Poetic Edits

Spelling Mystakes

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:39:04 +0000

Mistakes as a source of inspiration goes back to… the big bang if we’re willing to accept Zizek’s notion that the universe is one colossal mistake, so it should come as no surprise that mistakes are sometimes inspiration to the tiny microcosm of a poem. Ian Williams is a Canadian poet with an affinity for playing out the profound from the ordinary, somebody who plays with mistakes, somebody you’ll want to read more of:

From “Mistakes”

people like you
~~you like people~~

people like you make
people like you

Oh, the Places You’ll Go

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:54:56 +0000

There are at least two literary events tonight in Vancouver that are definitely worth checking out for those interested in words that wander off the beaten path. Starting at seven o’clockSpartacus Books is hosting Microfiction Regarding Beasts and Other Such Things with a lineup that includes Mark Dahl, Luke Hillan, Maren Lisac, Craig MacKie and Donato Mancini. Afterwards, if you’re interested in trying out your own vocal chords behind a book and in front of an audience, you should head towards Granville Street where the W.A. Deacon Literary Foundation will organize students from UBC and SFU to conduct a reading of George Bowering’s Burning Water between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m at the 700 block of Granville Street (between Robson & West Georgia). Volunteers from the general public will also have the opportunity to read for a 15-minute period.

After all this literary experimentation you might want to start a little publication of your own, which is where next weekend comes into play. The /diagonal west coast zine fair is a celebration of independent and creative publishing in Vancouver. The show will include literary zines from makers from all over Vancouver, Vancouver Island, and beyond. The gallery will be set up library-style, and guests are invited to take down any zine they want and experience it. Tables will be set up in the back for zine purchases, and the night will include readings by local poets and music by local bands. All this at 221A Artist Run Centre (221 E. Georgia St) on Aug. 7 from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. (entertainment (poetry readings and music) start at 6 p.m.)

a nest for micro-poems

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:19:09 +0000

If you’re in the habit of producing tiny fragments of writing about your own life, you might want to check out memoirsink, where they’re asking for 144 character “fragmoirs”, fragments of memoir writing.

a little bird told me nothing about line breaks

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:14:57 +0000

In the chaos of scrambling for a summer job, I’ve sorely neglected this site. This past week, I’ve finally gotten back to writing my poem-a-day at twitter. What I love most about twitter is that fact that you have to compress and condense ideas, which seems to be the essence of poetry. Here’s a little posting for today that gives a behind the scenes look at the evolution of a small poem.

birdsong whittles whistles down to a shining note that you wish you could pick up like an impossible penny off the street to see not only year but also the month and day

birdsong whittles whistles down to a shining glint that you wish you could pick up like an impossible penny to see beyond year to month & day

birdsong whittles whistles down to shining glint you pick up like an impossible penny to see not only year, also month, day& places traveled

Breathing in the Page and Breathing out Submissions

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 22:15:23 +0000

There’s a panoply of writing contests just around the corner, so if you’re in need of motivation, you have two to three weeks to dust off that poem or rework a short-story you’ve been banging away at. If your poetry is in the experimental vein, you might want to consider mailing your work to Vallum, the deadline is June 30, 2010. However if you suffer from timbrophobia (fear of stamps) you can email those experimental poems to Existere, a literary magazine that’s currently accepting submissions for the Fall 2010/Winter 2011 issue with a deadline of July 01, 2010. If you’ve just finished writing your poems and they have a prosy look about them, send them to PRISM’s prose poetry competition. Then there’s always the Lush Triumphant Contest (their deadline is this upcoming Tuesday the 15th) or if you’re not too keen on contest fees send something to the relatively new This Great Society. They’re currently accepting submission for the theme of “Pop.”

Most importantly, submit, submit, submit!

If you are at the stage where you need to supercharge your inspiration, I can think of no better recommendation than Betsy Warland’s Breathing the Page. It’s an exceptionally playful and insightful look at all aspects of the writing life. I bought a copy two days ago and I’m already well over halfway through it. In fact, I would have finished it by now, but there are so many gorgeous passages that I’ve had to read again and again. For example on the topic of Embodiment, Warland writes: All the formal and narrative elements of poetry and prose originate in our bodies. Like the heart, our sense of time expands and contracts. An initial walk to a writing hut in the forest seems three times longer in contrast to our return along the now more familiar path. Warland’s style weds philosophy with philanthropy, a caring attention to matters of the heart. I can’t recommend this book highly enough.

Losts and Finds

Sun, 30 May 2010 04:00:51 +0000

Posted something on twitter for the first time in almost two months. While typing up my dead Stephen Harper poem, I noticed a link to an interesting site that seems to be an experiment in online ephemeralness. Falling off the Mountain will be online for only a couple more days so read it while you can. From FotM I found a link to some exquisite poetry at Salamander Cove, which should be around for a while.

And so here’s where I unplug myself from this and return to reading some Ron Silliman.

one cool word up

Sat, 01 May 2010 00:11:33 +0000

One Cool Word, the Vancouverlogue of arts and letters, is on its last issue before it gets an extreme makeover, which is definitely something to get excited about as it’s already a rad publication packed with Vancouver goodness and greatness from emerging talents such as Rob Taylor as well as poetic stalwarts such as Patrick Friesen (who recently read at a OCW event). If you’re interested in writing, read.

cover art to die for by judit navratil

optimisms

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 04:15:10 +0000

Poetry (huh!) What is it good for? Absolutely nothing. Say it again. No. I won’t say it again because, well quite frankly, it’s not true. No matter how much Edwin Starr oomph you put into those words they just won’t ring true at any volume, in any decade or in any imagined Weird Al Yankovic video. This optimism felt for and within poetry is the central concept behind the Optimisms project over at the Torontoist book site. Jeff Latosik, Sin Queyras and others sound off on their love of poetry. Recommended reading for the tail end of a rainy Monday. Oh and after you’ve read some of the responses, why not write a poem and send it off to these guys? incongruousquarterly.com

an experiment in process: inner ashbery ear

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 22:52:32 +0000

I recently picked up Roo Borson’s Personal History, a beautiful collection of essays about poetry and art. One of the pleasure’s of this book is Borson’s knack for gorgeously phrasing powerful ideas. For instance: And there is nourishment in the notion that all books, in all languages, throughout history, form a linked, extended work – like the parlour game in which everyone in the room adds a different stanza to a freely evolving poem – a linked, extended work which, while perhaps not a masterpiece, is surely an epic of sorts.

My addition to the non-masterpiece side of this epic is a poem that I just wrote this afternoon. What sets this piece apart from what I usually write are the conditions under which it was created. For about two hours this afternoon I listened to nothing but John Ashbery’s Soonest Mended on repeat on my iPhone as I went about my afternoon chores. When I got back home, I pressed stop and wrote down the following:

Wind, cherry blossom petals and sporadic raindrops
are the constant elements to this day,
swirling in a luminescent tunnel upon which scenes are painted:
backed up traffic stretching out towards perspective of a pin point
and then a lotto center with chairs and tables, bending and scratching.
Wilfred Laurier on a five spot with feather-like wisps of hair by his ear,
whorls across his face as if it were his thumb print fat and flat
and the reason he made prime minister was that he was the first
person with such strangeness attached to an extremity,
and we were happy to elect someone with such an honest touch.
But the street scene painted again by Ashbery’s bland voice
taking a stroke out of Anger or some landscape artist from Italy
and we’re in Rio Friendly Meats were they are.
You bite into a pepperoni stick that might be the winner
might open to that two hundred dollar scratch and win payoff
but it’s just a willy wonka kind of thought injected into meat,
and the grocery store gets a tener with Macdonald in exchange
for milk and bread and I see something in the future in the cash
display as an electronic opening to watch dreams of future
purchase highlights and I smile and Ashbery tells me that
“not to grow up is the best kind of maturity at this juncture”.
On walk home I see cherry blossom petals on man’s face;
he pulls up jeans at the waist to show that he’s more,
and in the distance of the sidewalk cherry blossom blottoed
people and behind the dumpster man pisses out cherry blossoms
and the tunnel that’s painted around me shrinks to cigar
sized pepperoni stogie in my mouth and I’ve solved the mystery
to Ashbery’s death down this tunnel and how Happy Hoolgan
was behind it all along in a scene to be painted on a future
five-dollar bill in a state of anarchy around the corner.
Once the council approves our escape plan out of this tunnel
and into the promised land where the senses will run free.

Poetry and the Fate of the Senses

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 17:33:37 +0000

Truth be told, I’m torn about today’s entry. I want to share with you one of the most amazing thinkers on the topic of poetry in our age, but part of me wants to keep her for myself. I’ve always been a little selfish; a scene that comes to mind regarding my greedy appetite involves a bag of Old Dutch potato chips in my eight-year-old hands. At the sight of another kid (a friend) approaching me, I gobbled down the last ones at the bottom of the bag. I’m still engaged in outgrowing that horrible habit and do whatever I can to counter it. So here’s a link I’ll share to an interview with Susan Stewart. I’ve been devouring her Poetry and the Fate of the Senses this past week and this interview animates the voice from the pages of a remarkably thorough study which combines linguistics, philosophy and a number of amazing poets. In fact, Susan Stewart has a lot to say about voice, the senses, poetry and how she writes with the “goal to get people to read more slowly… to slow the culture down and be a stay against this incredible imperative towards speed we have.” Yes, its advice I need and I hope it inspires you as well.