Ongoing notes: the ottawa small press book fair (part two : Ellen Chang-Richardson + Beth Follett,

[see the first part of these notes here]

Ottawa ON: The latest from Ottawa-based poet Ellen Chang-Richardson, following a handful of five prior chapbooks authored orco-authored, including their debut, Unlucky Fours (Anstruther Press,2020) [see my review of such here] and the collaborative holy disorder of being (Gap Riot Press, 2022) [see my review of such here] is concussion, baby (Ottawa ON: Apt. 9 Press, 2023). concussion, baby is a small,sketched assemblage of poems that respond directly to the author’s concussionand aftermath, following a trajectory of poets responding to health crises,whether through works by Pearl Pirie, Elee Kraljii Gardiner’s Trauma Head(Anvil Press, 2018) [see my review of such here], Brian Teare’s The EmptyForm Goes All the Way to Heaven (Ahsahta Press, 2015; Nightboat Books,2022) [see my review of the first edition here] or Christine McNair’sforthcoming non-fiction Toxemia (Book*hug, 2024). These poems are set asmoments, narrative pinpoints and jumbles, as though all the mind could hold atthe time, striking against illness and rippling alongside recovery. “I text mylover, / mumble-jumbles / the same day I / find a house / mouse dead,” theopening poem, “sweet nothings” reads, “at the bottom / of my recycling bin.” Anddid you hear that Chang-Richardson’s full-length debut is out come spring with Wolsak and Wynn?

beauty

[in] the meteor of aperson with too much red in their system
[in] the safety of theshape of someone who sleeps while you are awake
[in] the motes of acarpet  old & dusty & worn
[in] the striations ofstarburst that burns

[in] the cornea as itshrinks.

Ottawa ON/St. John’s NL: The latest from St. John’s, Newfoundland writer Beth Follett is Learning to Crawl (and other poems)(Ottawa ON: Apt. 9 Press, 2023), her second chapbook with Cameron Anstee’s Apt.9 Press, after A Thinking Woman Sleeps With Monsters (2014) [see my review of such here]. It would appear that Follett, amid novel publication (I wouldhighly recommend her second novel, Instructor: A Novel, published byBreakwater Books in 2021; I reviewed it here), she has quietly releasedchapbooks every so often, with another, Bone Hinged (Toronto ON:espresso, 2010) [see my review of such here], released a few years prior tolanding with Apt. 9; might a full-length poetry debut for Follett be on thehorizon at some point? Honestly, there is something quite compelling aboutthese seemingly stand-alone missives quietly put out into the world, and Learningto Crawl (and other poems) is a title that might not have begun as acollection on and around grief, but one that evolved into such, following the death of her partner, Stan Dragland, in 2022. The opening poem, “BETWEEN CUTKNIFE & SWEETGRASS,” sets the tone for the collection in both astraightforward and devastating manner, offering this as the first of the poem’sthree stanzas: “I am a cold, cold teacher. / I don’t even. I don’t have a. /Husband. No he died, you can / tell me till you’re blue in the face. / But afact. It isn’t even. I don’t even. / I don’t have a snack. I’m here, / a coldinstructor on a widow odyssey.” Or, as she writes as part of the poem “I ACHESOMETIMES, FROM LOVING MY DAYS SO MUCH, FROM LOVING”: “I love asking via FannyHowe what are you looking for when you erase a word / because I took out adecorative word and replaced it plainspokenly.” Set on a foundation of profoundloss, Follett’s narrative lyric meditations offer a pause within a moment that accumulateinto a slow lean, one that might evolve into the mid-step before into whatmight follow.

BEFORE A WALK IN WINTER

The sun a pale dot in anerstwhile veil. Never trust it. Have a cookie.
Don’t put on boots whilethe fog horn blows. Know exactly
where and when to putyour foot down. Propulsion. Here’s the dust,
the grime of electricity.Teaser the dove. Soon oh soon genius will rise,
the chartered grant of sleep.You might miss it if you leave the house.
Should nails be filed,those of toes that moon
for the darning of socks?Was that the post? Maybe drink some water,
avoid deep thrombosis proceedingfrom dehydration. Potatoes are sprouting,
ice cream is lost tofreezer burn. Fully naked the doorbell
rings. Fully clad forthis winter walk, nature calls.

Leave oh leave too soonforever gone.