The Persnickety Reader

Brenda Schmidt has just commented about the three versions of my poem “The Turtle” on her blog . I never really thought anyone would notice, let alone think it would be a neat idea to compare them, so her words mean a lot.

(photo borrowed from Wikipedia)

And that makes me think of the revision process and how most famously W. B. Yeats continuously fiddled with his poems. One of my poems that has undergone even more extensive revisions than “Turtle” is “Cubist View of the Saint John River.” (And for those who don’t have a copy of Arc 54, where it first appeared, you can find it online here.) In the very first draft, even before publication in Arc, I remember really trying to get what it sounded like, as well as trying to reproduce the shapes of ice (I tried organizing the lines in vaguely triangular shapes).

Al Purdy said something along the lines once about how poems are never completed, only abandoned. But there is a cautionary note about revisions. In one of her letters home, Sylvia Plath claimed that “a poem is a rare little watch: alter the delicate juxtaposition of cogs, and it may not tick” (Letters Home 171).

…courtesy of Owen Percy at The Goose. It’s a very nice, positive review. You can access the review by clicking on the name in the table of contents.

Next weekend in Regina! Vertigo Reading Series.

April 26, 2009
Aegean Coast Coffee & Tea
1901 Hamilton St
Regina, SK S4P 2C7
7-9pm

First, here’s the most recent take on my book at Prairie Fire Review of Books. Thanks to my publisher Jackie for calling my attention to it.

And a review I did of Noble Gas, Penny Black by David O’Meara is up at poetryreviews.ca, which has a snazzy new look.

Happy reading!

I’m currently reading Grass, Sky, Song by Trevor Harriet. It’s proving to be excellent so far.

Ian

I’m currently at St. Peter’s Abbey in Muenster, Saskatchewan in the middle of a two-week retreat, most of which I’ve spent with a nasty cold. But now that I am feeling better, I’m looking forward to walking outside again and feeding the chickadees and nuthatches that the monks have trained to land in your hand. (And getting some writing done!)

I haven’t had a chance to post the first review of Terminal Moraine. It appeared in The Star Phoenix on January 24th. Enjoy!

Came across this review yesterday for Defining Range. Nice to finally see a review of my work, and I’m glad it was postive and not just a fluff piece.

NOTE – you’ll have to go about half way down the document, as I do not know how to directly link you there…

Just read about the shocking amount of plastic swirling around the centre of our oceans.

Click here for an article.
Click here for a video.

Looks like from this day forward I will use canvas shopping bags for groceries and buy everyone some for Christmas. Let’s call it my new crusade.

…the University of Oxford has just launched The First World War Poetry Digital Archive. This historical period has always fascinated me. In grad school, I studied the literature of the period, and some of it — Wilfred Owen’s poems, Frederic Manning’s novel Middle Parts of Fortune — I return to often. Some of the most powerful writing emerged from that period.

WW1 Gravestones, The Somme – Image © Oxford University

I had a look around the archive, and I was impressed. I urge you to do the same.

Below is a picture of Sherry and Wyatt, dressed up in their home-made costumes.

Here’s a photo of Sherry receiving her medallion and cheque from His Honour, The Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Norman Kwong, at the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Emerging Artist Awards today in Edmonton.