Joe Blades : Džo Blejds

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 25 Jan 2012

2012-01-25T18:09:00.000-04:00

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

Happy Robert Burns Day!

In Sept 2011, the Burns statue on The Green in Fredericton was re-dedicated with pomp and ceremony including several bands. The above photo taken before Rabbie was unveiled.

To start today's APB episode, in memorium for Wolastokwiuk elder Gwen Bear who passed away unexpectedly this past weekend, I play the legend of "Koluskap and the Giant Beaver" as told by Gwen Bear.

Going Scottish now:

Joe Blades & Biff Mitchell on F'ton affirs, the trails, & Robert Burns.

Hamish MacDonald: A ode to commemorate the opening of the first international robert Burns school.

Trail of Poems: the exhibit installation

2012-01-19T16:30:00.012-04:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—January 19, 2012

TRAIL OF POEMS LEADS TO THE CHARLOTTE STREET ARTS CENTRE

Fredericton poet–artist, Joe Blades, wears a Trail of Poems in the Charlotte Glencross Gallery, on his journey towards becoming a man of letters. The Charlotte Street Arts Centre is pleased to host Blades as writer-in-performance during his upcoming solo exhibition that will feature large-format photo-based works, along with text-based and mixed media artworks. Blades’ work is presented in partial fulfillment of a Master in Education degree in Adult Education at the University of New Brunswick.

Join us for the opening reception of Trail of Poems on Thursday, February 2 from 5–7 pm, where Blades will give a free poetry reading to launch his six-week series of onsite activities. Trail of Poems addresses Blades’ research questions that consider his artistic oeuvre and the path he has created to arrive at where he is today. Blades invites the public to visit both the Charlotte Glencross Gallery at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre and Room 145 in Marshall d’Avray Hall (UNB), where his works will be displayed concurrently in order to literally and metaphorically connect the dots, pebbles, or breadcrumbs of his art and education journey.

For over thirty years, Blades’ artist life and its continuing output of words and images have led him to his current engagement in arts-based research in adult education. He has exhibited hand-bound book works, photographs, mixed media pieces, and objets d’art in group shows across Canada and Europe. “Joe Blades has become a Fredericton landmark, and we’re extremely pleased to support his work in this way,” says WhiteFeather, Executive Director of the Charlotte Street Arts Centre.

Join us at the Charlotte Glencross Gallery to understand the importance of one’s own reflection on life and where that can lead, through art. All are welcome to attend the opening reception and to return to visit Blades during his performance residency. The exhibition will run until March 15, 2012.

-30-

Media contact: Laura Perry, Communications and Outreach Intern, 454-6952 or charlottestreetartreach@gmail.com
or
WhiteFeather, Executive Director, 454-6952 or director@charlottestreetarts.ca

--
The Charlotte Street Arts Centre opens the doors of creative expression to all.

732 Charlotte Street, Room 200
Fredericton NB E3B 1M5
506.454.6952 | office
506.454.6956 | fax
506.238.5402 | cell
www.charlottestreetarts.ca

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 18 January 2012

2012-01-18T17:59:00.000-04:00

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

Changing landscape of documentary filmmaking: (moderator: Rachel Bower), Greg Hemmings, Rob Turgeon, Paul MacNeil (National Film Board of Canada).
Recorded in the Industry Series of the Silver Wave Film Festival, Fredericton, NB, 4 November 2011.

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 11 Jan 2012

2012-01-11T17:50:00.003-04:00

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

Lorna Drew Maltese Poodle book launch (recorded 22 Sept 2011 @ Westminster Books, Fredericton).

Los puentes del Rio San Jaun/Bridges over the Saint John River (Broken Jaw Press) book launch by editors Nela Rio and M. Travis Lane with contributors Lynn Davies, Jo-Anne Elder, Sophie M. Lavoie, & Joe Blades (recorded 22 Sept 2011 @ Westminster Books, Fredericton).

John Terpstra & Bart Nameth: "Beach".

Catherine Kidd & Jack Beetz: "Sea Peach".

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 4 January 2012

2012-01-04T17:58:00.000-04:00

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

The beginnings of Acadian Literature:
Jo-Anne Elder (moderator), Diane Legere, & Rose Despres

Michael Crummy: "Rust"

New Year's Eve

2011-12-31T15:32:00.001-04:00

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

2011-12-28T17:57:00.000-04:00

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)

2011-12-22T06:32:00.002-04:00

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

2011-12-21T14:21:00.002-04:00

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

2011-12-14T17:55:00.000-04:00

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

2011-12-07T17:46:00.001-04:00

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

2011-12-04T11:18:00.000-04:00

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.

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

2011-12-02T12:45:00.001-04:00

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

2011-12-01T06:50:00.000-04:00

1 December
International AIDS Day
Day without Art

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 30 Nov 2011

2011-11-30T18:00:00.002-04:00

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

2011-11-23T18:03:00.001-04:00

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

2011-11-20T18:20:00.001-04:00

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

2011-11-16T17:59:00.001-04:00

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

2011-11-09T17:58:00.000-04:00

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

2011-11-03T08:30:00.000-03:00

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

2011-10-30T10:05:00.005-03:00

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

2011-10-26T17:43:00.001-03:00

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

2011-10-21T22:25:00.029-03:00

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

2011-10-20T08:36:00.000-03:00

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

2011-10-19T10:27:00.000-03:00

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

2011-10-12T18:06:00.002-03:00

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

2011-10-09T07:03:00.000-03:00

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

2011-10-06T08:14:00.000-03:00

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

2011-10-04T18:17:00.001-03:00

@ 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

2011-09-28T17:57:00.000-03:00

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

2011-09-27T09:17:00.000-03:00

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

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 21 Sept 2011

2011-09-21T18:00:00.002-03:00

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

2011-09-10T11:05:00.001-03:00

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.

2011-08-23T07:13:00.002-03:00

"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?

2011-07-27T07:34:00.008-03:00

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

2011-07-26T15:13:00.005-03:00

"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

2011-07-24T15:31:00.003-03:00

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

No image

2011-07-24T09:59:00.005-03:00

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

2011-07-15T15:27:00.004-03:00

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

2011-07-15T13:34:00.003-03:00

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

2011-07-14T16:59:00.006-03:00

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

2011-07-14T16:01:00.003-03:00

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

2011-07-14T12:06:00.003-03:00

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

2011-07-14T10:51:00.002-03:00

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

2011-07-13T14:32:00.003-03:00

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

2011-07-13T13:25:00.002-03:00

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

2011-07-12T16:06:00.003-03:00

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

2011-07-12T14:08:00.009-03:00

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

2011-07-12T12:44:00.002-03:00

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

2011-07-11T14:02:00.003-03:00

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

2011-07-11T11:33:00.002-03:00

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

2011-07-10T16:40:00.005-03:00

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

2011-07-10T13:53:00.003-03:00

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

2011-07-10T09:12:00.008-03:00

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

2011-07-10T07:50:00.004-03:00

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

2011-07-09T16:32:00.002-03:00

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

2011-07-09T15:11:00.002-03:00

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

2011-07-08T15:41:00.005-03:00

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

2011-06-23T08:15:00.028-03:00

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.

Between Brno und Berlin

2011-06-21T08:46:00.006-03:00

Cathedral of St Peter and Paul atop Petrov hill, Brno, as seen from the train station platform. Milan Kundera, the novelist, from Brno.

Sunrise at the Brno train station. My train on the track at the right. It was supposed to depart at 5:35 AM from the track on the left but there was some confusion …

Later, in Praha/Prague, I learned from two travelling Finns that there had been a Czech Transport train workers strike the day before. No trains moved in the country and all international trains stopped at Czech border. Explained why there wasn't a dining car and why the numbered car with my reserved seat was not in the train. What luck!

Route sign on the train Johannes Brahms. Most of the international trains had names: Hungaria, Vindobona, Carl Maria von Weber, Alois Negrilli, Gustav Klimt to name a few.

One of the Castles overlooking the River Elba/Labe

Děčín last stop before Germany.

Views of the valley of the River Elba/Labe. Bicycle trails on both sides of the river. Many little passenger ferry boats. Towns, if towns they be, with gasthaus and spas line the incredibly beautiful river.

Berlin Hauptbanhof.

Brno, Czech Republic

2011-06-16T05:30:00.018-03:00

Namesti Svobody / Freedom Square in central Brno with summer beach bar, saint someone on a pillar, Old Town Hall, and more ...

A visually striking, ornately flower-decorated building.

Sunrise on the hills and buildings of Brno. Better seen by the camera held out the windrow than me through the A4-paper high windows in metre-thick walls of the attic-based Uni Hotel of the building housing the offices of the university rector.

Building with I've been staying. Mararykova is a 45,000 student university. As I am a grad student doing thesis research/Canadian Studies research here the room was covered (with thanks) by a grant CEACS has for that purpose. Very nice!

Yesterday morning, as planned, Zuzana J. met me at the entrance of the university hotel. We walked first to see Don Sparling in the Canadian Studies Centre office (just an admin office—with shelves of Canadian Studies books and journals published by Muni Press) in the Faculty of Arts building. Was given a book by Don, written by six scholars hin ere at Mararykova Univerzita, that he had a hand translating and editing. Seems like some of it might be useful for my work.

The university library

I can't get internet in the university library without an administration-complicated user name and password process … but I can sit in the cafe on the corner near it with a coffee or beer and there my computer automatically signs me into the eduroam network (also at University of New Brunswick—where I registered my notebook for eduroam) and I'm online. So easy and comfortable.

Staropramen on tap (stay away from the Stella). [Starobrno beer, clearly a Czech beer, is owned by the Heineken group.]

Kasematy entrance to a museum at the hilltop fortress, not castle, Brno-Mesto in the hiltop Park Špielberk. Was already closed for the day when I got there.

Why is “(Collected)” on my latest book?

2011-06-16T05:09:00.006-03:00

Since the release of my latest book there’s been several author, book, and scholarly creative work events that I’ve participated in with introductions by other people. Despite giving them the proper information, none of them have said the “(Collected)” when introducing my book Casemate Poems (Collected) published by Chaudiere Books in Ottawa.

I know, “(Collected)” seems like a subtitle similar to the retrospective “new and selected” or the “collected poems” volumes usually published posthumously. I’m not dead. I’m still writing (contractions included). What if I had called it “(Collected) Casemate Poems” or “Collected Casemate Poems” without the brackets around “Collected”? How would that be read? Would “Collected” still be dropped or would it become the short title for the book?

What if I said that “(Collected)” is not a subtitle—it isn’t a subtitle—but that it is consistent in style with section titles within this poetry collection? The book has five parts:

near ghazals nb
casemate poems
casemate poems (part two)
casemate poems (reprise)
casemate poems (coda)

These are the poems from the 2004 edition of casemate poets (Widows & Orphans) with the addition of the 52-part “(reprise)” and the 6-part “(coda)”: that's what has been collected here!

* * *

What if I told you, dear reader, that there is another poem “casemate off-season” written in 2005 after the “(coda)”, after I returned from a Canadian Studies conference in Niš and the Belgrade Book Fair, Serbia? Should it have been included in this volume? I suggested it, without response.

I guess that it’s one for another book (after probably appearing on my next a little something … poem broadside next month (July 2011) for my Fredericton Arts Alliance-approved Artists in Residence 2011 Summer Series week—with “Casemate Poems (Redux)” the accepted residency’s project title. My first residency in the FAA casemate since Summer 2006 when I started writing the “Prison Song” poems).

How wonderfully (un)collected all this makes Casemate Poems (Collected)! I leave it open to the potential for new developments …

2bzy2blog

2011-06-15T03:30:00.019-03:00

[pictures at 11]

said i am too busy
of late to blog
and i want to post
need time to write
or work photographs
while doing going being

džo hublot whirled through
the so full congress
with two papers presented
five group poetry readings
three books launched
books sold and gifted
friends seen and met

then proofing a paper
for publication in romania
while making myself aware
of member issues in prep
for league of canadian poets
agm in toronto—doing it
and losing my wallet—keep
moving—26 hours back
in fredericton for laundry
id quest and repack

picaroons irish red
at airport before
flight to montreal
then montreal messed up
on eve of air can strike
departed two hours late
because plane left the gate
without two passengers
whose luggage was onboard
—a strickly forbidden—
so after taxiing to runway
had to return for them
a man and your daughter
and to top up the fuel

arrived in brussels
almost one and one half
hours late rebooked to
berlin–tegel to arrive
over two hours late
and aim for i don't know
which train to brno
and late night arrival
wi-fi in brussels airport
minimum of 5 euros
i'll save for elsewhere
have apple and bagel
dried fruit and seeds
to get me through:
b.light economy class
on the rebooked flight
included comp quiche lunch
with jupiler beer (my
first jupiler since 1983)

berlin-tegel to berlin hauptbanhof
was an easy 2,30 € direct bus

so i caught next train @ 14:40
via dresden and praha

got to brno at 22:22
after over 24 hours travel

on the bus

2011-05-21T11:29:00.013-03:00

Skype photo of me on the bus ...

wi-fi on the orleans express bus finds me rolling eastward on the trans-canada highway towards moncton and a change of buses and more highway to dartmouth, nova scotia. fredericton back in cool weather. dropped to 10 c after the heavy rain showers this morning. didn't go to market for a snitzel for the road. too bad, it would have been a free one with hans' frequent buyer card. oh, well, it'll keep for another saturday morning ... don't even feel sure that i should be doing this quick trip to visit family in the days before the congress circus arrives full blown in fredericton next week but if i don't go this weekend the next available would be in july ... after congress, after the league meetings in toronto, after brno and berlin, after the new brunswick heritage fair showcase weekend ... many miles to go before my next opportunity to visit family and eat lobster in west chezzetcook. but dis/orientation and dis/location and not just pain english are part of my life world work.

have three books at three different printers. two broken jaw press books to be launched at congress are at printers in yarmouth and halifax.

William Forrestall: Objects for Study. Drawings, meditations & paintings by William Forrestall. Essays by Virgil Hammock, Leopold C.J. Kowolik and William Forrestall. Foreword by RM Vaughan. Launch at 4 pm next saturday, 28 may, in the lobby outside the kinsella auditorium, ground floor of the mccain building, st thomas university.

the 8-poet antolgia Los puentes del Río San Juan / Bridges over the Saint John River a Capítulo de Fredericton de la AIP antologia, Nela Rio & M. Travis Lane, editoras / editors will be launched the evening of 30 mayo in G15 Edmund Casey Hall, Saint Thomas University, sometime between 5 and 8pm.

and my newest book,Casemate Poems (Collected) (Ottawa: Chaudiere Books), is at a printer in renfrew, ontario. i received a proof galley a week ago friday. don't know if any copies will arrive in fredericton in time for congress, especially for the 30 mai, 4:30-6:30 pm, Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies Celebration of Scholarly Creative Works 2011, O'Brien Study Hall, McCain bldg, St Thomas University, or my reading in the 31 May, 6-7:30 pm/18:00-19:30, Writers' Salon/Le salon des auteurs, w/avec creative writers from across Canada, in the Alumni Lounge, Alumni Memorial Bldg, 13 Bailey Dr, UNB: David Hickey, Greg Shupak, Kasia Juno, Lorne Roberts, Nathan Dueck, Zhong Chen, Stephanie McKenzie, Joe Blades, Anna Lapointe, and Arpine Grenier.

then there's the papers to be presented, the volunteering, the suppers, socializing, grad student/school research, and the friends and colleagues to find/meet up with, if possible.

Versatile Blogger Award

2011-05-19T09:03:00.004-03:00

Versatile Blogger Award received from Stefan Milicevic.

7 facts about myself:
I have lived in Fredericton longer than any other place
I currently wear three president hats
I have a Hansons "Sudden Death" hockey puck on my windowsill
I have more books than shelves to house them
I vote in elections
I have five working fountain pens
I wear size 11–12 and 45 footwear

Nackawic, NB: Pathway-to-Reading

2011-05-19T07:41:00.004-03:00

Tonight, Thursday, May 19th, I am participating in a fundraising activity–event organized by the Nackawic Public/School Library: Pathway-to-Reading. In my treks to Nackawic to give workshops and readings at the three schools—elementary, middle, and high—I have not participated in this event before. The event will happen from 6:30–8:00.

Pathway-to-Reading, they say, "combines literacy and fitness" by having students (and their families?) walk to various locations in the town with readings at each location [something like the WFNB walking reading, Voices of the Earth 2004, in French Fort Cove park, Miramichi, that I read in].

The organizers have chosen authors and writing for this year's theme and they have invited New Brunswick authors to be their special guests for the event. Jean Dohaney and I for sure, but whether there are to be other NB authors, I don't know. After the walk about town, there will be refreshments and author readings in the library.

A very neat aspect of this year's Pathway-to-Reading is that Nackawic schools' students are to have their poems, stories, and essays on display in the library for the month of May. Hopefully, these student–writers will be there this evening to talk with us.

The organizers distributed piggy banks during the past years that will be brought back today at the fundraiser. They also have a piggy bank in the library for donations. Come to the walking reading tonight, if you can. If you can't, then drop by the library before month end to see the student–writers creations.

Nackawic Public–School Library
30 Landegger Drive
Nackawic NB E6G 1E9
T 506-575-2136

Found foto du jour

2011-05-14T06:46:00.000-03:00

Found at 8:10 pm, Friday, 13 May, 2011, faceup on the floor of the "Staff only" kitchen in the Sussex Artist Co-op (Tea Room & Museum), 12 Maple Street, Sussex, New Brunswick.

Found photo du jour

2011-05-11T18:09:00.000-03:00

Found at 1:14 pm, 11 May 2011, faceup on the ground/sidewalk near 324 York St, Fredericton, NB.

14 de mayo: V Festival Internacional Palabra en el Mundo

2011-05-10T08:04:00.002-03:00

El sábado, 14 de mayo, 2011 a las dos de la tarde, el Capítulo de Fredericton de la Academia Iberoamericana de Poesía (con la colaboración de la Asociación Latina de New Brunswick —Proyecto PRESENCIA—, y Broken Jaw Press) invita al público a participar en el quinto Festival Internacional Palabra en el Mundo, que se celebra entre el 19 y el 24 de mayo en el mundo entero: más de 30 países y más de 500 ciudades celebrarán este Festival. Este año, los poetas han contribuido poemas sobre el tema de la PAZ. El evento tendrá lugar en la sala de lectura del Rio de la Biblioteca Pública de Fredericton y luego en el Puente del río San Juan (si no llueve). Están invitados a participar con un poema sobre el tema de la PAZ o solo escuchar a los poetas locales leyendo poemas suyos. Habrá café y galletas. ¡Nos vemos allí!

* Nela Rio * Carlos Morales * Joe Blades * et al *

May 14: V International Festival of Poetry Word in the World

On Saturday, May 14, 2011, at 2 p.m., the Fredericton Chapter of the Iberoamerican Academy of Poetry (in collaboration with the New Brunswick Latino Association —PRESENCIA Project— and Fredericton’s Broken Jaw Press) invites the public to participate in the fifth annual Word in the World Poetry Festival, being celebrated between May 19th to 24th across the world in more than 30 countries and in more than 500 cities. This year poets have been contributing pieces on the theme of “Peace”. The event will take place at the Fredericton Public Library’s River Reading Area and on the Bridge over the St. John River (weather permitting). Come read your favourite poem on the theme of peace and hear local poets read their poetry as well! There will be coffee and treats. See you there!

¡4 Broken Jaws @ WordsSpring, 13 May 2011!

2011-05-07T06:50:00.003-03:00

WordsSpring's Friday evening schedule, which is so full it's overflowing.

May 13, Sussex Artist Co-op

6pm. Social time, meet and greet

7 pm. Book Launches and Local Authors, featuring:

Joan Hall Hovey
Joe Blades
Nela Rio
Roger Moore
Desa
Kelly Cooper
Lee Whitney
Beth Powning
Vanessa Moeller
Edward Gates
Karen Davidson
Elizabeth Stevens

The brief readings will be interspersed with music from local youth talent, and books will be for sale.

WordsSpring, May 13-15, Sussex, NB.

See http://www.umce.ca/wfnb/wordsspring2011.html

Writers' Federation of New Brunswick
Box 306
Moncton NB E1C 8L4
506-459-7228
wfnb@nb.aibn.com
http://www.wfnb.ca

Found photo du jour

2011-05-06T20:10:00.004-03:00

Found at 4:36 pm, Friday, 6 May 2011, facedown over a sewer grate on the southeast corner of Regent and Aberdeen streets, Fredericton, NB.

Poetry Recital in Spanish and English: 30 April 2011

2011-04-27T12:21:00.005-03:00

Celebrate National Poetry Month!!!

The Fredericton Chapter of the Iberoamerican Academy of Poetry and the League of Canadian Poets invite you to a Poetry Recital in Spanish and English by Fredericton Poets Nela Rio and Joe Blades on Saturday, April 30th at 2 pm at the River Reading Room in the Fredericton Public Library, 12 Carleton St., Fredericton. Both poets will be reading from recent publications and new materials. Nela Rio has recently been nominated for the League of Canadian Poets’ Pat Lowther Memorial Award. She recently launched her collection of poetry, La Luna, Tango, siempre la luna /The Moon, Tango, Always the Moon (Broken Jaw Press, 2010). Blades’ most recent work published is Prison Songs and Storefront Poetry (Ekstasis Editions, 2010). He is an active member of the local BlackTop MotorCycle Gang writers’ group, coordinator of the Fredericton Small Press & Community Fair, and President of the League of Canadian Poets.

This event is held in conjunction with the 2011 National Poetry Month. For its 2011 National Poetry Month activities, The League of Canadian Poets acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program. Other sponsors include the Public Lending Right Commission, the Government of Canada, and the Canadian Library Association.

Please join us for what promises to be an exceptional reading!

Nela Rio: 16 April reading, Fredericton

2011-04-14T09:18:00.001-03:00

Fredericton poet and artist Nela Rio will launch her book, La luna, Tango, siempre la luna/The Moon, Tango, Always the Moon on Saturday April 16, 2011 at 2 pm, at the Fredericton Public Library’s beautiful River Reading Area (upstairs), 12 Carleton Street, Fredericton. The Fredericton Chapter of the Ibero-American Academy of Poetry is hosting the event. The book, published by Broken Jaw Press in 2010 has been translated from the Spanish by translator Edith Jonsson-Devillers and includes a prologue by Governor General’s Literary Award winner, poet and translator, Hugh Hazelton. This collection has been short-listed for the League of Canadian Poet’s prestigious Pat Lowther Memorial Award, a prize given for a book of poetry by a Canadian woman published in the preceding year in memory of the late writer whose career was cut short by her untimely death. The judges commented: “Foreign accents, mystery, intrigue, sensuousness, all culminate in the dance that steps over, around, and through the mundane and lifts its skirts to new heights and wishes.” Please join us for a rare opportunity to discover one of Fredericton’s most talented writers. There will be a brief presentation of the book, followed by a bilingual reading of selected poems from the collection.

La poeta y artista de Fredericton, Nela Rio, lanzará su último libro, La luna, Tango, siempre la luna/The Moon, Tango, Always the Moon el sábado 16 de abril a las dos de la tarde en la Biblioteca Pública de Fredericton (en la linda sala River Reading Area), 12 calle Carleton, Fredericton. El capítulo de Fredericton de la Academia Iberoamericana de Poesía es huésped del evento. El libro, publicado en el año 2010 por la casa editorial Broken Jaw Press, fue traducido por la traductora Edith Jonsson-Devillers e incluye un prólogo por Hugh Hazelton, poeta y traductor premiado por Governor General’s Medal. El libro de poesía de Rio ha sido seleccionado en la lista corta del prestigioso premio Pat Lowther Memorial, de la Liga de Poetas Canadienses, un premio que galardona a una poeta publicada en el año anterior, en nombre de una poeta que falleció siendo joven y al principio de su carrera. Los miembros del jurado comentaron: “Acentos del extranjero, misterio, intriga, sensualidad, todo culmina en el baile que da paso, da vueltas y traspasa la rutina y levanta sus volantes hacia nuevas cumbres y deseos.” Están invitados a reunirse con nosotros para esta rara oportunidad de (re)descubrir una de las escritoras más talentosas de Fredericton. Habrá una breve introducción del libro, seguido por un recital bilingüe de poemas seleccionados del libro. ¡No se lo pierda!

i don’t want to know who

2011-03-01T20:35:00.003-04:00

i do want to ask why
fredericton’s nationalists
have risen this winter
to write their hatred
in the so white snow
outside the buildings
they believe house
people they are telling
go home! leave canada!
hate wins! the building
where i live is one
targeted by racists
not because of anyone
visibly living here
but they don’t know
who lives where

i don’t want to know who
my neighbourhood racists are
because then what would
could should i do because
of them or do with them?
better to be aware of them
than to round them up
and exile or execute them
or report them to the can
you keep a secret? force
or prosecute with righteousness
these sidewalk bigots writing
in the public snow words
i erase with my mitts
without looking to see
if i’m being watched

i don’t want to know who
fredericton’s racists are
because that will point
my judgment finger
inward to my own heart
and i will be more of a
come from away than now
and i will be targeted and
bullied called offensive
for being direct as i am
already being judged
othered by self-superiored
in armchairs who dislike
my calling anyone to task
when what right have i
to single anyone out

Call fot poet participants

2011-02-07T06:50:00.006-04:00

THE 11th INTERNATIONAL
MULTICULTURAL-MULTILINGUAL POETRY READING
and POSTER POEM EXHIBITION

in conjunction with

The United Nation’s Dialogue Among Civilizations Through Poetry,
World Poetry Day (March 21), Mother Language Day (21 February), and the United Nation’s “International Year of Forests 2011”

Organized to foster tolerance, respect and cooperation among peoples

Theme 2011: El bosque / The Forest / La forêt

26 March 2011
Saturday, noon to 5pm.

11th International Multicultural-Multilingual Poetry Reading and Poster Poem Exhibition.

Gallery ConneXion
Chestnut Complex
440 York St
Fredericton, New Brunswick
Canada

Organized by: Nela Rio, the Founder of International Multicultural-Multilingual Poetry Reading, with the support of Gallery ConneXion; revue ellipse mag; Broken Jaw Press; Registro Creativo de la Asociación Canadiense de Hispanistas; the Latino Association of New Brunswick -PRESENCIA-; and the Capítulo de Fredericton de la Academia Iberoamericana de Poesía.

We invite you to join us at the 11th celebration.

Previous celebrations, since 2000, have featured poets and members of the community reading in many languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Cantonese, Mandarin, German, Japanese, Dutch, Danish, Urdu, Turkish, Amharic, among others.

REGISTRATION FORM FOR POETS

Please include your name, postal address, email address, the title of the poem, text of the poem (use Time New Roman, 12 point). The poem should have 30 lines maximum, including stanza breaks (this is for the purpose of printing it as a poster for exhibition at the event). Send this information to nelario@rogers.com before March 7th, 2011. The certificate of participation will be sent, after the event, by email. Please note: this community event will not be paying artists or performance fee. This event is open to the general public and admission is free.

NOTA: For information about previous events visit Registro Creativo de la Asociación Canadiense de Hispanistas: THE INTERNATIONAL MULTICULTURAL-MULTILINGUAL POETRY READING.

Thank you very much, Nela Rio

“[Poetry] it also has the virtue of being intimately connected to our private practices of writing, reading, translating and sharing. In this respect it is more then ever before at the heart of the pact we have entered into, in the context of the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World (2001-2010), to promote an enlightened learning based on the ideals of artistic and literary creation, freedom of expression and cultural diversity.” Koichiro Matsuura, United Nations

the latest snow

2011-02-06T15:14:00.003-04:00

This time last year Fredericton was two-weeks done with snowstorms for the winter. Not this year ...

An early morning photo of a sidewalk snowbot on Dundonald ...

Same house on Dundonald: a photo shoot after the driveway was shovelled out.

Director's Choice Barry Award

2011-01-23T13:20:00.000-04:00

on ortho xmas

2011-01-07T09:05:00.006-04:00

uke christmas day 2011
and it's snowing light flurries
that stick to cold ground
—ukranian not ukulele—
and ivanchuck’s goin
down the road to montréal
from chippytown abode
with backdoor perogie
following a car-snake
behind a sandtruck
slowly broadcasting
but fredchicken horizons
eventually and džo
hears his door buzzed
two jars of balkan juice
chilled with winter chillin’
thousands of miles or nautical
miles and kilometres of land
and sea from those mountains
to this river valley
on orthodox christmas
for the believers—not to
be confused with giving
and a sharing exchange

New book! Prison Songs and Storefront Poetry

2010-12-28T07:26:00.007-04:00

Just in before the year end is my newest book, Prison Songs and Storefront Poetry with Ekstasis Editions in Victoria, BC. I received my first copies last week while on the Eastern Shore in Nova Scotia.

ISBN 978-1-897430-60-6

All of the poems in this book, except for three, were composed on the portable, manual typewriter in my cover photo. Writing, creating poems on a manual typewriter in this age of wireless laptop computers is a curiouly slower and more physical means of writing, and different again from writing longhand as I do in my journals. One “prison song” was was first written longhand and two “prison songs”, including the first one written, were written on the computer.

The idea for Prison Songs came to me from Marko Kristić, in Belgrade, Serbia. He told me while we were travelling in April 2006 on buses to and from a promotional reading in Kruševac for my book Pesme iz kazamata (Belgrade: i.p. Rad, 2005), that the book’s title translated from Serbian back into English not only as the original Casemate Poems book title but also as “prison songs”—a theme he explored in his review of the book. At the time he was a PhD candidate at the University of Belgrade. I felt I should try to write some prison songs.

Many of the Prison Songs I wrote in July 2006 during a one-week Fredericton Arts Alliance artist residency. The residencies happen in an open to the public space shared with another artist. During my week I shared with a potter, Ursula Sommerer, and we collaborated on a ceramic platter that she formed. When it was leather hard and the slip she applied had dried, I sat down for several hours and letter by letter stamped “prison song 05” into the clay. Ursula fired it in a kiln with iron powder in the letter forms to give them contrast. We exhibited the platter then sold it to the City of Fredericton for their art collection. Using the Fred-eZone free wireless network, I also blog posted each poem written as soon as I had retyped it into my laptop.

The poems “prison song 19” through “prison song 29” were written in a 24-hour period and they are both shaped and influenced by the posters gathered the morning of 21 July 2007 as the page layout of the 24-hour created issue of my New Muse of Contempt zine printed in a hand-sewn edition of 48 copies.

I believe that for some “prison songs” I put myself in the mindset of various people imprisoned or other wise trapped in a situation along with a few in which the writer in the one feeling trapped or locked up.

Storefront Poetry is the title given by The Rabbit Hole store staff to my one-week writing residency in September 2008. Much as in the early 1980s I had lived and worked several years in Banff and seem to make it back there every few years, this was my first time in Grande Prairie, northern Alberta, and nothern British Columbia. Because the storefront window would be too hot to sit in for hours at a time, I was set up with a small desk beside the store entrance with my manual typewriter, journal, and laptop computer. Security was surprised at the airport when they scanned my suitcase and found the typewriter. As with the FAA casemate residencies, I interacted with people who came by—sometimes having lively, extended conversations while I was writing.

If you would like an autographed copy of this book, send me $25 ($30 for copies to be shipped outside Canada):

Maritimes Arts Projects Productions
BOX 596 STN A
FREDERICTON NB E3B 5A6
CANADA

or get a copy in person by helping me tour the book by hosting a reading:
• Next Canada Poetry Tours Reading Program application deadline ($50 admin fee) at the League of Canadian Poets is only a month away: 31 January 2011.
• Next Literary Readings program at Canada Council for the Arts deadline is 1 March 2011.
• The Writers’ Union of Canada’s National Public Readings Program ($75 admin fee) doesn’t have a deadline (but the fund does dry up before year end). Applications for readings after 1 April 2011 are being accepted.

I expect to be launching this book in Victoria in early June, and mid-June in Ontario.

New „Putevi“ includes Džo Blejds fiction

2010-12-28T06:58:00.005-04:00

The newest issue of „Putevi“ literary journal, number 10–11, in Banja Luka, RS (BiH), includes two pieces of Џо Блејдс/Džo Blejds/Joe Blades fiction, from a manuscript titled “Burying Ground”, in translation by Татјана Бијелић/Tatjana Bijelic. Below is the first page …

early media coverage

2010-12-27T16:08:00.007-04:00

After about a 10-minute (don’t believe the bogus precise “nine minutes and 41 seconds” (as if I was stopwatch timed when I wasn’t) four-leaf clover picking frenzy at my grandparents’ (Dad’s parents) family home–farm in (I believe) 1973. Photo article was in the Dartmouth Free Press weekly in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, where I was living and going to Bell Ayr School (Elementary or Jr. High … or in between … I’m unsure … depends on when exactly that year).

unexpected coffee collection

2010-12-27T13:44:00.011-04:00

My/Broken Jaw Press’ house coffee has been organic “Breaking the Silence” Guatemalan coffee (prepared by Just Us! Coffee Roasters Co-op in Wolfville, Nova Scotia), a fundraiser for Breaking the Silence (BTS) a voluntary network of people in the Maritimes who began to organize in 1988 to support the efforts of Guatemalans struggling for political, social, and economic justice: see the blog at breakingthesilencenet.blogspot.com.

I’ve also kept Grand coffee from Novi Beograd on hand since my travels in Serbia. It’s for those days I want something different—a little stovetop “domestic” coffee.

Earlier this year I was given some Kurukahveci, a real Turkish coffee, by a fellow grad student in an MEd course :-D

This morning, I had Wake Up Joe coffee gifted for my birthday. It’s an Arabica from Paramount Coffee in Lansing, Michigan bought because of its name.

This week, at Christmas, I was given three more whole bean coffees:

Sumatra Harimau Tiger from the tiny and new Puddle Jump Coffee Roasters on Causeway Road, Seaforth, Nova Scotia;

Another organic Arabica bean coffee, Harar Ethiopian, from Just Us!—a great small bean coffee that I’ve been given before;

and, most unexpectedly, a Jumping Bean Newfoundland Screech Rum Flavoured Coffee from St John’s on the Rock.

Must have a year’s supply of coffee in maison Broken Jaw!

@ the UGSW Collective Agreement signing

2010-12-19T08:34:00.006-04:00

Tuesday, 7 Dec 2010 in the Wu Centre, UNB Fredericton. Photo take, with my camera, by PSAC/AFPC Regional VP Jeannie Baldwin.

Seated (L–R): Peter McDougall (Associate Vice-President (Human
Resources),UNB), Tiffany Thornhill (Bargaining Team, UGSW President).
Standing (L–R): Donald Desserud (Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, UNB–SJ), Heather Sears (Human Resources, UNB), Pride Abownga (Bargaining Team, UGSW), Gail Lem (Chief Negotiator, PSAC), Greg Ericson (Bargaining Team, UGSW Treasurer), and Joe Blades (UGSW member).

I was there to photograph the signing for the union, the UGSW, because I figured (rightly so, it turned out) UNB would not have a photographer there to document the historic occasion: the signing of the first Collective Agreement between the Union of Graduate Student Workers at the University of New Brunswick (UGSW)–Public Service Alliance of Canada/Alliance de la Fonction publique du Canada Local 60550 and the employer.

UGSW on Facebook
www.ugsw-psac60550.ca
ugsw.unb@gmail.com
PSAC–AFPC

Movies watched in recent weeks

2010-12-13T16:44:00.006-04:00

Landed, a Stairwell Dwellers Production, 2010

Whale Music, 2003

Pink Floyd—The Wall, 1999

Werner Herzog's Stroszek, 2004

Nicolas Roeg's The Man Who Fell to Earth, 1976

Kinji Fukasaku's Batoru rowaiaru (Battle Royale), 2004

Off the Hook

2010-12-11T14:54:00.003-04:00

Off the Hook (detail)
by Joe Blades, 2010
mixed media installation piece
145 Marshall d'Avray Hall
University of New Brunswick
10 Mackay Dr
Fredericton, NB

qualitative methodologies
including arts-based research
grad students' office located
in a former custodians' room
three fire extinguishers behind the door
key cabinet on the wall

keys welcome!

18 Dec. Fredericton Crafters Sale

2010-12-08T08:49:00.001-04:00

18 Dec, Saturday, 9am to 4pm. Fredericton Crafters "Last Minute Christmas Shopping" show & sale @ St Andrews Church Hall, 512 Charlotte St, Fredericton, NB. Free admission!

Joe Blades/Maritimes Arts Projects Productions and Broken Jaw Press will be there with books, chapbooks, notecards, and handmade books.

Day without Art

2010-12-01T01:36:00.000-04:00

Found photo du jour

2010-11-16T14:38:00.004-04:00

Found at 10:57 AM, Monday, 15 November 2010 in the ground floor hallway, Marshall d'Avray Hall, 10 Mackay Drive, UNB-Fredericton, near the Graduate Education Students' lounge ... possibly a theatre production photograph.

Freud interpretation

2010-11-03T09:10:00.001-03:00

Found photos du jour

2010-10-28T17:50:00.004-03:00

Found on the floor of the Visual Culture room, Marshall d'Avray Hall, 10 Mackay Dr, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB at 2:30 pm, 28 October 2010.

ellipse 83 launched

2010-10-25T13:21:00.007-03:00

Yesterday, during the Brunch Chez Rose activity in Side by Side Festival Côte à Côte 2010, in Moncton, NB, issue 83 of ellipse was launched.

Jean Babineau, contributor, at the launch.

Contents

L’Est rencontre l’Ouest / East Meets West

Editor’s Note: Jo-Anne Elder
tr. (français) Stéphanie Roesler (Ontario)

Winners of the Literary Translation Contest, Jo-Anne Elder

Joe Blades (E/E), “sometimes”
tr. (français) Jean Babineau (E/E*)
tr. (français) J.R. Léveillé (O/W)
tr. (Catalan) Michael Bantjes (O/W)
intra (English) Kathy Mac (E/E)
tr. (Dutch) Will van den Hoonard (E/E)
tr. (Dutch) Dymphny Dronyk (O/W)
tr. (Turkish) Yalçin Ener (Turkey)
and Mehmet Yaşin (Cyprus)

Joe Blades (E/E), “permutations of water”

Joe Blades (E/E), from from the book that doesn’t close (E/E)
tr. (Serbian) Tatjana Bijelić (BiH)

Kathy Mac (E/E) “Elements of a Good Workshop”
tr. (français) Charles Leblanc (O/W)
intra (English) Joe Blades (E/E)

Art. Acadie. Sarah Petite (E/E)
Art. because Giants (after Sarah Petite). Joe Blades (E/E)
Art. Edgecomb Block door (tagged by EASTMEETSWEST artist Cyrus Smith). Joe Blades (E/E)

J.R. Léveillé (O/W), sans titre (« il répondit… »)
(English) J.R. Léveillé (O/W)
tr. (Catalan) Elisabet Ràfols (O/W)
tr. (English) Ashley Bursey (E/E)
intra (français) Joe Blades (E/E)
adaptation (English) Kathy Mac (E/E)

Herménégilde Chiasson (E/E), « Instructions pour 10 performances intimes »
tr. (English) Nicole Vienneau (E/E)
tr. (English) Ida Orenbach (E/E)
tr. (German) Inge Noeninger (E/E)

Don Domanski (E/E), “A Hummingbird’s Heart Beats 1260 Times a Minute”
tr. (français) Martine Cantin (E/E)

Jean Babineau (E/E), « La Descente »
(English annotated version) Jo-Anne Elder and Jean Babineau
tr. (English) Jo-Anne Elder (E/E)

Dyane Léger (E/E) et Paul Savoie (O/W), extrait de L’Incendiaire
tr. (English) Jo-Anne Elder (E/E)

[*E : artiste de l’Est du Canada, O : artiste de l’Ouest du Canada /
E: from Eastern Canada, W: from Western Canada]

Want a copy? Here's a subscription &/or order form:

Found photo du jour

2010-10-21T22:44:00.003-03:00

Found @ 5:50 pm, 21 octobre 2010, opposite Gallery 78, 796 Queen St, Fredericton, NB, curled up beside the shut drinking water fountain, just before the Cérémonie d'acceuil autochtone/Aboriginal Welcome Ceremony par/by Carlos Gomes, The Green, beside Beaverbrook Art Gallery, et ouverture officielle/Official Opening de + Trajectoires et dérives de la littérature-monde (APLAQA) + Simposio 2010 de la Asociación de Hispanistas de las Provincias Atlánticas/Symposium of the AHPA/Symposium de l'AHPA y Side By Side Festival/Festival Côte à Côte/Lado a lado et reading/lecture par/by Régine Robin et Phyllis Aronoff.

a found poem

2010-10-19T06:55:00.003-03:00

Festival Côte à Côte 2010 Side by Side Festival

2010-10-09T13:10:00.010-03:00

7th Edition / 7e édition
WORDS AFLOAT, WORDS ADRIFT: Translating Literature /
TRAJECTOIRES ET DÉRIVES de la traduction littéraire

21–26 OCT 2010
Fredericton & Moncton, NB

21 oct
• 18h30–19. Cérémonie d'acceuil autochtone / Aboriginal Welcome Ceremony. Carlos Gomes. The Green, beside Beaverbrook Art Gallery, rue Queen St., Fredericton.

• 19–19h30. Ouverture officielle / Official Opening.
+ Trajectoires et dérives de la littérature-monde (APLAQA)
+ Simposio 2010 de la Asociación de Hispanistas de las Provincias Atlánticas / Symposium of the AHPA/ Symposium de l'AHPA
+ Side By Side Festival/Festival Côte à Côte.

• 20–21h. Reading / Lecture. Régine Robin, Phyllis Aronoff.

22 oct
• 14–16h30. Faculté des arts salle 207, Université de Moncton. Rencontre littéraire et atelier de traduction / Discussion and Translation Workshop. Dyane Léger et Rose Després.

• 19–21h30. Centre communautaire Ste.-Anne, 715, rue Priestman St., Fredericton. Soirée littéraire / Reading (in French) en collaboration avec Association des professeurs de litérature acadienne et québécoise de l'Atlantique (APLAQA)

• 9:30pm– . James Joyce Pub, 659, rue Queen Street. (Les) Rendez-vous: Multilingual Reading and Open Mic / Lecture multilingue et micro ouvert, Recital poético y lectura abierta. Phyllis Aronoff, Jean Babineau, Joe Blades, Herménégilde Chiasson, Rose Després, Brigitte Harrison, Hugh Hazelton, Raymond Guy LeBlanc, Dyane Léger, Biff Mitchell, Nela Rio, Howard Scott and others / et d'autres!

23 oct
• 9–3:00pm. UNB-Fredericton location tbd / à déterminer. Simposio 2010 de la AHPA/ Symposium of the AHPA/ Symposium de l'AHPA. Hugh Hazelton, Nela Rio

24 oct
• 11–3:00, 178 croissant Liberty Cres, Moncton. Brunch Chez Rose. Discussion. Phyllis Aronoff, Joe Blades, Herménégilde Chiasson, Rose Després, Jo-Anne Elder, Brigitte Harrison, Hugh Hazelton, Raymond Guy LeBlanc, Dyane Léger, Elisabet Rafols, Nela Rio, and others / et d'autres!

25 oct
• 9–3:00. UNB-Fredericton activities tbd / à déterminer

26 oct
• 10–11:30. Holy Cross House conference room, St. Thomas University, Fredericton. Translation Live! Workshop / Atelier Traduction en direct w/ Phyllis Aronoff, Joe Blades, Rose Després, Hugh Hazelton, Dyane Léger, & Howard Scott.

• 1–2:30. Edmund Casey Hall 124, St. Thomas University, Fredericton. Atelier de création / Writers' Workshop (in French), entrée gratuite, inscription recommandé, avec Rose Després et Dyane Léger.

• 7–9:00. Margaret McCain Hall 307, St. Thomas University, Fredericton. Panel: Acadian Literature Table ronde: La littérature acadienne (en anglais / English), avec Rose Després et Dyane Léger.

Fredericton Small Press & Community Fair: November 2010

2010-10-05T12:15:00.007-03:00

Fredericton Small Press & Community Fair, including “Nuestro Espacio” display for Spanish language books & journals,

NEW DATE
13 November 2010

Doors open at 11 for setup!

Sponsors include Broken Jaw Press, Capítulo de Fredericton de la Academia Iberoamericana de Poesía, and revue ellipse mag . . .

Tentative Vendors • Exhibitors • Readings • Workshop(s)
BlackTop MotorCycle Gang
bookshandmade.com (Ottawa)
Breaking the Silence--Fredericton Chapter
Broken Jaw Press
Gallery ConneXion
Goose Lane Editions
Qwerty magazine
Random Paper & Fabric
revue ellipse mag
workshops

LA IMAGEN ES UN SENDERO / THE IMAGE IS A PATH / L’IMAGE EST UN CHEMIN International Multicultural–Multilingual Poetry Reading & Poster Poem Exhibition, in conjunction with the United Nation’s World Day for Audiovisual Heritage. Nela Rio, exhibit founder and organizer.

Indie, small and micro-press publishers: books and chapbooks of poetry, fiction, artist multiples, artist books, broadsheets, postcards, zines, lit mags, literacy info crafters & much more ...

Location: Gallery ConneXion, in the Chestnut Complex, 440 York St, Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Exhibitor fees: $15 payable to: BS Poetry Society, Box 596 Stn A, Fredericton NB E3B 5A6. Doors open @ 11 AM for exhibitor setup. Contact (506) 454-5127, joeblades@nb.aibn.com to reserve a space and readings. Best if you can bring a table, too!

Free things (info, publications, calls for submissions, etc.) can be mailed to us for the distribution table. The fair itself will not sell for folks who can’t make it, but if you can arrange for someone local (say, a UNB student) to represent you @ the fair that would be great!

RANDOM ACTS OF POETRY EMPOWER YOUTH

2010-10-01T09:27:00.002-03:00

Poets across Canada will visit schools, alternative schools, and youth centres from Oct. 4 to 9, 2010, during the seventh annual Random Acts of Poetry event, sponsored by The Canada Council for the Arts.

In Fredericton, New Brunswick, Joe Blades will participate for the fourth year. Blades has authored seven poetry books, and is the current President of the League of Canadian Poets. “Sharing poetry creates a space for growth and understanding in people’s lives. This is especially important for youth,” says Blades.

For the first time, the event is focused on bringing poetry to young people. “We want to draw attention to youth literacy, which is a crucial issue for Canada’s future,” says Claire Rettie, Executive Director of the READ Society, a non-profit literacy organization in Victoria. READ has provided tuition assistance for children and youth from low income households in Victoria so they can improve their reading, writing, mathematics and study skills.

READ coordinates this national event in conjunction with Sooke poet Wendy Morton, the event founder. During the week, 30 poets across Canada, from Victoria, British Columbia to Pasadena, Newfoundland Labrador, will commit Random Acts of Poetry in their cities. Poets will read to youth and give them copies of their poetry books.

“We will choose poems that speak to young people and hope to encourage them to find poems in their own lives,” says Morton, who will read at LAU,WELNEW Tribal School in Saanich, BC. She believes that poetry is a way into language for those who have barriers to it.

Across Canada poets will commit Random Acts of Poetry in: Calgary, Edmonton, Elmvale, Fredericton, Gibsons, Kincardine, Laval, Montague, Montreal, Moose Jaw, Nanaimo, Ottawa, Pasadena, Quebec City, Sooke, Stratford, Thamesford, Toronto, Vancouver, Verdun, Victoria, Windsor, Winnipeg, and Wolfville.

For more information please contact:
Wendy Morton, 250-642-3542 wendymorton @ shaw.ca
Claire Rettie, READ Society, 250-388-7225 crettie @ readsociety.bc.ca
Joe Blades, Fredericton, NB 506 454-5127 joeblades @ nb.aibn.com

La imagen es un sendero / The image is a path / L’image est un chemin

2010-09-24T09:18:00.008-03:00

IN CONJUNCTION WITH / UNIDO A

United Nations, October 21st “World Day for Audiovisual Heritage” /
Naciones Unidas, 21 de octubre, “Día Internacional de la Herencia Audiovisual”

Audiovisual documents, such as films, radio and television programmes, audio and video recordings have transformed society by becoming a permanent complement to the traditional written record / Documentos audiovisuales, tales como películas, programas de radio y de televisión han transformado la sociedad al constituirse en permanente complemento de la documentación de la palabra escrita.

Convocatoria Internacional de Poesía /
International Call For Poetry:

LA IMAGEN ES UN SENDERO /
THE IMAGE IS A PATH /
L’IMAGE EST UN CHEMIN

The reading will take place on October 17th, 2010
in “Nuestro Espacio”, in the context of the
Fredericton Small Press Fair

-o-o-o-o-o-

La lectura tendrá lugar el 17 de octubre, 2010
en “Nuestro Espacio”, en el contexto de la
Feria de Editoriales Pequeñas de Fredericton

Gallery ConneXion
440 York St, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
www.galleryconnexion.ca

Cómo participar / How to participate

Enviar un poema, no más de 30 líneas, usando Times New Roman. Incluir nombre y apellido; dirección postal y electrónica a Nela Rio: nelario@rogers.com antes del viernes 8 de octubre 2010. Este evento está abierto para el público en general y no hay costo de admisión. / Send a poem, no more than 30 lines, using Times New Roman. Include your name, postal address, email address, to nelario@rogers.com before Friday, 8 October 2010. This event is open to the general public and admission is free. This community event will not be paying artist or performance fees.

Nela Rio, fundadora de La imagen es un sendero / The image is a path / L’image est un chemin cuenta con el patrocinio de: Revista ellipse, editoral Broken Jaw Press, Galería de Arte ConneXion, Registro Creativo de la Asociación Canadiense de Hispanistas, Asociación Latino de New Brunswick y su programa “Presencia”, y Capítulo de Fredericton de la Academia Iberoamericana de Poesía. / Nela Rio founder of La imagen es un sendero / The image is a path / L’image est un chemin, with the support of ellipse, Broken Jaw Press publisher, Gallery ConneXion, Registro Creativo de la Asociación Canadiense de Hispanistas, Latino Association of New Brunswick, and its program, “Presencia”, and Fredericton Chapter of Iberoamerican Academy of Poetry.

poem written before

2010-09-24T06:52:00.006-03:00

walking towards an assassination
attempt but i keep walking slowly
quietly looking at the grey clouds
and many shades of green in trees
and plants and the burn from too
little water or too much gravel
where there should be soil
see a pink rose petal
far from any rose bush
and marvel at the power
of wind and what we have
built that obstructs
if without that purpose
but sometimes yes
for that purpose
even harnessing kinetic
energy of the winds
is an exploitation
without permission
not quite as invasive
or destructive as mining
or the damming of rivers
or the deliberate splitting
of atoms and where
will it stop when
to cry out enough
maybe we don’t need
this power this access
to abuse this control
of air for any reason
anyone/anything’s cake
and we dematerialize
become naked apes
to live or not
without
until we forget
we are living without
anything
but are living simply
living

walking not into a trap
or ambush but into misunderstanding
that i feel i know a little
enough to trouble myself
and to be perceived as others’ problem
but having been chosen to represent
not in image but in body and mind
now i have been othered
by those same
or on the continuum
in the stream i am in
and have been in a while
swimming afloat treading water
but not clinging or damming
have come to see the particles
i am one of at this juncture
perhaps to recognize
as a participant
or participant–observer
ego upfront enabler
but what does it matter
when eventually i will
not be and my particles
will no longer sustain this life
as i’ve experienced it
no more making waves
or being carried by waves
death comes to us all
without exception
parts of me have been
blown into thinner space
relative to earth
in the expanding universe
for some time now
other parts i’ve shed
and they fall to the floor
and ground dead
and i consume to rebuild
until my body tires or fails
in that effort or choice
is taken from me

second issue of 17 seconds: a journal of poetry + poetics

2010-09-03T09:01:00.003-03:00

rob mclennan, editor
Roland Prevost, managing editor

Conversations with John Newlove
- by Carla Comellini

Love, Anne Carson: a fictional essay in the wrong order
- by rob mclennan

Joe in the Balkans: an interview with Joe Blades
- by Tatjana Bijelic

An Interview with Dennis Cooley
- by Sean Moreland

'in the estuary' and 'funereal relief re-lives'
- two poems by Pearl Pirie

Horologic
- a poem by Kathleen Fraser

surveillance of LECTURE: excerpt from a work-in-progress
- by Kathleen Fraser

seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics comes out as the natural extension of the eight issues of Poetics.ca edited by rob mclennan and Stephen Brockwell. Highlighting the diversity of voice, style, practice and politic, seventeen seconds continues the resolve to provide a forum for dialogue on contemporary poetics, with a focus on Canadian writing. Over the past two decades, the amount of critical writing published in print literary journals on Canadian poetry, specifically, seems to have decreased dramatically, but slowly returned through a number of online journals. seventeen seconds simply wishes to help strengthen the dialogue and the ongoing conversation about writing through publishing new writing, and conversation about new writing. How else are we supposed to learn anything, unless we keep talking?

Feedback and submission queries are most welcome.
rob mclennan: az421 (at) freenet (dot) carleton (dot) ca

www.ottawater.com/seventeenseconds

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 31 Aug 2010

2010-08-31T22:45:00.000-03:00

Ashes, Paper & Beans: Fredericton’s Writing & Arts Show, CHSR 97.9 FM
Producer–Host: Joe Blades
Sunday rebroadcast, 1–2 PM
www.chsrfm.ca with podcasts
Fredericton, NB, Canada

Christian Bok: "Motorized Razors" & "Ubu Hubbub"

Live interview/discussion by five artist and writer members of BlackTop MotorCycle Gang (biffmitchell.com, Todd R. Snow, & Joe Blades) and the Emerge Artist Collective (Wendy Forest, & Greg Klassen) discussing the re:myth project and exhibition.

Radio Free Vestibule: Kevin and God

Fortner Anderson + tape/head: he sings