April is National Poetry Month

In both Canada and the United States, April is National Poetry Month, with official events scheduled all over North America.

In the United States, a good starting point is Poets.org where the month-long event is explained and where all sorts of poetry related material is collected:

Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month is now held every April, when publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools and poets around the country band together to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations participate through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other events.

In Canada, start with the Web site of the League of Canadian Poets where festivities are underway for the 12th annual event. This year, there’s a strong environmental tie-in. Since Earth Day also takes place in April, this seems like a natural link.

As a society we continue to change: politically, ecologically, culturally and economically. Poet and NPM participators across Canada will be exploring these topics through readings and events: how changing climates affect you, your community and the larger communities of Canada... and the world. Each day becomes a defining moment in our history. Do Climate Changes inspire you to write, to express your passion and compassion? Does change necessarily mean progress?

As well as thoughtful rhetoric, the site includes links to national events, contests and other poetry related material.

If Canadian poetry is what does it for you, definitely take a gander at Canadian Poetry 1920-1960 (New Canadian Library/M&S), a fantastic collection of the very best of Canadian poetry during the stated period and including 250 poems by 44 poets from all regions of the country. Writes editor Brian Trehearne:

The poets in this anthology ... considered it one of their primary obligations to modernize Canadian writing, to bring the country's poetry out of late Romantic stasis after the Great War into a fertile and combative response to the .... modern era.

Clearly, then, Canadian Poetry is not a book meant for armchair dreaming, but is a serious study of the animal under discussion. Don’t let that put you off. Fortunately, it takes more than examination from the ivory tower to dampen the verve found in this collection of voices. P.K. Page, Earle Birney, Irving Layton, Dorothy Livesay, so many more. Editor Brian Trehearne is a Professor in the Department of English at McGill University and he really knows his poetry, but he’s sometimes a bit of a buzz kill. Unless you love the smell of academia in the morning, don’t read the editor’s preface or afterword before you’ve engaged deeply in this river.

Poet P.K. Page Dies at 93

The Canadian literary community is saddened today by news that one of the country’s best-loved poets has died. From CBC News:

Canadian literary grand dame P.K. Page, long renowned for her poetry and other writing, has died at the age of 93.

Page died early Thursday morning at her home in Victoria, CBC News has confirmed.

A companion of the Order of Canada, the British-born, Canadian-reared Patricia Kathleen Page was considered among Canada's most esteemed writers.

January Magazine most recently discussed Page’s work last year when contributing editor Monica Stark reviewed Page’s children’s chapbook, The Old Woman and the Hen (Porcupine’s Quill). “It’s a tiny, special, lovely little book,” Stark wrote, “clearly intended to be cherished.”

Page’s official Web site is here. Wikipedia includes extensive information on her here. The portrait of Page at left was done in 1947 by the painter, graphic artist and film producer Alma Duncan (1917–2004). It is held by Library and Archives Canada and can be seen online here.

Holiday Gift Guide: Poems for the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names by Soraya Peerbaye

The thing that first attracted me to Soraya Peerbaye’s debut collection was its title. Let’s face it: Poems for the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (Gooselane Editions) is, on the surface of things, such an odd thng to call a collection of poetry, it’s almost ludicrous. As much as I might have wished to walk away from the slender volume, I couldn’t. The name held me fast.

As it turns out, the title comes from the book’s fourth section, the part that deals with a trip Peerbaye took to the Antarctic Peninsula. “Horizon pulls: a trick knot. The seal undoes itself.”

As much as the crazy title might have been the thing that initially drew me, Peerbaye’s writing convinced me in a moment. I offer the opening stanza of “Zistoire,” the first poem in the collection, by way of example:

I’ve learned that the story comes from the invitation to come in. The embrace, his cheek against mine, the stubbled feel of a sun-hollowed sea urchin. He leaves his shoes at the door, hangs hit coat on the banister; I put on the kettle. The story comes from the invitation to come in.

Though the poems that make up the collection are quite different in style and meter and substance, Peerbaye’s writing is consistently muscular and ephemeral, two adjectives that would seem not to belong together in the same sentence yet, somehow, with this writer’s work, it does. As I said, this is a debut, and it’s wonderful. I can’t even imagine what comes next.

Happy Birthday to Ezra

Ezra Pound was born on this day in 1885. From Writer’s Almanac:

Pound was born within a few years of James Joyce, William Carlos Williams, D.H. Lawrence, Marianne Moore, Hilda Doolittle, and T.S. Eliot, and he was instrumental in promoting the careers of each one of these writers -- as well as many, many others. He was a champion of modern poetry and prose; Richard Ellmann and Robert O'Clair proclaimed that it was Ezra Pound “more than anyone who made poets write modern verse, editors publish it, and readers read it.” He was extraordinarily generous with his clout, often described as “the poet's poet.” Pound’s mantra was “Make it new.”

Pound died in Venice, two days after his 87th birthday. His legacy survives.

Canada’s “Melancholy bard” at 75

Last year the CBC described him as “Poet, musician, novelist, ladies' man, monk, actor.” Whatever you call him, though, it’s hard to believe that “Canada’s melancholy bard,” Leonard Cohen, will turn 75 later this month. It’s less difficult to understand that he won’t do it alone and it will all be done with great style.

Cohen will issue in his 75th year in his home town of Montreal at a birthday gala and silent auction. The event will be held on Monday, September 21st in the Atwater Library Auditorium, 1200 Atwater Avenue in Westmount/Montreal. Special guests will include David Seaman, Erica Ruth Kelly, Paris Elizabeth Sea, Michael Mirolla and other writers and poets. Tickets for the event are $75 and all proceeds will benefit the Leonard Cohen Poet-in-Residence program at Westmount High.

If you can’t wait for your Cohen fix -- or a trip to Montreal is out of the question even though Montréal in September is perfect -- several celebrations are being held across Canada to launch the book, You’re Our Man. In the collection, 75 of the world’s best poets reflect on the poetry of Leonard Cohen. A list of the contributing poets is here.

For more details on both the gala and various launches to be held to celebrate the publication of You’re Our Man, check the Public Poetry’s blog.

Selected Poems by Robert Bringhurst

A new book by Robert Bringhurst is always a noteworthy event. Bringhurst is an author, typographer, translator and award-winning poet and each of his books is a work of art on every level.

It seems to me there is something even more special about Selected Poems (Gaspereau Press), a single volume that brings together selections from several of Bringhurst’s collections including The Beauty of the Weapons and The Calling. It also includes a new series of poems called “The Living.”

The ear of language rests
On the breast of world,
Unable to know and unable to care
Whether it listens inward or outward.

Everything about Selected Poems is extraordinary. The first hint of it is in the plain black cover, no image. The title and the author’s name are printed in silver ink in a plain, serif font. This stark understatement is typical of Bringhurst. And the book’s deceptively simple production speaks volumes for the work itself. Just enough, always. A little less, perhaps, than another might give, but it’s the correct less. The right less. Somehow defining the work by what is not there as much as by what is.

Those who already enjoy Bringhurst’s work will want to add Selected Poems to their collections. And if you’ve never before encountered his sparse, elemental imagery will find this collection a perfect place to start.