Ariel Gordon's Blog, page 63
May 27, 2012
Horizon
All photos LaBarriere Park, Winnipeg. May 26, 2012.* * *
It had been years since we'd been in LaBarriere Park. So when we arrived and I saw the long expanse of mowed field dotted with dandelions, I wasn't expecting much...
But after we crossed the footbridge and dove into the trees, it couldn't have been more interesting. Mossy logs and new mushrooms emerging from the leaf litter and stinging nettle in the understory and big healthy elms everywhere.
The girl was climbing everything and singing at the top of her lungs. Once she was tightrope-walking a log while I was photographing a mushroom on it and I had to order her off.
And while one of the reasons I go to the woods is for silence, if singing is what it takes to make Aa a part of that experience, I'm happy to listen to her. Or to try to ignore her with some grace.
Plus, the bear scat we saw made me quite glad that we had a noisemaker with us...
May 25, 2012
The Book of Wonders
So I was passed a heavy old encyclopedia titled The Book of Wonders (Toronto: Bureau of Industrial Education, 1916) at the used book sale that was a part of the Symposium on Manitoba Writing two weeks ago.
Its title page read as follows:
From "The Story in a Photograph"
"The Book of Wonders gives plain and simple answers to the thousands of everyday questions that are asked and which all should be able to, but cannot answer. Fully illustrated with hundreds of educational pictures which stimulate the mind and give a bird's eye view of the Wonders of Nature and the Wonders Produced by Man."
It also had an owl with golden eyes on its wine-coloured cover. All of which shrieked "Buy me! BUY ME!"
I finally cracked it open last night. And in addition to photo essays like "The Story in a Lump of Coal," "The Story in a Coil of Rope," and "The Story in a Can of Paint," it is largely written in question and answer format.
I stayed up late reading through The Book of Wonders. And, while reading, felt a tickle that told me I might be on to something.
As many of you know, I've been writing how-to poems for the past five or six years - and published a clutch of them in my JackPine chapbook How to Prepare for Flooding - which are basically presented in the form of answers.
"How to Sew a Button," for instance, is a list of instructions-in-poetry on how one might go about sewing a button.
I'd be interested in inverting the relationship. And have the titles of my poems be questions instead of answers.
Anyways, here are some of my favourite questions from The Book of Wonders:
Its title page read as follows:
From "The Story in a Photograph""The Book of Wonders gives plain and simple answers to the thousands of everyday questions that are asked and which all should be able to, but cannot answer. Fully illustrated with hundreds of educational pictures which stimulate the mind and give a bird's eye view of the Wonders of Nature and the Wonders Produced by Man."
It also had an owl with golden eyes on its wine-coloured cover. All of which shrieked "Buy me! BUY ME!"
I finally cracked it open last night. And in addition to photo essays like "The Story in a Lump of Coal," "The Story in a Coil of Rope," and "The Story in a Can of Paint," it is largely written in question and answer format.
I stayed up late reading through The Book of Wonders. And, while reading, felt a tickle that told me I might be on to something.
As many of you know, I've been writing how-to poems for the past five or six years - and published a clutch of them in my JackPine chapbook How to Prepare for Flooding - which are basically presented in the form of answers.
"How to Sew a Button," for instance, is a list of instructions-in-poetry on how one might go about sewing a button.
I'd be interested in inverting the relationship. And have the titles of my poems be questions instead of answers.
Anyways, here are some of my favourite questions from The Book of Wonders:
What makes me tired?
Of what use is my hair?
Does thunder sour milk?
Why do we wake up in the morning?
Why does the moon travel with us when we walk or ride?
What causes shadows?
What keeps a balloon up?
Why does a dog turn round and round before he lies down?
Where do shoes come from?
Where is the wind when it is not blowing?
Why can’t we burn stones?
Where does the day begin?
Where do all the little round stones come from?
Where do the tears go?
May 23, 2012
Hail!
* * *
Last week, we had a thunderstorm that included three minutes of Armageddon. Which is to say, hail the size of mothballs. I had just planted up a few containers with herbs for our balcony and so rushed out to rescue them from said end-times.
And I'm not sure what it says about me, but I couldn't resist going back out and scooping up a big handful of them, knowing they'd be gone before the rain was.
I also tried to coerce the girl to come out. But she didn't like getting pelted with hailstones OR the feeling of hailstones under her feet, so she retreated to our bedroom. And whined.
M stood in the doorway and took pictures but didn't put a toe outside.
(Later I checked to see that my car hadn't been killed. It didn't occur to me to look during the hail-mary.)
* * *
I'm currently in a holding pattern, writing-wise, after a month or so of good solid work. Of course, instead of being happy about the poems I now have, I'm bemoaning the poems I could have had if life wasn't so stupidly busy.
But I have two writing days this week. And I have an essay to work on, the first long-form project I've set myself in a long time.
I'm really looking forward to the two weeks I'll have to myself in June at a friend's cabin in Riding Mountain. It's another kind of hail-mary: a big gesture towards completion of this manuscript.
May 18, 2012
A bevy of poets
So Wednesday's reading in support of Peter Midgley was my very last May to-do, after the Symposium on Manitoba Writing, after two UMP launches, after the Manitoba Library Association conference. Which is a heady mix of bookish business and pleasure, if I do say so myself....
l-r: Cynara being saucy, me explaining HTPFF's Coil-O binding, the lovely crowd.
So I was half-dead by the time the reading rolled around but found it wonderfully invigorating in the moment.
I first spoke to poet/publisher Peter Midgley the day after Robert Kroetsch died.
U of A Press, for whom Midgley is acquisitions editor, had just published what would now be Kroetsch's last collection, and my UMPish colleague had phoned UAP to offer her condolences.
Peter asked to speak to me. I don't remember quite what he said, but he spoke to me as a poet, not as a acquisitions editor, and it was both immensely affirming and also comforting, given the terrible occasion of our conversation.
And so, several months later, I was very pleased to accept Peter's invitation to read with him. I wanted to make sure I could deliver a good-sized audience, so I lined up a bevy of poets to support him, including former Winnipegger (like there's such a thing) Cynara Geissler and poet/publisher Sharon Caseburg.
We had dinner before the reading, which is always almost as pleasurable as the reading itself, and then proceeded to McNally's travel alcove.
And the crowd was such that they were forced to add more chairs, which falls in the category of 'nice problems.' I went first and read one poem from How to Prepare for Flooding and some more how-to poems, specifically from my recent collaboration with writer/visual artist DJ Berger.
Specifically, I read a poem called "How to Tell if Someone is Dead" that makes me intensely nervous. It was written after the deaths of Kroetch and Michael Van Rooy last year. And I'm glad to have written it and I think it does what it needs to do...but there's a difference between writing a ha-ha poem about ripping a phone book in half and trying to get at the awkwardness of sudden death.
But I read it and even pointed out Michael's portrait on the wall opposite McNally's travel alcove.
I had another one for Michael in the sheaf of poems I brought with me to the reading, but decided against reading it as it wasn't yet where it needed to be. I couldn't look into Michael's larger-than-life eyes and read something that wasn't just right...
So...thanks to Peter and Sharon and Cynara for agreeing to read with me. Thanks to McNally's too for being so dreamy to work with. (Though I must say, the events coordinator John has developed a series of nicknames for me that give lie to his polite demeanour...)
And thanks, as always, to everyone who came out!
p.s. If you're a Winnipegger and you missed getting a copy of my How to Prepare for Flooding at any of last fall's launches, McNally now has four Coil-O bound copies in stock.
l-r: Cynara being saucy, me explaining HTPFF's Coil-O binding, the lovely crowd.So I was half-dead by the time the reading rolled around but found it wonderfully invigorating in the moment.
I first spoke to poet/publisher Peter Midgley the day after Robert Kroetsch died.
U of A Press, for whom Midgley is acquisitions editor, had just published what would now be Kroetsch's last collection, and my UMPish colleague had phoned UAP to offer her condolences.
Peter asked to speak to me. I don't remember quite what he said, but he spoke to me as a poet, not as a acquisitions editor, and it was both immensely affirming and also comforting, given the terrible occasion of our conversation.
And so, several months later, I was very pleased to accept Peter's invitation to read with him. I wanted to make sure I could deliver a good-sized audience, so I lined up a bevy of poets to support him, including former Winnipegger (like there's such a thing) Cynara Geissler and poet/publisher Sharon Caseburg.
We had dinner before the reading, which is always almost as pleasurable as the reading itself, and then proceeded to McNally's travel alcove.
And the crowd was such that they were forced to add more chairs, which falls in the category of 'nice problems.' I went first and read one poem from How to Prepare for Flooding and some more how-to poems, specifically from my recent collaboration with writer/visual artist DJ Berger.
Specifically, I read a poem called "How to Tell if Someone is Dead" that makes me intensely nervous. It was written after the deaths of Kroetch and Michael Van Rooy last year. And I'm glad to have written it and I think it does what it needs to do...but there's a difference between writing a ha-ha poem about ripping a phone book in half and trying to get at the awkwardness of sudden death.
But I read it and even pointed out Michael's portrait on the wall opposite McNally's travel alcove.
I had another one for Michael in the sheaf of poems I brought with me to the reading, but decided against reading it as it wasn't yet where it needed to be. I couldn't look into Michael's larger-than-life eyes and read something that wasn't just right...
So...thanks to Peter and Sharon and Cynara for agreeing to read with me. Thanks to McNally's too for being so dreamy to work with. (Though I must say, the events coordinator John has developed a series of nicknames for me that give lie to his polite demeanour...)
And thanks, as always, to everyone who came out!
p.s. If you're a Winnipegger and you missed getting a copy of my How to Prepare for Flooding at any of last fall's launches, McNally now has four Coil-O bound copies in stock.
May 17, 2012
Brian Henderson: Reading & Signing
McNally Robinson Booksellers & Brick Books present
Brian Henderson reading & signing
Sharawadji
Featuring Méira Cook, Ariel Gordon, Jan Horner, Maurice Mierau, and Jennifer Still.
When: Tuesday June 12, 7:00 pm
Where: McNally Robinson at Grant Park (1120 Grant Avenue)
Cost: FREE
Brian Henderson has established himself as a poet who brilliantly makes us aware of language as an instrument of discovery. In his work we realize, over and over again, that each of the mind’s worlds speaks a secret language, which it is the poet’s task to discover and translate.In Sharawadji, this includes not only such worlds as those created by the surreal paintings of Jacek Yerka, but the intense, re-humanizing experience of loss and grief.
Brian Henderson is the author of ten collections of poetry, the most recent of which, Nerve Language, was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award. He holds a PhD in Canadian Literature, has worked in many facets of Canadian publishing, and is currently the director of Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
Henderson is joined this evening by local poets Méira Cook, Ariel Gordon, Jan Horner, Maurice Mierau, and Jennifer Still, all of whom will be reading.
Brian Henderson reading & signing
Sharawadji
Featuring Méira Cook, Ariel Gordon, Jan Horner, Maurice Mierau, and Jennifer Still.
When: Tuesday June 12, 7:00 pmWhere: McNally Robinson at Grant Park (1120 Grant Avenue)
Cost: FREE
Brian Henderson has established himself as a poet who brilliantly makes us aware of language as an instrument of discovery. In his work we realize, over and over again, that each of the mind’s worlds speaks a secret language, which it is the poet’s task to discover and translate.In Sharawadji, this includes not only such worlds as those created by the surreal paintings of Jacek Yerka, but the intense, re-humanizing experience of loss and grief.
Brian Henderson is the author of ten collections of poetry, the most recent of which, Nerve Language, was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award. He holds a PhD in Canadian Literature, has worked in many facets of Canadian publishing, and is currently the director of Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
Henderson is joined this evening by local poets Méira Cook, Ariel Gordon, Jan Horner, Maurice Mierau, and Jennifer Still, all of whom will be reading.
May 16, 2012
Lives of Girls and Women
I attended most of last weekend's Symposium on Manitoba Writing.
I enjoyed the Symposium's mix of readings and seminars, keynotes and panel discussions...and when I got too full of talking, which happened after about six hours of symposium-ing, I would decamp to the nearby forest.
So three walks in three days. And a pile of interesting old books from the MWG used book sale. And as much thinking-through of MB fiction, poetry, and non-fiction as I could handle.
Though I wasn't participating in the Symposium, per se, I will admit that I was most looking forward to the Saturday afternoon session entitled Lives of Girls and Women.
That was because it included a paper on Hump, written by U of M Ph D student Luann Hiebert.
On Thursday afternoon, one of the sessions I attended included papers on the work of Patrick Friesen and Dennis Cooley as well as Patrick Friesen and Dennis Cooley. A few of the presenters made noises about how nervous-making this was for them, so I joked over the next few days about how I was going to sit in the very front row and stare at Luann. And cry/protest noisily: "That's not quite right, actually..."
But when it came to Saturday afternoon, me full of Mother's Day dim sum and kid-gifts and tea (best-case scenario, actually...), I kept my eyes on my notebook in front of me and listened.
I couldn't quite bring myself to look up. Which isn't to say that it was bad or that I was nervous, but that I wanted both Luann and I to have some room in that moment.
I thought I was being very subtle in my making-space, but writer/prof Aretha Van Herk later commented that she was sitting behind me during the session and that I visibly twitched at various points.
Twitching notwithstanding, it was very interesting to hear snippets of my poems in someone else's mouth, to hear Luann's thoughts on aspects of the poems and of the relationships at work there.
Part of the reason I was so pleased to have her presenting on Hump was that publishing, for me, is about having a conversation with readers and writers and critics.
And her taking Hump on as a subject was another part of that conversation being enacted in front of me. Which was very very nice.
* * *
Session 10: Lives of Girls and Women
Tanis MacDonald, Wilfrid Laurier University
GirlWould: Wiseman, Medved, Hunter, and Still on Growing Up Girl in Winnipeg
Jason Wiens, University of Calgary
In Search of Catherine Wiens: Genealogy, Biography, and the Structure of Frederick Philip Grove’s Over Prairie Trails and In Search of Myself
Luann Hiebert, Providence University College
Great Expectations: Ariel Gordon’s Hump & Reader/Writer Conceptions
Every reader/writer approaches a poem with particular expectations. In this reciprocal relationship, it takes both partners to consummate the text. In the context of Ariel Gordon's poetry collection Hump, my presentation will explore the expectant reader as lover/parent intimately engaged in the labour of text-making.
I enjoyed the Symposium's mix of readings and seminars, keynotes and panel discussions...and when I got too full of talking, which happened after about six hours of symposium-ing, I would decamp to the nearby forest.
So three walks in three days. And a pile of interesting old books from the MWG used book sale. And as much thinking-through of MB fiction, poetry, and non-fiction as I could handle.
Though I wasn't participating in the Symposium, per se, I will admit that I was most looking forward to the Saturday afternoon session entitled Lives of Girls and Women.
That was because it included a paper on Hump, written by U of M Ph D student Luann Hiebert.
On Thursday afternoon, one of the sessions I attended included papers on the work of Patrick Friesen and Dennis Cooley as well as Patrick Friesen and Dennis Cooley. A few of the presenters made noises about how nervous-making this was for them, so I joked over the next few days about how I was going to sit in the very front row and stare at Luann. And cry/protest noisily: "That's not quite right, actually..."
But when it came to Saturday afternoon, me full of Mother's Day dim sum and kid-gifts and tea (best-case scenario, actually...), I kept my eyes on my notebook in front of me and listened.
I couldn't quite bring myself to look up. Which isn't to say that it was bad or that I was nervous, but that I wanted both Luann and I to have some room in that moment.
I thought I was being very subtle in my making-space, but writer/prof Aretha Van Herk later commented that she was sitting behind me during the session and that I visibly twitched at various points.
Twitching notwithstanding, it was very interesting to hear snippets of my poems in someone else's mouth, to hear Luann's thoughts on aspects of the poems and of the relationships at work there.
Part of the reason I was so pleased to have her presenting on Hump was that publishing, for me, is about having a conversation with readers and writers and critics.
And her taking Hump on as a subject was another part of that conversation being enacted in front of me. Which was very very nice.
* * *
Session 10: Lives of Girls and Women
Tanis MacDonald, Wilfrid Laurier University
GirlWould: Wiseman, Medved, Hunter, and Still on Growing Up Girl in Winnipeg
Jason Wiens, University of Calgary
In Search of Catherine Wiens: Genealogy, Biography, and the Structure of Frederick Philip Grove’s Over Prairie Trails and In Search of Myself
Luann Hiebert, Providence University College
Great Expectations: Ariel Gordon’s Hump & Reader/Writer Conceptions
Every reader/writer approaches a poem with particular expectations. In this reciprocal relationship, it takes both partners to consummate the text. In the context of Ariel Gordon's poetry collection Hump, my presentation will explore the expectant reader as lover/parent intimately engaged in the labour of text-making.
May 15, 2012
Reading! Tomorrow!
Poet/publishers UNITE!
Peter Midgley Reading & Signing
with Cynara Geissler, Sharon Caseburg & Ariel Gordon
When: Wednesday May 16 2012 7:30 pm
Where: McNally Robinson at Grant Park (1120 Grant Avenue)
Cost: FREE
Please join Winnipeg poets Sharon Caseburg and Ariel Gordon in welcoming Edmonton's Peter Midgley & Vancouver's Cynara Geissler to Winnipeg.
Fittingly, the event will take place in McNally Robinson's travel alcove.
* * *
Do join us, won't you? I'll be reading some new poems...
Peter Midgley Reading & Signingwith Cynara Geissler, Sharon Caseburg & Ariel Gordon
When: Wednesday May 16 2012 7:30 pm
Where: McNally Robinson at Grant Park (1120 Grant Avenue)
Cost: FREE
Please join Winnipeg poets Sharon Caseburg and Ariel Gordon in welcoming Edmonton's Peter Midgley & Vancouver's Cynara Geissler to Winnipeg.
Fittingly, the event will take place in McNally Robinson's travel alcove.
* * *
Do join us, won't you? I'll be reading some new poems...
May 6, 2012
Afterburn
All photos Assiniboine Forest, Winnipeg, MB. May 5, 2012.
