. Starting the next session there will also be a front end workshop running from 6:45 to 7:45 on writing. Who will give the workshops will shift every 3 or 4 sessions.
Oct 13, 23rd, Nov. 10 and 24th I’ll be faciliating workshops on poetry, focusing around authorship, device and audience. These are free supplements to series to encourage thinking about craft.
[And personally I hope next season will do a repeat of a session focussed on past poets, like the night of tributes to A.M. Klein. We’ll have to wait and see what 2010 holds.]

Dusty Owl has the reading series (Next up, this Sunday: Gregoire). It also has this:
Dusty Owl Workshop Series:
Emerging writers and poets get the chance to work with local, published authors from a variety of exciting genres (ex. spoken word, poetic documentary, mystery writing…etc). Be sure to take advantage of the early bird rate of $30 for a season package or $15 for an individual workshop.
[snip] [I took too long to forward this so if you hadn’t heard of it elsewhere, you missed Greg Frankson’s workshop on the Sept. 27th.]
FROM GOOD IDEA TO GOOD READ – The Art of Poetic Documentary
Instructor: Phil Jenkins
Date: Sunday, November 8, 2009
Workshop Description: Phil Jenkins will explain, in particular and in
general, how he has taken good ideas through to newspaper, magazine and
book length pieces of poetic documentary. There will be handouts and
Socratic discussion. Please bring a few good ideas of your own.
THE BARE BONES OF MYSTERY WRITING
Instructor: Barbara Fradkin
Date: Sunday, November 29, 2009
Workshop Description: This informal, interactive workshop will examine
the enduring power of the mystery novel, in all its guises. There are four
magical ingredients of writing crime fiction that thrills, provokes and
inspires the reader — good writing, vivid characters, exciting plot and
perfect setting. Examples and exercises for each will be discussed, as
well as tips on how to create engaging sleuths and credible villains, how
to develop tension, conflict and pacing, and how to interweave subplots,
plant clues and sprinkle red herrings. Questions about markets and
publishers will also be addressed.
We are grateful for the funding provided by Ontario Arts Council.
Dusty Owl Workshop Series: 3 workshops, $15 each or all three for $30 paid before first workshop. All workshops run from 1pm to 4pm and are located at Sushi 88, 690 Somerset Street W, near Bronson Street. For more information, check out http://dustyowl.com/ Avoid disappointment, purchase your tickets now. The fall session starts at the end of September. We hope to be writing with you soon!
Coming next term: 3 more workshops
LISTEN WITH YOUR LEFT EAR: Autobiography the Easy Way
Instructor: Susan McMaster
Date: Sunday, March 28, 2010
Workshop Description: Where on earth to start? — and who cares what a
cute baby you were (except your mother)? Readers will, because every life
is interesting and full of incident — if you can find the thread to pull
it together. This workshop will focus on understanding how to establish a
structure and an approach, and then drafting enough material that you can
take off down the writing road solo. Bring autobio material if you have it
(printed out), plus pens and lots of paper (this will be a messy
workshop). Based on her recent experiences publishing both a memoir and a
unique poetic narrative about her mother, Susan will offer a short
presentation followed by writing exercises, readings, and discussion. Take
home the outline of your book!
WRITING FOR THE STAGE
Instructor: Patrick Gauthier
Date: Sunday, May 23, 2010
Workshop Description: Focusing on the fundamentals of narrative
playwriting – dramatic action, plot, structure, character, stakes, and
dialogue – Writing for the Stage will introduce first-time and emerging
playwrights to the basics of writing for the stage and serves as refresher
for writers with experience. The goal of the workshop is to hone personal
voice and process through discussion, critique, and writing exercises.
Participants are asked to be familiar with Hamlet, and to bring a short
sample of their writing for the stage (either complete or in progress) to
the workshop for reading and discussion.
TAMING THE FANTASY GENRE
Instructor: Marie Bilodeau
Date: Sunday, June 27, 2010
Workshop Description: Kingdoms and lairs, warriors and witches,
adventures and exploration… the fantasy genre is filled with archetypal
themes and characters that break or re-affirm their mythic moulds. But
convincing your readers that your story COULD be real (in a very
alternate, different, and perhaps twisted way) is key to the fantasy
genre. Chalked full of exercises on character, plot and setting
development, participants will not only learn how to work within the
boundaries of the genre (and which ones it’s ok to cross), they’ll also
gain an arsenal against writer’s block, plot tantrums and uncooperative
characters. Exercises are applicable to any fiction writing, but workshop
will focus on the fantasy/sci-fi genres.

When presented with a first or second person poem, I feel as though I am speaking with a close talker. If I like the tone it may be pleasant if I’m in the mood for the subject or energy level, but more likely it will feel “in my face”. If it feels autobiographical, it’s socially awkward because I’m being pulled towards the person but there’s a bracing arm keeping me away because there’s no real dialogue. It’s set text. Even if it’s being workshopped, it’s unlikely to become interactive. And if it does, it’s a different speech act. It’s therapy or it’s conversation or it’s hashing out what does and doesn’t and should and shouldn’t make it to the page. It isn’t literary.
When something is third person narrated, it’s a different beast. There’s a tactful distance that allows the reader to approach the text rather than being hustled towards whatever deal-close of opinion that the story the text is selling. The whole management of raw has been started on. There’s less sense of needing delicacy because there is the structural assurance that the author is self-aware of being in the process of making a meaning from the outside rather than relating a truth. Some contemplated perspective is probably added so the reader doesn’t have to enter braking. Even if seems obviously autobiographical, it can be approached without need of glove and fear of prickly because already a right-sizing of experience into a more manageable distance has been done by the author. One less thing for the reader to do.
When the subject if inanimate or animate, non-human but described in first person it acts like a figurative third person. We know we make-believe. We know there’s a critical intellect already engaged. There’s a disconnect from the essentialism of What is Felt is True Forever and Ever Amen towards the ideology of framing where Everything is Lego i.e. Construction and Deconstruction.
There’s a chance of fluidity and humour where third person exists. When something is first person there tends to be a correlating direction of story towards firming up What Is with mind closed to What Could Be and all the parallel streams of play. It isn’t absolute. One can be fixated and in dead earnest while writing in 3rd person singular passive voice as much as with you and them or exclusively in all the preoccupying vortex persons of I, me, myself, mine.
You is tricky tho. If generic you, if specific you of not present stand in for me as a self-talk to one who is internalized, it could deflect from direct address the same way that she or he can, while avoiding the complexity of hetereonormative set-up of dyad, and the confused anaphoric reference of two hes or two shes.
But if the you is direct address to the known reader, that it tricky to bullseye. Would not one have to speak to self as you and say things so universal and kind that it can be heard by anyone? How to get resonance without being overly forward, making false presumptions, leaping too soon or lagging, overexplaining for a particular audience, in the vacuum of no feedback of writing. It is like synchronized swimming in two separate pools.