some author activity: mclennan, Ladouceur, Babineau + Armantrout,

rob mclennan is interviewed by Oscar Martens; there is a new interview with Ben Ladouceur on The League of Canadian Poets blog, and he's a new poem up at The Walrus; Kemeny Babineau has a new poem posted as part of the "Tuesday poem" series over at the dusie blog; and Rae Armantrout has a poem online at Granta.

above/ground press on Parliament Hill: Clarke, Earl, Reid + mclennan,

As part of his tenure as current Parliamentary Poet Laureate, George Elliott Clarke hosted a poetry reading in Centre Block of Parliament Hill this past Friday afternoon, featuring poets Amanda Earl, Monty Reid, myself and Romanian-Canadian poet Diana Manole [who posted her own report on the event here]. Incredible thanks to Mr. Clarke and all on the Hill who had helped make such possible!

I was unclear whether or not a poetry reading had been held on the hill prior (apart from, say, Milton Acorn, who used to perform his poetry on the grounds circa 1970, or the complete reading jwcurry did of bpNichol's The Martyrology in the gazebo behind the Parliament Buildings in July 2006), but Clarke claimed this was the first official poetry reading on Parliament Hill, which was incredibly exciting to think about (although I always consider such statements suspect, and am hesitant to back such a claim without further research). Sponsored by The League of Canadian Poets, this year's #NationalPoetryMonth theme was "The Road," to which Clarke appended William Shakespeare as well, and most readers (but for myself) read a short excerpt of Shakespeare's work as part of their performance.

The room was perfect for the event, known as room 256-S Centre Block (I attempted more information on-line of the space, but found little but this array of photos), decorated with maps, and paintings of ships, trains and other modes of transport. The road, indeed.

Clarke later offered that he originally launched Whylah Falls in Centre Block in 1990, also, as organized by his MP, Dr. Howard Douglas McCurdy (I know numerous books have been launched on the hill, having even been in attendance for a mid-1990s event of Anglo-Quebec poets), but this the first, he suggests, with League funding (I'd be curious if there's a list anywhere of prior poetry readings on the Hill).

The crowd was roughly forty or so, predominantly made up of a variety of Hill workers (and even the Romanian Ambassador to Canada!) as well as poets Roland Prevost and Janice Tokar (who were good enough to take these photos with my terrible camera) and Chris Johnson. Clarke's reading included King Lear, Earl's included an array of unpublished work composed around her hospital scare from a few years back, Manole read from her Romanian-English poetry collection B&W, and Reid read a selection of pieces from a number of his published books (given, at that point, I was recovering from newborn and night two of three sleeping at the Montfort with Christine and baby, I'm amazed I recall so well; the afternoon was a bit hazy. I was even wearing clothes I'd been sleeping in...). I read two unpublished poems, including this piece, composed for newborn Aoife.

some author activity: Earl, Levin, Armantrout + Christie,

Amanda Earl has a new poem up at The Steel Chisel; A.J. Levin has a new essay in the "On Writing" series over at the ottawa poetry newsletter; Rae Armantrout has a new poem up at The Nation; and Jason Christie has a new poem posted at the Chaudiere Books blog for National Poetry Month.

some author activity: Christie, Hall, Brockwell + Robinson,

Jason Christie has some new work posted at NationalPoetryMonth.ca; Phil Hall is interviewed by CBC Books; Stephen Brockwell has a new poem posted on the Chaudiere Books blog for National Poetry Month, as does Elizabeth Robinson.

new from above/ground press: Odds Are, by lary timewell

Odds Are
lary timewell
$4

The distinction disappears but the things remain, as if history were

(history were) an afterimage. Aspirate the h out of it; a unit of eulogy,

one. Arbitrary, so long as we are consistent. Colloquial is not illiterate.

To follow a task greater than to lead. Resolute happiness counting

the beats in anomalous time, reading down the page in 4D. Reading con-

sonantal discontent, boring into the infernal meantime speakers re-

present. Choosing less before sufficient, we position an exit more glorious.

The day is done but (inserted) here to do over again, the work more ill-advised

& ungrammatical than ever. A re-arrangement that never signals defeat. In-

verted, the institution becomes parenthetical to process. When you think

about it too long, nonce-word. Greek stems, Latin advocatus diaboli. Instantly

plausible, pattern. Not precision & cogency, but cut & dried. Supposed,

the unspoken (heard) analogies themselves dispense sense. Writing is

exception-tested, & subsequent practice discriminates, attends based on market

value. That it must count for something fair seems unfair. Only the un-

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
April 2016
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

lary timewell is a North Vancouver writer recently returned from 20 years in Fukushima. The co-founder and publisher of the late 1980s and early 90s Tsunami Editions, he has published a number of titles, including two chapbooks from Obvious Epiphanies. Some of his latest work from the expanding manuscript molecular hyperbole recently appeared in Make It True: Poetry from Cascadia, eds. Paul Nelson, George Stanley, Barry McKinnon and Nadine Maestas (Lantzville, BC: Leaf Press, 2015).

This is his second chapbook with above/ground press, after tones employed as loss (2013).

Produced, in part, as a handout at The New Orleans Poetry Festival, April 15-17, 2016. Much thanks to Marthe Reed for her help and support. http://www.lavenderink.org/poetryfest/schedule/

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

some author activity: Turnbull, Clarke, Earl + Greenstreet,

Chris Turnbull is interviewed by Ian Whistle over at the ottawa poetry newsletter; George Elliott Clarke has a new poem on the Chaudiere Books blog as part of National Poetry Month; Amanda Earl has a new poem up at h&; and Kate Greenstreet and The Factory Reading Series get a nice mention over at Amanda Earl's blog.

Sean Braune launches The Vitamins of an Alphabet Chapbook in Toronto

As Braune writes in his facebook invitation:

The Vitamins of an Alphabet Chapbook Launch!
Thursday, April 14 at 7:30 PM

Grey Tiger
1190 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario M6H 3N7

Tonight we will launch Sean Braune's first chapbook The Vitamins of an Alphabet, with special readings by Dani Spinosa, Dave Milman, Kate Siklosi.

The event will be hosted by the stupendous Eric Schmaltz (who may, perhaps... read as well)!

Come out and try one of the Grey Tiger's wonderful cocktails and listen to some words.

The event will begin at 7:30 with readings beginning at 8:00 pm.

new from above/ground press: After the Battle of Kingsway, the bees—, by Renée Sarojini Saklikar

After the Battle of Kingsway, the bees—
~ from volume 2 of thecanadaproject, The Heart of This Journey Bears All Patterns, commonly known as Thot-J-Bap, a long poemRenée Sarojini Saklikar
$4

Morphology of the

Let lists suffice, those rubbed, we that assemble:

Cardo, stipes, galea, and palupus.

The City, our essence, we might communicate,

syllable, grammar and line, beds violet, wild thyme

were we to find, cracked cement, east side court

Labium when extended, the cardo,

slender, in the laterial wall, we—

might not meet, nor share anything, a glance

on the train, commonly, as short as half,

the stipital length. See here, we gather

at the steps of public buildings where once

protest put down. Many genera.

there came a time, when soldiers rode, guns cocked.

Through the cardo to the lorum, winds breathe

around condo cranes, City of Night, wander

spray cans in hand, fill our shoes with sand.

O for a hundred thousand,

homes we might call to,

all the lights coming on at once—

 

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
April 2016
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Renée Sarojini Saklikar writes thecanadaproject, a life-long poem chronicle. Work from the project is widely published in journals, anthologies and chapbooks. The first completed book from thecanadaproject is children of air india, un/authorized exhibits and interjections (Nightwood Editions, 2013), winner of the 2014 Canadian Authors Association Award for poetry and a finalist for the 2014 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Award. Renée is currently a mentor and instructor for Simon Fraser University, and co-founder of the poetry reading series, Lunch Poems at SFU. With Wayde Compton, Renée co-edited The Revolving City: 51 Poems and the Stories Behind Them (Anvil Press/SFU Public Square, 2015). Renée was recently appointed Poet Laureate for the City of Surrey. She collects poems about bees.

Produced, in part, as a handout at Buffalo Small Press Book Fair, April 9-10, 2016, from 11am-5pm at the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum, Porter Hall, 453 Porter Avenue, Buffalo, NY. Much thanks to Chris Fritton for his help and support. http://www.buffalosmallpress.org/

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

some author activity: mclennan, Saklikar, Clarke + Earl,

rob mclennan has three new poems posted at Mary Kasimor's blog; Renée Sarojini Saklikar has a new poem up as part of the "Tuesday poem" series; she and and George Elliott Clarke also have poems in The Academy of American Poets/The League of Canadian Poets "Poem in Your Pocket" Day publication; and Amanda Earl has a new poem posted on the Chaudiere Books blog as part of National Poetry Month.