Howlings from the Wall
we here at graffito would like to take this opportunity to thank all our readers and wish you the best for the holiday season. you may notice that this is our first issue of volume 2. if you're not excited that's okay by me, because i'm happy enough for everybody. we made it through our first year!!! there have been some difficult times, but we're a team and by pulling together, we made it work. my wish for you all is a warm place, a full belly, the drink of your choice, a poem a day, and happiness. don't ya just hate it when people get mushy?
the last word, edited by michael holmes and published by insomniac press is an anthology of fifty-one of canada's up and coming poets. many of these names may not be familar, but others like evelyn lau, stan rogal, kevin connolly, margaret webb, susan helwig, and joe blades are well known to the poetry community in canada. out of all the publishers that i am familiar with, insomniac press produces the books i most like to have. it is the care to detail, and their habit of matching illustrators with writers, which i find appealing. however this use of the visual i found distracting when it came to authors. the authors' names are found in too many places in this book. the back cover; white lettering on a black background which is found hard to read, the table of contents which is normal, and at the top of every page and under the title of every poem. this is just a bit over the top.
In michael holmes' forward i felt a resonance with my own beliefs of what poetry is and should be. the popularization of poetry and the use of the term spoken-word as a catch phrase or tag, that commercial interests are using to sell poetry is shallow and without merit. it in no way describes what a poet writes and it is an attempt to separate the crafting of words from the poet and turn the poet into a performer for the mtv's of the world. to paraphase michael, what lays between the covers of this book works, because of the skill and craftsmanship of authors. the fact that a poet reads well in public is an additional bonus.
having said that i would like to say that i believe that michael and insomniac went too far in trying to bring so many writers between one cover. i don't feel that some of these poets merit inclusion with those of obviously greater talent. this book is too small to try and be so comprehensive and it would have been better if the number of contributors had been smaller (maybe 35-40), then this book would have had more depth, more of each poet to savour.
i would like to point out a few of the poets in this anthology which i found and liked. lynn crosbie provides a warning of the honest beauty of emotion and talent that will be found in the rest of this anthology; sky gilbert's confession number one, is a challenging prose poem; nicole markotic's poetry was very moving and deeply personal; another prose piece was matthew remski's the pipe organ, it's a historical account of a very, very old pipe organ using simple description that on the surface could have some wondering what it was doing in an anthology of poetry, but the finial stanza leave no doubt. it's a damn fine poem; tracy brooks' poems are surely some of the very best in this book, her marking light reminded me of some of alden nowlan's poems written when he had cancer and was near death; sina queyras' lily marlene, finds a young person coming to the understanding of an older person as demonstrated in the last lines of the poem: "i pause as your voice lowers/ and in that moment/ the slow steady circle of your/ sadness becomes me"; and lastly i'd like to mention r.m. vaughan's an infant rhesus monkey left alone will die, a critical look at inhuman acts commited in the name of science; and stan rogal's bugs, snakes and snow a humours account of a few critters, a movie and a few comments on the media and society.
all in all this is one of the best anthologies i've read this year and though i've pointed out a few areas to complain about, they are small compared with what i feel is a canadian book worth buying despite our ridiculously high book prices. i only wish that when i was in high, school and junior high a book of this calibre was included in our english curriculum. this is poetry in which students of any level can find some relevance and understanding and maybe a reflection of themselves.
it is again time to annonce the jane jordan poetry contest, for english language poets of the national capital region. poems must not exceed 100 lines. each poem must be accompanied by a two dollar entry fee. information such as name, address, phone #, and title of the work must be on a separate page. this will be a blind judged event and the judge will be lynn crosbie of toronto. prizes are: first $250.00, second $150.00, and third $100.00. to enter send your poems to: jane jordan poetry contest, 96 rochester street, ottawa ontario K1N 7L8.
b stephen harding
Have you seen the writing on the wall
Managing Editor:
b stephen harding, Editors: Robert Craig & Christal Steck, Consulting
Editor: Seymour Mayne
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