electronic graffito, the poetry poster, Vol. 3, Issue 3; "The Peter Fox Shoe Salesman"

Howlings from the Wall

Walking Papers , by Natalie Hanna, Published by Chapbooks, c/o N. Hannah, 114 Woodridge Crescent, Unit 11, Nepean, Ontario, K2B 7S9, pp. 24, price $4.

This is Ms. Hanna’s second chapbook, and, if you are into collecting books, this one is a treasure. It can only increase in value as this poet grows into the sure sense these few lines declare of herself and of her work. The chapbook is black and white beautiful with the author’s own ink drawings, the pages bound with black satin ribbon. It speaks of presentation and persona, and Natalie Hanna has a flair for both. In a recent reading at TREE, her own black and white beauty, and the natural drama she applies to clothes and body, kept Irene’s Pub tightly focused on her presence and her poetry. She earned a hearty round of applause, and an audience that wanted more.

Walking Papers is divided into five chapters which are fully explained on the back of the book, an explanation that does not quite engage my brain. In spite of the uncommon intelligence of her précis, it is hard for me to dilute the immediacy of her poetry with the academic intricacies of her book’s literary structure, especially in so short a publication. Hanna’s poems stand on their own ebullience, and soaring with them into ancient Egypt and current Canada is great fun. Technically, there is a problem with the text of this chapbook. Although the font is beautiful to look at, it is not easily readable because the delicate horizontals of the ‘e’ and ‘t’ are not visible. This could be fixed by increasing the font size should there be a subsequent printing.

Hanna uses her woman’s observations to immerse us into myth, goddesses and gods, reminding us that these 20th and 21st century bodies of ours behave much as they did when Bast, Egyptian cat goddess, was sacred in her nine lives, the Muses. She gives us some strong women. In ‘one moment, please’ we wait with her muse while she pauses, prepares, “to wash & clean / & i will build a home again” inside her womb, her “…fundamental function” to be a woman responsible for making life, a goddess.

The lingering sense of this small collection, is one of obsession with being female within a world largely defined in male terms and male fantasies. Hanna is never far away from being or railing against the ‘woman’ of Vogue or Good Housekeeping:

the statue of venus on the countertop
born of otherness on an oyster shell
the original aphrodisiac, arms outstretched
for want of a man to fill them
the most beautiful thing that ever lived

(from ‘counter venus’)

~~~

& in the oven, the hot kitchen womb
where the bread grows wide & hard
…
waiting, watching dough evolve from its infancy
& later she will share…
everyone loves the pastry triumph
but to her it still tastes like bile

(from ‘wrath of the kitchen goddess’)

Natalie Hannah tackles the spicy breadth of being a woman in 1997, as a feminist writer with intelligence, wit and trust in her own beauty. Her enthusiasm is bound to finely tune both her poetry and her grace as she matures into the woman she tells us of.

allison comeau

I’m pleased to introduce allison comeau, to whom I’ve passed on the role of Guest Editor. Most Ottawa readers will be familiar with allison’s deep love of poetry, her commitment to the local literary scene and her emotionally resonant, exquisitely crafted poetry. As you may know from her reviews in previous GRAFFITOs, allison is a discriminating reader and will, I am sure, make a fine editor for the next three issues.

Stephanie Bolster

allison comeau's Bio:

There wasn’t much before, but after being a little girl for a while, she got married and had a bunch of children. Now that they are almost all grown up, she, too, has decided to become an adult. Poetry appeals to her because it is the purest form of the drug (and not because it gets her dates, which, after all, are reasonably priced at most grocery stores.) She co-hosts Sasquatch, a poetry reading series in Ottawa, publishes YOU & I, a quarterly newsletter at Orléans United Church, and writes the odd book review. She thinks men who appreciate chubby thighs are sexy, even though most of them are dead. Apparently.

We are coming to one of those periods of change. It was a matter of time before the cuts to the University affected graffito and now they have. The provider of the wonderful colour paper, Student Life Services no longer has the funding to do so. They are willing to continue providing support, except now graffito will be published on white paper until such time as I come up with another sponsor to cover the costs of more colour paper. Another change will be the relocation of electronic graffito to a new server. Unfortunately cyberperk is no longer. Our new URL will be http://www.webapps.com/graffito/. This should take effect in the next few weeks. Also effective immediately the e-mail address is graffito@uottawa.ca, only a slight difference, but necessary. I hope this doesn't inconvenience too many people. Thanks for your support.

I would also like to put in my personal plug for the BEST CAFÉ in Ottawa, so go out and try The Steaming Bean, 135 Besserer Street @ Dalhousie. This is a place with identity and warmth, which place puts all cafés big and small too shame. Here is a nook where you are surrounded by colours of the owner Mike, and Guy and their artist friends who together created a place to just come and........be. Within these walls you are surrounded by orginal paintings and whimsical works of art. Do yourself a favour go, sit and drink a cup of whatever with a friend. I guarantee you will come back.

b stephen harding

Have you seen the writing on the wall