New Year's Eve

snow and ice pellets before dawn
red long underwear and wool socks
krauch's smoked atlantic salmon
a warm warm sweater
poetry and translation discussion
an exchange of books
downhill in freezing rain
a fit of sneezing
strong enough to stop me
a pan of sauteed scallops
an atlantic lobster dressed in red
a growler of picaroons best bitter
post-"be..." research foiled
by internet erasure–revisioning
by the in-control powers
of denial and distance
as canada's national blue-wrap
stretches its inner whiteness
in its occupy increasingly
questioned by other informal
grassroots occupy movements
camped out in the cold
while the bums on the plush
celebrate themselves
their control and holding on
to the end of the year
and unknown futures
of one and all …

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 28 Dec 2011

Ashes, Paper & Beans: Host: Joe Blades. CHSR 97.9 FM, www.chrsfm.ca Fredericton, NB.

Skaugnir Holmgang Trio: "Three Viking Ships (came sailing in)"

Lord Torvald Torgarson: "Freya's Wedding"

Sean Virgo: "Delivered by Hand"

Jocelyne Verret: "Memramcook"

Beverly Matherne: "Le bles du tabac / Tobacco Barn Blues"

Skaugnir Holmgang Trio: "Deck the Halls (with skulls of Saxons)"

Joe on Literary Landscapes (CKCU)

Today, tonight, poet Joe Blades is the guest on Literary Landscapes. He will be interviewed by Christine McNair, and will read poems from Casemate Poems (Collected) (Ottawa: Chaudiere Boooks, 2011).

Literary Landscapes blog archive at cartywheel.wordpress.com.
Co-hosts Christine McNair, Bardia Sinae, Kate Hunt, and Neil Wilson.
Thursday, 6:30-7:00 pm (ET/EDT).
CKCU, 93.1 FM in Ottawa.
ckcufm.com everywhere.

winter solstice 2011

west chezzetcook eastern
shore nova scotia dawn in
half an hour orange–yellow
golden glow on eastern horizon
a few lavender–burgundy
clouds and frosted everything

even frozen puddles
of hillside trickle
saltmarsh grasses
mossed apple trees
spruce and mountain
ash sprays of red berries

and there is a pheasant under
an apple tree eating seeds

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 14 December 2011

Ashes, Paper & Beans: Host: Joe Blades. CHSR 97.9 FM, www.chrsfm.ca Fredericton, NB.

Hilary Peach: Suitcase Local CD.

bill bissett: "Opening Chant"

Maggie Estep: "Sex Goddess of the Western Hemisphere"

Catherine Kidd" "The Walking Man"

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 7 Dec 2011

Ashes, Paper & Beans: Host: Joe Blades. CHSR 97.9 FM, www.chrsfm.ca Fredericton, NB.

Evalyn Parry: "14 (for December 6)"

Catherine Hunter (w/ the weakerthans): "Rush Hour"

Sheri-D Wilson: "Crow Fusion"

Leanne Averbach: "The Birds of Sarajevo"

Ahdri Zhina Mandiela: "Canefields"

Queenie: "Perfect Road"

Tanya Evanson: "Turkish Coffee"

Place poem: An exploration

After my 14 October 2011 presentation on the two-person panel, with Jenn Pazienza, of "Poetry and place: The social significance of the mythic imagination in art and education", in Creative Essentials: 2011 National Conference, Canadian Society of Education through Art. Fredericton, NB, in mid October, Pippa Dean-Veerman and I started a conversation on writing poetry that this blog post continues.

Pippa asked me if I help her on how to get her students to write poems in the moment of exploration of the land, with the immediacy of seeing one's face reflected on a water surface—puddle, stream, lake—rather than with a removed, abstracted, reflective writing exercise in the classroom, or as homework, at some later time.

I said to her that most of the poetry in my recent books—Casemate Poems (Collected) (Chaudiere Books, 2011) and Prison Songs and Storefront Poetry (Ekstasis Editions, 2010)—was written in public artist residencies, on the spot, mostly with a manual typewriter, with the immediacy of an artist–journalist, or an explorer–scientist writing fieldnotes in my journals later sourced, as in from the book that doesn’t close (Broken Jaw Press, 2008). I said that I wrote about how I write situational poetry in the afterword to my out-of-print Casemate poems (Widows & Orphans, 2004).

What came to mind as a possible tool, or device, for me to examine on how to write a "how-to write a place poem" is Yoko Ono's instruction poems in Grapefruit, first published in 1964. I just happened to witness a not-scheduled performance of her "Cut Piece" in the lobby of the Crowne Plaza Lord Beaverbrook Hotel, by a group of fellow Ceative Essentials conference participants. I knew "Cut piece" from its inclusion in the play The Yoko Ono Project: with instruction poems, music and other texts by Yoko Ono by Jean Yoon, that my Broken Jaw Press published in 2002. [It turns out that I am wrong in my assumption that this performance is unscheduled. The Creative Essentials conference program reveals to me, five months later, that it is a scheduled arts-based research performance by Maria Ezcurra, titled “Strip(p)ed”.]

My photo (2011) of the participants posed for a photograph after their performance of Yoko Ono's "Cut Piece".

Later that day I attended a paper presentation by Maria Ezcurra, a grad student at Concordia, who discussed "Cut piece" and the work of two other women artists in the context of her own textile artworks. Maria didn't know of Jean Yoon's play.

Here are two attempts by me to write an instructional "place poem":

place poem

be somewhere
be aware
write your senses
write your emotions

step away from the poem

[repeat]

place poem 2

stop where you are
where are you?
write where you are

Fredericton Crafters' 10 Dec Sale

Joe Blades will be here with both Maritimes Arts Projects Productions and Broken Jaw Press stuff: hand-made artist books, note cards, objet d'art, books, books & more books … including his newest poetry books Prison Songs and Storefront Poetry (Ekstasis Editions), and Casemate Poems (Collected) (Chaudiere Books). Fredericton's Broken Jaw Press has poetry, fiction, drama local history, and art books by many New Brunswick authors plus authors scattered across Canada and beyond.

Most of the books are in English but many are in Spanish & English; some are in Spanish & French; in German & English; in Spanish, English & French; in Serbian. Fredericton's revue ellipse mag is in even more languages: the newest issue is a collection of Brazilian fiction and poetry in Portugese, English & French.

Help build cultural community bridges by getting a copy of Los puentes del Río San Juan / Bridges over the Saint John River, a Capítulo de Fredericton de la Academia Iberoamericana de Poesía antologia featuring Canadian poetas / poets—Hugh Hazelton, Nela Rio, Lady Rojas Benavente, Julio Torres Recinos, Joe Blades, Lynn Davies, Jo-Anne Elder, & M. Travis Lane; traductores al inglés—Hugh Hazelton, Elizabeth Gamble Miller, Edith Jonsson-Devillers, & Alicia Zavala Galván; and translators into Spanish—Natalia Crespo, Gabriela Etcheverry, Hugh Hazelton, & Sophie M. Lavoie. Nela Rio & M. Travis Lane, editoras / editors.

"This snowman has bones."
"No, it doesn't."

But Bones of the Magus will be piled on the table with author Tristis Ward in attendence to autograph copies.

---

Exhibitors/vendors:
Louise Chapman - Wax Art, Photography, Painting
Tara Francis - Porcupine Quill Work, Hand Dyed Silks, Acrylic Painting
Melanie Mitchell Designs - Silk and Silk-Velvet Scarves, Screenprinted Pashminas, Silk Buttons
Jennifer Krueger's Estey Creations - Watercolour, Collage and Acrylic Artist
Donna Nutter's By Donna - Beeswax Candles and Chainmaille Jewellery
Vivian Nelson - Photography Prints, Calendars, Gift Cards
Kyla Jardine's Button's Corner - Rag Wreaths, Fleece Blankets, Sewn Items for Children
Ginette Areseneault's Yarn It - Crocheted Baby Wear, Adult Winter-wear and Home Essentials
Mary Forbes and Debbie Crouse - Quilted Totes, Wall Hangings, Runners
Neil Cole's Unit-tee Designs - Screenprinted T's and Pinback Buttons
Martha Hills' Hills Pottery - Mugs, Plates, Trays and Ornaments
Herb Page Blacksmithing - Picture Frames, Wall Hooks, Games, Candle Holders
Maureen Williams & Sheri Legacy, Two Women and Their Soap - Soaps, Lotions, Balms
Jennifer Whelan of Savi Jewelry - Sterling Silver Jewellery
Bronwyn Gallagher Textiles - Sleep Masks, Woven Scarves
Tess Feeney's Soulflower Herbals - Herbs, Teas & Spices, Perfumes, Salves, Soaps
Megan Billings Pottery - Pottery
Joe Blades' Maritimes Arts Projects & Broken Jaw Press - Handbound Books, Poetry, Notecards
Delica King's Oh!Leander Clothing and Design - Dresses and Shifts from Cotton Jersey
Rachel Greenwood Pottery - Pottery
Dora Boudreau's Atlantic Pewter and Glass - Pewter Jewellery, Ornaments, Housewares
Sabrina Edwards' Oracle Design Studio - Dyed Silk Scarves, Jewellery, Greeting Cards, Pillows
Erin Hamilton and Angela Black - Wool Soakers, Owlly Ornaments, Cards, Handbound Books
Caleigh Mugford - Shibori Scarves, Belts, Stone and Steel Jewellery, Ink Drawings & Mandalas
Sarah Smith-Stewart's Awesome Possum Accessories - Hair Bows, Barrettes, Bow Ties, Hats
Sarah Smith Stewart's Beadnik - Silver Plate, Sterling, Copper, Hemp Jewellery
Amy Sullivan's Amylaloon Pottery - Pirate Mugs, Monster Jars, Garden Sculpture, Ornaments
Kent Jensen's KVHJ Designs - Upcycled Fabrics and Silkscreens, Ties, Pillows, Scarves
Amber Cober Glass - Housewares, Ornaments, Jewellery
Cynthia Ryder Art and Jewellery - Sterling Silver& Stone and Upcycled Jewellery and Art Cards & Prints
Chelsea Walsh, Tracy Molyneux of Produce it Elaborate - Sterling Silver and Beaded Jewellery
Nate Miller, Emanate 7 Productions - Music performer, recording, production, CD's

Day without Art

1 December
International AIDS Day
Day without Art

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 30 Nov 2011

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 30 Nov 2011. Host: Joe Blades. CHSR 97.9 FM, www.chrsfm.ca Fredericton, NB.

Jeff Ferrell: Empire of Scrounge [talk recorded at St Thomas University, Fredericton, NB on 30 September 2011 at the annual Qualitative Lecture of the Atlantic Centre for Qualitative Research and Analysis.]

Evalyn Parry: "14 (for december 6)".

Mary Elizabeth Grace: "Bootlegging Apples on the Road to Redemption".

tanya evanson: "I am not Together".

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 23 Nov 2011

blog post 1000!

First real snow of the heating season show ...

Feature is a colloquium lecture, "In search of Byzantium" by Theodore Christou, Faculty of Education, UNB Fredericton [recorded 29 Sept 2011 in Marshall d'Avray Hall]."

Montreal poet Hugh Hazelton: "Emergency

Found photo du jour

This blog's post #999.

Found at 3:56 pm, 20 Nov 2011, between the sidewalk and parking lot at 123 York Street, Fredericton, NB, beside the building housing the Multicultural Association of Fredericton and Caribbean Flavas restaurant.

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 16 November

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 9 Nov 2011. Host: Joe Blades. CHSR 97.9 FM, www.chrsfm.ca Fredericton, NB.

Greg Marquis: "Anglophone New Brunswick's Folk Music: Old Time and Country Music in the 20th Century" [recorded 1 Nov 2011 @ Atlantic Canada Studies Seminar Series, UNB, Fredericton].

Eliz Robert: "Between the Covers".

Phlip Arima: "Human Drag: Take Thirty-Two; Punk Got Stomped; Survival of the Fittest".

Hugh Hazelton: "Wordwork".

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 9 Nov 2011

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 9 Nov 2011. Host: Joe Blades. CHSR 97.9 FM, www.chrsfm.ca Fredericton, NB.

Cynthia Taylor's "Art and the After-Life (... and there is only the dance")" address at the 2011 National Conference of the Canadian Society for Education through Art, Fredericton, NB.

Australian poet Robin Rowland from her CD Off the Tongue with music by Rose Bygrave: "Things of stone and wood", "Hunger", "Venice", "Things you gave me", & "Everything's turning".

Radio Free Vestibule: Kevin and God.

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 2 Nov 2011

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 9 Nov 2011. Host: Joe Blades. CHSR 97.9 FM, www.chrsfm.ca Fredericton, NB.

Live interview with emerging Fredericton, NB filmmaker Ryan O’Toole and Jim Lavoie, Publicist for the 2011 Silver Wave Film Festival.

+ a snippet from Dire Straits’ “Skateaway”.
The Wordburglar: “Welcome to the Props Department”.

on the trail

What is the story of this car in Marysville long over the bank between rail/trail and river?

just off canada street
a painted black pumpkin
i could dress one
with my broken jaw
and paint its skull
this hazed sun afternoon
before a night promise
of latvian vodka and wine
of nor’easter rain’n’snow
a bad rod stewart recreation
dried grasses hardly rustle
as people bicycle past
counting or marking today
as one of the good ones
birds crickets and dogs
the whine of a tablesaw
from across nashwaak river
people—both men and women—
walking with canes in use
no broadway stage show
“puttin’ on the ritz” ’round here
is cheeze or something else
say house-blend herring
eaten for a light snack
absense of a person felt
qu’est-ce que future?
balcony railing très froid
sky more solidly grey
with thickening overcast
eat pizza made in allegmagne
as paint dries on my pumpkin
eyes nose and jaw carved

River view below the bridge in Marysville. A photo I took yesterday at a trailside park bench illustrating I like biking, sitting, photographing, and writing (t)here.

An example of a practice I do not like or agree with:
Out of respect for the land—and this trail is also parkland—the City of Fredericton must come up with a healthier and safer way to trim and remove trees, weeds and bushes encroaching the trail. Many people walk and cycle these trails to see and enjoy some of Fredericton's natual beauty. Many people walk their dogs along the trails. Tree mowers leave an unsightly, violent looking and feeling bed of shredded stumps dangerous to fall on or to attempt walk through. Sure, it would be more work and need more workers than one person sitting in a machine to cleanly stump or remove these trees but the trail parklands are not a highway or clearcut. They should be tended with aesthetic consideration and respect for the people who use the trails—residents and visitors alike.

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 26 Oct 2011

Ashes, Paper & Beans: Fredericton's Writing and Arts Show, with host Joe Blades, on CHSR 97.9 FM, Fredericton.

poet Surparna Ghosh: Dots and Crosses.

Fredericton writing and arts public service announcements.

poet Hugh Hazelton: the Imperial Birthday Party.

poet Luis J. Rodriguez: Palmas.

liszt listening lists

2011 is Hungarian pianist–composer Franz Liszt's bicentenary. Among other things, he composed orchestral music he called "symphonic poems" that interpreted poems, paintings or other non-musical sources. "As a twist on this idea, the Charlotte Street Arts Centre will host visual artists and writers to interpret, during the concert, the musical works presented" (from the Program).

Artist–jeweller/metalsmith–educator Brigitte Clavette to my left.

Peter Allen at the Yamaha baby grand piano, audience, my orange toque that's been to Hungary, and pen on my journal.

Megan MacKay writing in her journal to my right (+ an audience man with camera also at back of the auditorium).

Cover of my near-instant chapbook of my "symphonic poem" written Wednesday evening, 19 October 2011: signed and numbered limited edition of 50 copies, colour LED-printed on cover stock throughout, hand-bound by the author–publisher with raw linen thread; 12 pages self-cover, 5.5" (w) x 8.5" (h). Fredericton, NB: Broken Jaw Press, ISBN 978-1-55391-110-4. CSAC fundraiser special: $15 + shipping & GST. Order from sales @ brokenjaw.com. See www.brokenjaw.com/catalog/pg132.htm

Below, by way of example, is an image of one of the inside pages showing a typeset version of the poem overtop of an image of its original handwritten journal pages.

APB: 19 October 2011

Tchitala Kamba: Bandalungwa Makelele.

Live interview with Tristis Ward of Fredericton, author of Bones of the Magus: All that Remains (Broken Jaw Press, 2011).

Patricia Smith: Undertaker.

Tristis Ward interview

Tonight, on Ashes, Paper, & Beans I'll be interviewing Tristis Ward about her just-published, nearly-graphicless, graphic novel Bones of the Magus: All that Remains (Broken Jaw Press).

Photo of book display in Westminster Books window.

APB, 12 octo 2011

Radio Free Vestibule: Froo Froo the Talking Cat.

Tom Pow: The Football, & other poems.

bill bissett: the fog peopul.

Bruce McRae: Bookworm, & other opoems.

Live interview with Jacques Poitras, author of Imaginary Line: Life on an unfinished border (Goose Lane, 2011).

Tchitala Kamba: Bandalungwa Makelele.

Book launch, 27 Oct, @ Westminster Books

27 October, Thursday, 7 pm.
@ Westminster Books,
445 King Street,
Fredericton, New Brunswick
Tel 1-800-561-READ to order autographed books.

Tristis Ward launching Bones of the Magus: All that Remains (Broken Jaw Press)

“Bones of the Magus is a fascinating synthesis of the comic book genre and literary prose. It is a graphic(less) novel in which vivid pictures are created literally and metaphorically through words. The story of a great prince, reincarnated as a skeleton into a foreign time and space, is a compelling and unusual read. Its breathless energy is sustained panel to panel throughout the book. Tristis Ward is the most creative writer I know and Bones of the Magus is her masterpiece. It is science fiction fantasy at its best.”
—Carolyn Gammon

Tristis Ward lives and writes in Fredericton, New Brunswick. After a degree in English at Dalhousie University, she worked for years in community radio as a producer, station manager, and national lobbyist. She has written comic book scripts, short stories and plays as well as producing both stage and radio plays. She has published online in the SFF World Forum and is a multiple winner in their flash fiction contests. Bones of the Magus is her first graphic novel.

& Joe Blades launching Casemate Poems (Collected) (Chaudiere Books)

“To read Canadian poet and artist Joe Blades’ book of poetry casemate poems means to get knowledge about one very specific way of understanding poetry today. [...] Blades’ poetry is written by activating different layers of human knowledge and by articulation of this knowledge, for example, in narrations of history and geography. He moves in time (historical perspective) and in space (for example, actual events in the world at the time, such as the attack on the World Trade Center) […] Poetry is not a separate sacred sphere, but a sphere where it is possible to articulate a critical approach to the past and contemporaneity.”
—Dubravka Ðurić

Joe Blades is a Fredericton, NB writer and artist on the editorial board of revue ellipse mag. He is founding publisher of Broken Jaw Press, and the current Past President of the League of Canadian Poets. Blades has given readings, lectures, and workshops in Canada, the USA, Scotland, and Central Europe. Since 1995 he has been the community radio producer–host of Ashes, Paper & Beans: Fredericton’s Writing & Arts Show (CHSR FM). Blades is the editor of ten anthologies, curator of a videopoem screening, and author of seven poetry books, including River Suite, and the sequel to Casemate Poems (Collected) titled Prison Songs and Storefront Poetry.

Joe Blades photo by Sophie Lavoie.

Joe work in three exhibits in Sept–Nov 2011

In Lost & Found, 15 Sept to 27 Oct, 2011, Charlotte Glencross Gallery, Charlotte Street Art Centre, 732 Charlotte Street, Fredericton, NB.

Joe Blades: Found photo du jour, mixed media, 48" x 36", 1987–2011.

Joe Blades: Eye/pieces, mixed media, 15" x 8" x 10.25", 2011.

---

In Academia Iberoamericana de Poesía
Sexta Exhibición Internacional de Poemas póster Poetas Iberoamericanos Contempóraneos en Homenaje a Encarnación Huerta Palacios (1940–2009). Organizada por el Capítulo Fredericton de la A.I.P., New Brunswick, Canadá. Septiembre, 30, 2011, St. Thomas University / Octubre 1, 2011, Biblioteca Pública de Fredericton.

Joe Blades & Natalia Crespo (Translator into Spanish): Storefront Poetry 20 / poesía de vidriera 20, poem, 14" x 8.5", 2008–2011.

---

In Casemates @ City Hall, 5 Oct to 30 Nov, 2011. City Hall Gallery, Queen St, Fredericton, NB.

Joe Blades: Casemate Poems (Redux), mixed media, 12" x 19" (x 3.5", opened), 2011.

Casemates Exhibition 2011

@ Fredericton City Hall, Queen Street, corner of York. Opening is 5–6:30 pm, Wednesday, 5 October 2011. Exhibition runs 5 October to 30 November.

I don't know who has artwork in the exhibition but the artists in this year's Summer 2011 Artists in Residence were: Joanne Barfitt, Rita Sassani, Kristyn Cooper, Rachel Anne MacGillivray, Liz Demerson, Joe Blades, Deanna Musgrave, Sarah Petite, Oliver Flecknell, Meghan Billings, Derek Davidson, Andrew Miller, Brigitte Clavette, Leigh Merritt, Ian LeTourneau, Ruby Allan, Kristianne LeBreton, Jasmine Cull, Cris Colwell, Jeff Crawford, Stephanie Wierathmuller, David Brewer, Jana Reid, Marilyn Mazerolle, Katherine Moller, Danielle Lee, and Migueline Izaguirre.

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 28 Sept 2011

bill bissett: pushing th wheel.
Hamish MacDonald: An Ode to Ccommemorate the First Robbie Burns School.
Al Purdy: At the Quinte Hotel. Homemade Beer.
Liz Niven: Wick & other poems.
Meryn Cadell: Spelling Bee. The Sweater. Job Application.

Fredericton writing & arts news.

Utah Phillips: Sedition. General, Your Tank.
Sekou Sundiata: longstoryshort.
Steve Sauve: clarion call (the geek poem).

Ashes, Paper & Beans poster

Poster for your wall, fridge, dartboard ... wherever.

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 21 Sept 2011

Welcome to the return of APB live on CHSR 97.9 FM on the day of the Autumn Equinox 2011 with your producer-host Joe Blades.

Monty Python: Wide World of Novel Writing
Aural Heather: Princess Nut
Hugh Hazelton: Emergency
Tanya Evanson: Turkish Coffee
Paul Dutton: Vive le (for Henri Chopin)
King Missile: What if
Emily XYZ & Myles Bartlett: Slot Machine
Clive Holden: Trains of Winnipeg
Lord Torvald Torgarson: Ragnarok almost Rolled
Utah Phillips & Ani Difranco: Mess with People

Joe in Lost & Found

Two artworks of mine are accepted for inclusion in the juried group exhibition Lost & Found in the Charlotte Glencross Gallery, Charlotte Street Arts Centre, 732 Charlotte St, Fredericton, NB.

"The Charlotte Street Arts Centre put out an open call to artists to create work for a juried exhibition, on the theme of 'lost and found'. Over twenty local and regional artists responded, creating original works in a variety of media, and will turn the Charlotte Glencross Gallery walls into a spectacular repository for items collected, claimed, altered or offered up. Works will include found objects, carefully documented items, interactive installations and more.

"The opening reception takes place on Friday, September 16th from 5–8pm and all are welcome to attend. Enjoy live music by Richard Gloade, Esq. during the reception."

Artists: Ruby Allan, Margie Bannister, Joe Blades, Andrea Brewer, Jeanne Cowan, Eugenia Dietrich, Tanya Doody, Katie FitzRandolph, Claire Gallant, Sarah Grass, Carol Hamilton, M. Travis Lane, Carrie Lenentine, Stephen May, Helen Morag McKinnon, Nancy Morin, George Strunz, Kathy Tidswell, Francine Voisine, Stephanie Weirathmueller, & Laurie Winter.

"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children"
---Native American Proverb

perhaps
i am borrowing
a little area
of earth
and my life
from the children
of neighbours
and friends

Bist Du ein Schriftsteller?

Because of an article I was writing, I went digging on the shelves of publications to find the one copy I recalled still having of an ephemeral publication from the early 1990s …

"Many years later, after I had moved to Fredericton in 1990, a writer and professor of German at UNB Saint John, Rosi Jory, whom I met at Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick events, wanted to translate a tongue-in-cheek piece of mine, “Are You a Writer?”, into German. She got a colleague to translate it into French then produced both translations with the English version on folded 11” x 17” paper. It was my first piece of writing to be translated."

Are You a Writer? / Es-tu un écrivain ? / Bist Du ein Schrifteller? Joe Blades. Suzanne Pons-Ridler (trans. into French). Rosi Jory (trans. into German). Saint John, NB: Rosi Jory, publisher. 199?

“Are you a writer?” had previously been published in Poetry Halifax-Dartmouth. It, and Suzanne Pons-Ridler’s translation into French, were included in my How to do it chapbook, In the Dark—Poets & Publishing (Broken Jaw Press, 1997). I’ll not reproduce the whole broadside here but I will put up Rosi’s German translation.

Brazilian launch of revue ellipse mag No. 84–85

"Literary translation in Canada is largely restricted to works in the two official languages. Despite the fact the country has become increasingly multicultural and multilingual, there is remarkably little cultural engagement with the world in languages other than French and English. Thus it comes as a most pleasant surprise that ellipse has decided to devote a double issue to contemporary Brazilian writing. No less significant, as befits a bilingual journal committed to promoting translation and cultural awareness, ellipse presents the Brazilian texts not only in the original Portuguese but also in either French or English translation, and sometimes in both."—Albert Braz, Interfaces, no 13

28 July 2011, Thursday, 6:30 pm. Brazilian launch of revue ellipse mag No. 84–85 "Literatura contemporânea brasileira em tradução / Contemporary Brazilian Writing in Translation /Littérature contemporaine brésilienne en traduction" with Guest Editors Eloína Prati dos Santos and Sonia Torres, and Coordinator Hugh Hazelton. Room 218 of Block C, on the Gragoatá campus of the Universidade Federal Fluminense.

Published in Fredericton, New Brunswick, under the direction of Jo-Anne Elder. I am on the Editorial Board and do the design/layout. This issue features comtemporary Brazilian poetry and short stories.

160 pp, 6 x 9 tpb
ISSN 0046-1830, No 84–85
ISBN 978-0-9737528-2-3, 20 $

Adresser toute correspondance à / Address all correspondence to:
J. Elder
ellipse
180, rue Liverpool St
Fredericton NB E3B 4V5
Canada

ellipsemag @ gmail.com
blog: ellipsemaritimes.blogspot.com

a round-to-it lunch

my finally got around to it lunch, brunch, whatever … ☺

No image

with ivanchuck mucking it up in TINYtown—possibly the favoured "lumberton" in province—with its railroad bridge o're a great-looking river, the mill yard with is horizontal felled-with-intent forest, legion hall, gas bar–liquor store with limited selection, strip mine ponds and tailings overgrown with scrub birch trees, the art shack, and cast of characters as wild as your imagination … is it any wonder that some days there's simply "no data, image not available" just when one wants to sit in the big chair in the panopticon and quietly, privately, perversely, observe a version of reality …

so what is really going on in a … in a town of watchers and gossips where the women won't talk to strangers where even some pentecosts are flamboyant as bejes but the eye on the sky is shut when needed or wanted wanton won ton dumpling fortune cookie with message inside TINYtown bulletin board by the door with notices for church suppers bake and yard sales knife and skate sharpening trucks and boats for sale and messages by god and jesus left for you yes you

casemate poems (redux) 16

hot tar project
at public library
was there all winter
and still there
this mid-july day
steam rising from flynn
but no workers in sight
—must be on the roof—
tarred mop and shovel
sculpture on the grass

above us in the barracks
building workers remove
stones from the wall
to get electrics through
from inside to balconies
emergency lighting wires
encased in metal tubes

the letter o punches
holes through the paper
as i type through
what we trust is testing
of the newly-installed
fire alarm system
but no … we have
fire trucks arriving
(and bagpipes)
army helicopter
flies above armoury

poetry in action

casemate poems (redux) 15

deerfly harasses poet
buzzes 'round his head
and typing poem hands
as i write onto the blog
the web presence live
the deerfly unharmed
just flew away
and me out the door
into evening

artist books
coming together
as roofing tar perfumes
the square's air
ongoing construction
renovates soldiers' barracks
building for craft college
occupation in september
administration offices

calm friday afternoon
some clouds some sun
sharing of found objects
from grandfather's sheds
convo stories and poems
in journals and notepad
inspired by these writings
this poem crafting public
and interactive giving

casemate poems (redux) 14

blood trees in crevasses
of skin on my finger
from an accidental scrape
not another paper cut
while folding book pages

i hear a saxophone player
outside endeavours for art
supplies store and
walking drums from
nearby alleyway
thursday craft market

filled a request
for a photograph
of me for a new
brunswick authors
portal in development

then we were video'd
by charles leblanc
for one of his blogs
with the question
"what are you selling
in this store?" answered
"we're selling a way
of life—the creative
life—artmaking"

hot chocolate coffee
spilled on a journal
page with a piece
of guardhouse roofing
slate hot glued to it
and this poem

casemate poems (redux) 13

argile humide the medium
wet clay for a large jar
as i cut and fold kraft
paper for my real paperbag
book's pages—enough
for two book blocks
to drill tonight at home
and bind in the casemate
on friday friday—the last day
me leigh and me here

haven't been folding words
as much as i could have
no cutting words
or carving trimming
words the poems thinner
make them near invisible
like the noxt line

your space as coauthor
to read write engage
with this poem and make
of it what you will
otherwise i could/would
keep these words in my
head and finger muscles
or flush them from my
body like other toxins

this (redux) 13 written
this artist studio week
if i glaze my poems
like leigh will the silica
and zinc grow crystals
during the firing
or will the poems burn
to a crisp and crumble
into a fine grey ash?

casemate poems (redux) 12

encased like a caddisfly
splashin' in the pond song
full of dreams and fish
wishing for another nap

or a good story like dad's
last weekend about ralph
making a break in his wheelchair
from the hospital in middle
musqudoboit … hand-pulling
himself outside and downhill
to the bridge over the river
heading for home in chaswood

dad's oldest brother ralph
died on monday afternoon
in camp hill hospital
halifax where veteran's affairs
had moved him recently
for a few good final weeks
with roadtrips and concerts
for the resident patients

his funeral tomorrow …
i'll not be there … would
have had to leave this casemate
residency town this morning …

casemate poems (redux) 11

breathless from this spinning earth
and my almost half century upon it

claudine came by this week:
an actor to play her
in a play about her and alden
to pay her a visit soon
the play a found play
using nowlan's poems essays
and other such texts
claudine was his wife
(and widow since 27 june 1983)
alden 50 when he died
nine months older than me
right now ... 22 years older
than jim morrisson at his death
in paris the week after i
graduated from grade four
at age nine in dartmouth
i heard alden read
in collingwood ontario
in the great canadian
poetry weekend festival
and was first published
in the fiddlehead
at unb in 1983
now i'm a unb grad student
and alden nowlan house
is my on-campus local

breathless from my running
on this spinning earth

casemate poems (redux) 10

on the guardhouse porch
sleepy driver frontman
peter hicks with guitar
sings songs from steady now
original and extended cds
and from the forthcoming
with release before halloween

even the gravedigger's song
but not some of the darkest ones
not for daylight or children
—a different selection yes
but true to the band's work
a great lunchtime concert
residency bonus for artists

after peter leaves
for his other work job
summer banjo player emerges
from inside the guardhouse
and a wasp gets too close
and personal in the casemate
circling this poet's head

casemate poems (redux) 9

still in the case pen
thinking steamed mussels
garlic onion & white wine
thai green curry paste
to add heat and flavour

at the guardhouse lemonade
hooks victims for trauma
soldier recruitment tricks
for 104th reg. march to québec
199 years ago january

how about a reenactment
march with film crew:
january 2013—be bad enough
walking the trans canada
or up the saint john river

casemate poems (redux) 8

in my paper bag are samosas
grapes carrots and green beans
space for writing poems and
grocery lists notes to self
info on people met and
something of their stories
their trials and travels
even their secret dreams

in my paper bad are regrets
a partially-eaten sandwich
germs of theses questions
a guitar hook in search
of its bridge and/or song
maple seeds leaves acorns
cigarettes butts of strangers
yesterday's revised script

in my paper bag are nail
clippings and hair from
the bathroom floor wind
a risk of hail and tornadoes
lollypop sticks and a medley
of chewn gum moose knuckles
and blood from a pin's scratch

in the casemate

Leigh's pieces in progress ...

As befits a worker in the Fredericton Poetry Department, I remembered to bring my POET vest to the casemate today so that I have it handy in event of a poetic crisis or spill/incident.

In the mail, tea and the prototype for a Broken Jaw Press silver ring. This one, small, is a little loose on my baby finger. The other prototype I need stretched or otherwise enlarged as I can get it over the knuckle but it is without enough room for the muscle for me to bend my finger.


Interested in getting a Broken Jaw ring? Contact me.

spider case(mate) shell/skeleton on one of the lights.

casemate poems (redux) 7

kickwheel pottery slow-grow
dog-powered threshing machine
button accordion in the shade
no banjo or guitar today
poem-for-a-penny poet strolls
across the hot green square
naked soldiers and their wives
women workers in the barracks
all out of uniform and dress
into unknown clothes of today

brown glass jar of ale
wineskin of sweetness
flask of uisce beatha
& lemonade for the kids

light-fried spider still
attached by glowing thread
hunger for a beating heart
big feelin' body politic
survive the roman campaigns
and move on to the harvest
another changing of the garb
before the storm arrives
with rumbling lightning show
and sleep-cleansing rain

casemate poems (redux) 6

darkness approaches early
monday afternoon wind up
and no squirrel can prevent
what blows our way
hot heavy humid air
unsetted unaccounted

weather doesn't map
or negotiate its how
to manoeuvre with man
(hu- wo- or -kind)
or its effect
upon the earth

flags go limp
and people wilt
when the breeze dies
but bagpipe and drum
continue their simulation
of a situation past

garrison your home
votre solution tower
hour timer routine
stability in repetition
believed secure—
echoes hear themselves

casemate poems (redux) 5

after being gone
sunny sunday after
and it's almost time
to close the studio
for evening and night
at home not at war

after spring meltwaters
flood and recede the island
grass grows tall as people
blood trees rooted in their
toil burst into floodplain
leaf shade for the unaware

this land live on
by people—the people—
over 11,000 summers:
imagine life here then
imagine life in europe
the changes wrought

paper and bookmaking

cover parts (found boards with canvas webbing, davey board, and handmade fair-trade paper), initial content, and paste for the "casemate poems (redux)" artist book

some of the content for claire's requested/ordered kraft paper-insides "book bag" artist book. needs more accordion fold inside pages before the japanese block binding (what Evanchuck calls "stab binding")

several book forms, ideas, and paper scraps in the casemate–studio that might become something this week

casemate poems (redux) 4

bod of squid
guard the mother
of little wiggles
of little birds
with feed me feed
me open mouths
and heads hungry
for inspiration
—art and wonder
life explorers

to get away
into own space
broken pot shards
into the bottom
of another planter
—nasturtiums
in a balcony bird
floppy leaves
not waving grass
tail feathers

man struck by cod
in a boat's hold
—revenge from the depths
orange lobster found
in québec supermarket
—alive not cooked
politician in her
abuse-of-office trial
calls judge a "monster"
police probe stabbing

casemate visit/ors

Vile biker in white pants, biffmitchell.com of the BlackTop MotorCycle Gang, "raiding" a poem on the unprepared and the trapped in the barrack's casemates yesterday, Saturday afternoon. Leigh to the right guarding his latest creation upon the potter's wheel.

Alas, guarding was in vain as the vessel was collapsing on itself …

Escapees from Hottawa and Chipwagon, filmmaker and chef boy Peter Evanchuck and artist Hélèn Lacelle … publishers of Books Handmade whose book projects include:

Pages of Canada anthology:
"We asked creative Canadians, coast to coast to coast to contribute a page with something creative, personal, unique—perhaps a story, a poem or a picture. The responses were amazingly different and personal. The selections in this book represent dozens of Canadian voices presenting a really modern and unusual 'feel' of Canada."

They're also purveyors of the travelling GOOP mail art project … bringing GOOP to your town … and you'll know GOOP when you see GOOP.

FAA Casemate studio mate

Potter and poet in this week's case. Leigh has incredible work in Feel it: Diploma of Advanced Studies exhibition in the NBCCD Gallery across Barrack's Square from the casemates.

Should get a photo of Leigh here too … later today …

casemate poems (redux) 3

crowds and crowds waves
roll through barracks square
this overcast saturday afternoon
the potter's water and clay work
drawing close attention
and my typing laughter
memories of precomputer life
imagine if i had fountain
or nib pens and a jar of ink

asked what manner
was what i see is a bob
squirrel—tail likely
lost to a car tire
as it crossed
danger road
not a downtown
groundhog
or woodchuck
loco local
character

bicycle tire necklaces
of other locals walking
with frames at home
non-artists friendly
to musicians and visuals
loving this green city
this wide river valley

casemate poems (redux) 2

in the art doghouse now
dawn's rainy garrison district
after farmers' market time
with visiting parents
chuckles and hélèn too
in from hottawa and tinytown
dan still lovin it
in wild t'under bay b'y
so an idea appeals:
poet in pure math

trapping boards
to hardcover bind
accordion-fold redux
as i go awarting
and the potter slaps
clay to shape it
before spinning
a jar on the wheel
flower petals in paper
wrap the davey board

casemate poems (redux) 1

bagpipes (again) soon as i
start hitting the keys
to a poem or straw song
guitar and banjo at guardhouse
some ball-in-a-sock toss
a hummer of a friday
with an expedition pack
load of typewriter books
and a little something …
for everyone passing by

last friday was in west chezzetcook
friday before that in old government house
friday before that at brandenberg gate
friday before that at the league
of canadian poets in toronto
—quite the running life

i'm supposed to count
count visitors and encourage
them to sign the guest book
and to receive arts news
everything happening in
the arts in fredericton

concerts films carving
sanding burrs off pottery
a little embroidery
and poetry writing
… welcome to our studio

Berlin Berliner

Happy hour in Berlin!

Festival opening event, Dichtraum Denkraum, had champagne in U-Ban Brandenberg Tor station with writers writing live [something I can really relate to]. It was followed by Poesiefestival Berlin's official opening with speeches all in German, comp wine and great nibblies in the top floor club room and on the balcony of Akademie de Künste overlooking Pariser Platz on the East Berlin side of Brandenberg Gate: USA and French embassies here, British around the corner, Russian + Aeroflot building on the next bock along Linden..

[A week earlier, 9 June, I was a non-tranferable invitation guest at the Premier of Ontario's Awards for Excellence in the Arts gala at the Liberty Grand Entertasinment Complex in Toronto; and days earlier on Tuesday, 7 June, was a guest at Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick Justice Graydon Nicholas's opening of the NB Provincial Heritage Fair Showcase in his official residence, Old Government House, Fredericton … something of a lalaland gala schedule.]

People in the square costumed as bronze statues, American, German, and Russian military with flags and some lite attempt at a Checkpoint Charlie for the swarms oftourists to pose with, to be photographed with in East Berlin. So many vendors with "I ♥ Berlin" stuff while elsewhere in Berlin I found a different message:

At the meeting of international poetry festivals.

Artist Lawrence Lee (Khui Fatt) in Black Box with his initial pen and ink sketch of me. He wasn't official festival artist but visiting Berlin from Switzerland. He should look into becoming a Poesiefestival Berlin artist-in-residence.

"18 June: Poetry Discussion: Silvio Rodríguez—The other string. Academy of the Arts, Pariser Platz, Club Room. With Silvio Rodríguez, Cuba, and Dieter Ingenschay, Romance scholar, Berlin. Rodríguez is one of the best-known singer-songwriters in Cuba and possibly even in whole Latin America, he was the voice of the Cuban Revolution. Since the 1970s, he has been famous not only for his songs but also for his film scores, his guitar-playing and his political work as a convinced communist. Dieter Ingenschay [was] asking Rodríguez about his poetry, his music and his dream of a rightous Cuba."—from the Poesiefestival Brogram in translation.

New Arabic World traditional poetry to performance poetry to rap: Deeb (Egypt), El Général (Tunisia), Hend Hammam (Egypt), Hind Shoufani (Lebanon), Abdouldaim Ukwas (Libya), moderated by Pyranja Rapperin, journalist (Berlin) at far right.

After the evening readings and tourist street cafes closed we resort to the hotel's Checkpoint piano bar. Here are Berlin publisher, Daniela Seel of Kook Books, and Thomas Möhlmann of the Dutch Foundation for Literature.

Breakfast in Berlin—vast buffet at the Maritim proArte Hotel—with smoked salmon, rolmops, sherry herring, cheeses, many multigrain breads, fresh & dried fruits, organic yogurts, eggs, wursts, salamie and other meats, bacon, coffees, teas, great juices and more.


Found in situ poem on a U-Bahn station escalator.

Poetry reading on a boat on the River Spree. This is Catherine Hales (from Surry, England and living in Berlin, not the visual artist Catherine Hale in New Brunswick). This reading not part of Poesiefestival Berlin but part of the simultaneously occuring 48 Stunden Neukölln 13. Kunt- und Kulturfestival with many gallery & opened artist studios.

Eleanor Livingstone (Scotland) and me on the poetry reading boat.

Pricey lobster fest at the hotel. Didn't partake … but in the days after my return to Fredricton I bought three seabugs (weighing 3.3 kg in total) at $5.99/lb for my own happy hummerfest …

Der Bär writing in Dichtraum Denkraum event.

Billy Collins, former USA Poet Laureate, and Ron Winkler, poet and translator, Germany.

Brandenberg Tor at night.