BOXING DAY COLOURS
Three black pigeons found solace
in the too-warm puddles
They alone had not dreamt of a white Christmas
Did not regret the grim, gray slush
that bequeathed lines of salt to new leather boots
still stiff from packages, now crushed and
stuffed along with blue reindeer wrapping
and rivers of silver ribbon
into bulging green garbage bags
at the curb
of a new year
On October 15, JC and colleague Blaine Marchand gave a by-invitation, in-person reading from their new poetry collections for friends under the canopy at the most hospitable winery in Prince Edward County, Half Moon Bay Winery.
This event followed Aeolus House’s virtual launch of JC’s book of centos, BRICOLAGE, and Blaine’s BECOMING HISTORY on Thursday, September 23 before some 100 viewers.
“It’s a real pleasure to read aloud in front of people whose reactions are immediate and true rather than confined to the small screen,” JC observed.
On each occasion, JC read more than a dozen poems, including one cento that reuses lines from various poems in BRICOLAGE in memoriam the child victims of residential schools. “I didn’t know what to do” will remain unpublished as a one-time only cento of centos,” JC stated.
BRICOLAGE comes out under JC’s pseudonym, A. Garnett Weiss, adopted to give her distance from her lyric or narrative work.
JC admitted that gathering her centos into a volume proved challenging but also brought joy. She thanked poets Olive Senior, Keith Garebian and Gregory Betts for providing the fine comments which appear on the book’s back cover. She also acknowledged how grateful she is to fine artist Diana Gubbay for allowing her stunning “Cathedral Forest” collage to grace the book’s front cover. Here’s a link to Ms. Gubbay’s website: https://www.dianagubbay.com
“I thank Allan Briesmaster for publishing BRICOLAGE. It was an honour to share the programs with Blaine Marchand.”
To order BRICOLAGE for $18 plus shipping and handling, please email bricolage.weiss@gmail.com.
Copies of the book also can be purchased from Books & Company in Picton, Ontario, or from Octopus Books in Ottawa, Ontario .
Here’s the link to JC’s poem, “How to find your voice,” in the current series offered by California-based Silver Birch Press (SBP).
https://silverbirchpress.wordpress.com/2021/03/31/how-to-find-your-voice-by-jc-sulzenko-how-to-series/
“I took a quasi prose poem approach in this topic,” JC explained. “I love singing and had confidence in my strong voice and ability to sing on key. It came as a nasty surprise when I heard a melody in my head but couldn’t get the song out.
“This SBP series offered me the ideal opportunity to look at why and how I had come to this tuneless place. And to share how I dealt with it.
“Joining an online chapter of the choir Shout Sister gives me the chance to rediscover what I had mislaid. Even when we can return to in person practices, I hope virtual, weekly sessions will continue. I’m loving every moment.
“Thank you, SBP Editor Melanie Villines for featuring “How to find your voice” in this eclectic series and for selecting the beautiful Mary Cassatt portrait to accompany its publication.”
BOXING DAY COLOURS
Three black pigeons found solace
in the too-warm puddles
They alone had not dreamt of a white Christmas
Did not regret the grim, gray slush
that bequeathed lines of salt to new leather boots
still stiff from packages, now crushed and
stuffed along with blue reindeer wrapping
and rivers of silver ribbon
into bulging green garbage bags
at the curb
of a new year
COUNTING
First the children, immune to this assault,
their coughs and sneezes innocent for now.
Then their parents, our children —
not in the crosshairs, but still…
These tykes, their dads & moms feel well,
grateful for no symptoms, yet wide-aware
every breath’s a timebomb tick
if they’re carriers.
We, the elders/the old, keep distant, weave
sorry days around, away from those we love.
Cloistered, anxious, tethered to a hope for health,
we hold no expectation of normal.
JC is delighted that the poems she submitted to the 2019 Writers-Editor’s Network WrEN Award for Poetry took first place in the poetry for children category.
JC had put forward 5 poems from her suite, “Pelican Circus,” also the lead poem. The other titles were: “The Pelican and the pirate”, “In the Everglades”, “Signs and Wonders “, and “The Rescue.”
Here is a the link to the announcement: https://www.writers-editors.com/Writers/Contests/Winners/winners.htm .
The reason for the award? “Strong observation, skilful use of description and environmental awareness mark these poems.”
In addition to the comments posted there, Judge Mary Harwell Sayler wrote JC a letter in which she noted the following: “I appreciate your introducing a sense of story… Poems often excel when they help readers to ‘be there’, which your poetry certainly does.”
She added, “This type of writing will surely help young people to care about nature, and, hopefully, become actively involved in positive ways throughout their lives.”
JC thanks Judge Harwell Sayler and the Writers-Editors Network for honouring her work with this prize .
“Now all I need is a publisher to come forward so that children and families can enjoy the whole suite of poems which follows a child from the North country on his first visit to the south in winter.”
JC is very pleased that her cento “Sacred place where each thing speaks itself” won first place in the inaugural Wind and Water Writing Contest convened by the Prince Edward County Arts Council. She writes found poetry and centos using the pseudonym A. Garnett Weiss.
This is how the Arts Council website describes the Jury’s rationale for selecting “Sacred place where each thing speaks itself”:
“The winner was chosen from dozens of entries in a wide variety of genres, yet Sulzenko’s piece stood out for eloquent use of imagery, a clear and confident voice, and unique line breaks that made for a stunning and powerful read. Sulzenko’s creativity perfectly captured our theme of Exploring, creating an image that speaks to anyone familiar with the County and nature itself. JC Sulzenko has published poetry widely, in national and local award and has published in many other literary magazines.”
JC thanks jury members playwright Marianne Ackerman, publisher Leigh Nash of Invisible Publishing, and writer Sarah Selecky for choosing her work and local author Kelly Thompson for short-listing the poem.
Here is the link to the Council’s site, where the cento is posted:
https://countyarts.ca/wind-water-writing-contest/
JC Sulzenko welcomes “For the Birds,” the 46-page collection of winning poems in the Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory’s first contest, complemented by full-colour images taken by local photographers.
Published online (www.peptbo.ca) by the Observatory (PEPtBO) on January 15, the words of 17 poets and photos by Ian Dickinson and Hélène Tremblay offer a unique celebration of bird life in the County. Poems by Brian L. Flack and Walter H. Watt took the top prize in PEPtBO’s first poetry contest.
“We held this contest and are publishing this beautiful chapbook online to keep a focus through the winter on the importance of bird migration and habitat to Prince Edward County, “ PEPtBO President Peter Fuller explained.
JC judged the entries and edited the chapbook. “”For the Birds” features poems about songbirds and raptors, waterfowl and scavengers which honour the wonders of nature in the County in a unique way,” she added.
“I thank PEPtBO for this opportunity and appreciate, in particular, how Borys Holowacz’s elegant layout and Peter Fuller’s webmastery contributed to making this fine collection a reality.”
PEPtBO will hold an award ceremony and public reading from “For the Birds” in conjunction with programming during the Spring migration period.
[PEPtBO, a registered charity, has the mandate to monitor and report on bird migration along the South Shore of Prince Edward County. The organization’s volunteers also act as official caretakers of the South Shore Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) through which millions of birds and thousands of Monarch butterflies migrate.]
JC led an interactive discussion of why, when and how she writes award-winning poetry under her own name or using a pseudonym.
She read from her collection, South Shore Suite…Poems, which Point Petre publishing in Prince Edward County published in late 2017 (pointpetrepublishing.ca) and gave an overview of her experimental writing and experience in judging poetry contests and in editing.
She also responded to questions about her use of the pseudonym A. Garnett Weiss and about the challenges of writing for children. Participants used the occasion to pour over her books and even to purchase copies.
JC thanks Abbotsford House for the opportunity to speak to its members.
Ontario poets joined together to celebrate the legacy of Canada’s Confederation Poets on Sunday, October 14 at the Old Ottawa South Community Centre for the Poets’ Pathway awards in response to the 2018 Lampman Challenge. Each winning poem related in some way to Ottawa and to Archibald Lampman’s sonnet,”Winter Uplands,” written in 1899. Poets’ Pathway Press released the chapbook of winning poems at the event.
The Poets’ Pathway honours Ottawa’s 19th Century poets on the land that inspired them. Copies of the chapbook are available through the Poets’ Pathway (poetspathway.ca) for $10 each.
JC’s found poem, “Winter@Uplands,” sourced from Lampman’s sonnet and submitted under her pseudonym (A. Garnett Weiss), received Honourable Mention in the competition.
Poets’ Pathway committee members Jane Moore, Ben Glossop and Carolyn Malchy organized a full and satisfying afternoon which began with the presentation of awards. Participating poets read their work, and Ronnie R. Brown hosted an open mic session.
Music by Ben Glossop and by Noah Landers provided moments for reflection. Excellent nibbles created by Carolyn Best spiced up the proceedings.
Contest judge and chapbook editor JC Sulzenko welcomed many fine entries from Prince Edward County poets and visitors. She is in the process of selecting poems for the collection and in contacting the poets who submitted their work. “We received poems of such quality. I look very forward to seeing them in print.”
PEPtBO monitors and reports on bird migration along the County’s unique South Shore and acts as official caretaker of the IBA (Important Bird and Biodiversity Area.)
In January, PEPtBO plans to publish For the Birds, a chapbook of winning poems with photographs taken by local enthusiasts, on its website and to celebrate the chapbook launch with a prize for the top poem. The winner will be announced upon publication of the virtual chapbook.
JC explains.”It’s a great way to ring in the winter of 2019 by focusing on birds and nature with poems rooted in the County.” For questions about the contest, write to: info@peptbo.ca.
JC welcomed the September 21 launch of the Alzheimer Society of Prince Edward Island’s awareness campaign that features her book What My Grandma Means to Say and materials related to it, including the one-act play from which the book is derived. This website features a video performance of the play, as well as a PDF of the Discussion Guide which can be downloaded for free.
This is the third year the Society has used JC’s story for elementary school-aged children and their families in its educational outreach programs. Here’s the link to local media coverage at the start of the new school year: http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/news/local/pei-campaign-aims-to-empower-individuals-and-family-members-of-alzheimers-243712/
JC explains: “I wrote the story and the play to encourage discussion among children and their families about dementia when it affects someone dear to them.
“So often, adults find it hard to include kids in conversations about health issues. The story and the play enable the openness so important to children who otherwise may feel left out in the cold. Reading it gives children the chance to learn more about dementia and to develop their own strategies for coping with changes that affect their relationship with someone living with such diseases and conditions.
“I wish success to the Alzheimer Society of PEI’s campaign in schools in 2018-2019 and am very happy that What My Grandma Means to Say plays a part in it.”
Photo credit: Ramesh Pooran
JC is delighted her poetry plays a part in the Prince Edward County (PEC) Studio Tour’s 25th Anniversary year celebration. The Tour takes place in September throughout the County.
At the art show and book launch on Friday July 13 at Bloomfield’s Town Hall, JC read aloud her two poems which evolved from artwork by members of the Studio Tour. “Lens,” based on Richard Leach’s mixed media-gliclee print, “The Space Between,” and “Where Chagall met Gaugin and Dali,” arising from Holly Sedgwick’s acrylic “Sun Dance,” appear in the commemorative book published to mark this unique ekphrastic collaboration between County artists and writers.
Coverage of the event is featured at http://www.countylive.ca/art-meets-the-written-word-in-county-collaborative/
Another chance to see this work followed on the weekend of August 11-12 at Wellington’s Town Hall.
Photo credit: Ramesh. JC
“This is my second opportunity to write poems that evolve from artwork by County artists. I was honoured to co-curate Ekphrasis at Blizzmax Gallery in 2016 and truly welcome such creative synergies in my writing life. Patrons will be able to purchase copies of the book with reproductions of each piece of art in the show and read for themselves how county poets and writers responded in ways which complement/compliment them,” JC explained. “The cost of the book with full-colour reproductions is $20 and makes a fine souvenir of the County.”
Here’s the link for further information on the exhibition and book: https://pecstudiotour.com/whats-on/
“Where, watching life through windows” appeared online in this April offering from the League of Canadian Poets. The cento originally appeared in Oratorealis in 2017 and draws lines unaltered from poems by George Barker, Louis MacNeice, Dylan Thomas,David Gascoyne, Ronal Bottrall, Edith Sitwell, Cecil Day Lewis, Ezra Pound, William Epsom, and Stephen Spender.
Here is the link to paste in your browser to access the post:
http://poets.ca/2018/04/17/npm18-fresh-voices-norma-kerby-martha-swinn-a-garnett-weiss/
Using the pseudonym A. Garnett Weiss for found poetry and centos gives JC Sulzenko the distance she needs to distinguish such experimental forms from the narrative and lyrical poems she writes using her own name.
JC was delighted by the lively discussion that included a romp through selections of poems from Rupi Kaur’s two, best-seller collections of poems.
JC read from her first, full poetry collection, South Shore Suite…POEMS, which came out in November (www.pointpetrepublishing.ca) and touched on aspects of her writing life from works for children to self-publishing, from writing collaboratively to assuming a pseudonym.
When asked about writing collaboratively, JC revealed “it’s 85% pleasure, 15% pain.”
She has been working together with Carleton Place poet Carol A. Stephen for about 5 years. They have published two chapbooks, Breathing Mutable Air and Slant of Light, the latter all poems inspired by works of art.
“Carol and I are finalizing the manuscript of a full collection of ekphrastic poems to send out to publishers.” The works from which these poems depart include sculpture, multimedia, textile and visual art.
review by Deborah Tunney
J.C. Sulzenko tells us in the introduction to her soulful and varied poetry collection, South Shore Suite … POEMS, that the inspiration to gather her poems together from the past four decades was Canada’s sesquicentennial celebration. These poems not only celebrate this Canadian milestone but also one Canadian woman’s life, her appreciation of nature, her empathetic recording of other lives and her awareness of time’s passing.
To do this, she divides the collection into four segments, the first and second being a meditation on the role of nature in a life spent in observation and appreciation, the third illustrates her keen observation of character in a segment appropriately entitled “Cameo Appearances,” and in the fourth she looks at aspects of time, creating a sense of closure for the collection as a whole.
Sulzenko sees in nature and in particular the landscape of Prince Edward County, the symmetry and wide, overarching beauty that defines and limits our lives. Many of her poems are inspired by the quiet certainty of haiku, by its ability to slow life to an image that points to the miraculous and capture the frozen essence of a moment. Her touch here is gentle and fine, and perfect for the intent of poem:
it’s alright, okay
to become much like the sand:
water-weary, sun-bleached
reduced to grains that glimmer
as waves advance and waves withdraw.
One of the longer poems of the first section gives us the demise of a man in the very nature that the poet has glorified. His death stills the beauty – this place where he can “find no wonder” so that by morning he is reduced to “an object to recover with a boat and body bag.” The language here shifts from the wonder of nature to the blunt and painful reality of death, and it is this shift that stops readers and makes them, with a renewed reverence, appreciate the encompassment of nature, holding both life and death.
Although the poet’s approach in “Cameo Appearances” is to give us unique personalities, the underlying questions and concerns are the same as in the rest of the collection: the meaning, appreciation and mystery of life. Listen to the economy of this poem as it paints with quick, deft strokes a portrait of a doctor:
Morning
Coat off, computer on, patients
questions, examination, diagnosis, injections
Afternoon
Prescription, referrals, reports
No excuse if she runs late
These are the moments that occupy a life, give it its shape and resonance. In the poem “Light on Bay,” Sulzenko gives us an empty lighthouse, bereft of keepers, as a soulless entity: “those lighthouses, empty now, still shine/a safe course for ships, but without a soul”. This poem is an exploration of the family that lived there, of the era that allowed that life choice and both are strikingly eulogized in the calm sadness captured by those closing words.
One of the most poignant poems in the last section chronicles the loss, through euthanasia, of a beloved pet. It describes in almost clinical terms what the vet must do, but ends with the human need for comfort. “He returns to the living room/Places his hand on the spot/where she died/Still warm.” It is here that Sulzenko is at her strongest. She leads us with fine, careful but stripped-down language to a place where we must contemplate the savage, uncompromising emptiness that remains.
The poems in the first section and half of the second are not titled or numbered and the resulting sense of flow and inclusion will either make the reader feel the unity of the work or be annoyed by its formlessness. I found it on first reading a bit disorienting, a feeling that lessened with each reading as I came to appreciate how each poem leads to the next and leans on its neighbouring poem for increased poignancy. However, a small quibble with the book production: the font was a sans serif, which I did not enjoy, and the kerning for certain words seemed clumsy.
This is a collection that rewards the reader with its careful, precise and often-beautiful rendition of those elements in life that enclose us: nature, other people and the progress of time. As she writes: “when it falls to death, the line between/what’s real and what you hope for/breaks you.”
As readers we thank Sulzenko for honouring Canada’s 150th by gathering her poems into this enlightening collection and for her clear-sighted vision of our human condition.
Deborah-Anne Tunney is a former communication officer and a writer of both prose and poetry whose work has appeared in many literary journals.
South Shore Suite … POEMS,
by JC Sulzenko
Point Petre Publishing, 2017 (Milford, Ontario)
Available at Octopus Books (116 Third Ave.), Singing Pebble Books (206 Main St), Books on Beechwood (35 Beechwood), Perfect Books (258 Elgin), from the publisher and www.jcsulzenko.com.
“I was very pleased to assist the Observatory (PEPtBO) in bringing out this second annual booklet, which highlights events around and about the County’s South Shore that celebrate its unique habitats, flora and fauna, and history,” JC noted. (She serves on PEPtBO’s Board.)
This is the second year JC worked on the project, which lists some 24 events ranging from bird walks, excursions and tours to a 100 km. bicycle ride, from fish fries to graveyard walks, from fishing derbies to fossil hunts.
“Nature Matters!” has been published online at www.peptbo.ca. 7000 hard copies of the glossy book will be available throughout the County starting in April.
The booklet also launched a poetry contest for a chapbook PEPtBO will publish on its website.”For the Birds” invites poets aged 9-16 and adult poets living in or visiting the County to send in poems that relate in some way to birds native to the County or migrating through it. Specific information on the contest appears in “Nature Matters!” on line and in print.
(PEPtBO is a not-for-profit, registered charity with a focus on monitoring and providing information on populations of migrating birds at since Edward Point National Wildlife Area during spring and fall. PEPtBO acts as official caretaker for the Prince Edward County South Shore Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA), designated as globally significant and comprised of over 40 kilometres of Lake Ontario shoreline and 90 square kilometres of land and water habitats.)
BC-based Oratorealis, which focuses on spoken word and experimental poetry in a triannual literary journal, published two centos by A. Garnett Weiss in Volume 2/Issue 2, which came out at the end of the summer.
“Reflection, stained glass” welcomes lines from poets such as Toi Derricotti, Beckian Fritz Goldberg, Brenda Hillman and Alicia Suskin Ostriker. “Where, watching life through windows”* takes its words from poems by some of the greats of the 20th century, including Dylan Thomas, Ezra Pound and Stephen Spender.
Weiss finds great joy in creating centos. “Living with the poems I read until individual lines or partial lines dictate the way a new work, original in form and meaning, evolves is an exciting and humbling process. Each piece both pays homage to and honours the poems from which the lines have been selected. There such such energy inherent in crafting poems in the cento form.”
*The title of this poem regrettably was misprinted in Oratorealis.
JC gives this 2006 novel by prolific master of the ‘dark’ Swedish tale, Henning Mankell, 7/5/10 even though she couldn’t put the book down. Why? Go to Bookends to read her mini-review.
“I just can’t resist the challenge: writing to a subject not of my choosing, suggested by someone whom I didn’t know beforehand, for the most part, to mark a birthday, an anniversary, a special event or person, or in memoriam,” JC admits. “I’ve now launched “BESPOKE POETRY” to give me the chance to create new poems this way.”
JC began her love affair with poetry written on demand many summers ago at what was then known as “Art in the park,” a showcase for artists, crafts people and assorted others in her neighbourhood.
Wearing a lot of sunscreen and with paper pad and pen, she set up a table and offered to write poems for visitors at $2.50 each, the proceeds of which went to a charitable organization. She cannot remember to which one the modest take went that first year.
She attached certain caveats to the process: payment upfront; she held the copyright to the poem; no one could dispute what she had written; she reserved the right to refuse to write on a subject with which she was not comfortable.
Those who dared to test her skills were interviewed briefly about the subject they had chosen, then sent away to wander among the artisans. When they returned, they picked up the poem in a neat scroll. More often than not, they unravelled the poem and read it on the spot. And commented. Almost all very pleased with the result.
Though not a big fundraiser, JC found the experience exhilarating. “I used a number of the poems written at that festival in “Fat poems Tall poems Long poems Small,” my ekphrastic book of poems for families and children to which Ottawa artists contributed interpretative illustrations.” Several other poems found their way into chapbooks.
For a couple of years, JC returned to the venue, adding a tent and chairs to facilitate the interviews and for the sake of privacy. Each year, the price tag went up by a bit. The final year of her participation, the funds raised were donated to a local hospital.
Then she stopped, overtaken by other writing projects including “Boot Crazy” and later by “What My Grandma Means to Say,” her book and play about Alzheimer’s disease.
Now she has taken up poetry on commission again with enthusiasm. The process begins with agreement on a base price for the poem, which can take the form of free verse or rhyme. The ‘buyer’ pays JC upfront. Then, there’s an interview which can take as little as 10 minutes over the phone or up to an hour face-to-face, where that’s convenient to the parties.
JC considers carefully what she has learned about the subject and writes the poem within the timeframe agreed to in the discussions. The length of the poem can vary depending the subject matter. Once she’s satisfied, she shares the poem and asks for comments as to accuracy only. If there are any factual inaccuracies, she corrects them and then provides a final text.
She asks that the poem not be published without her prior permission and then only with clear acknowledgment as to her authorship.
“I have written about a granddaughter’s graduation from high school on her birthday, the death of a child, a dog who dreams. It’s such an adventure, never knowing where a new poem will begin or to where it will take me.”
Garnett’s prose poem “When Johnny came marching” appears online in the newest series from Silver Birch Press (SBP) in California.
This is how Garnett described her creative process: “I’m always intrigued by subjects Silver Birch Press suggests for a series. I read the cue, then waken as though from a dream to revisit experiences I hadn’t thought of in many, many years. The title for “When Johnny came marching,” comes in part from a war song. The song led me to recapture in prose poem form rather than in free verse circumstances and details around the disappearance of my favourite doll when I was five years-old and to situate that doll in my life today. I am grateful for the prompt.”
The photo, which complements this poem, shows Johnny still in Garnett’s hands and favour.
Here’s the link to Silver Birch Press:
JC has been reading steadily but not caught up on her mini-reviews, which use up to the same number of words as characters for a tweet. Go to “Bookends” to read her review of Prince Edward County author, poet and artist Peter Blendell’s “Jonagold,” published in 2014.
Editor Jenny O’Grady paired Garnett with Maryland artist Gina Pierleoni as co-contributors to the 28th issue of the online journal “The Light Ekphrastic, ” now celebrating its 7th anniversary.
Garnett chose The Deepest Sleep from among the extraordinary works of art on the website featuring Pierleoni’s art– http://ledbaltimore.com/featured-on-the-board/gina-pierleoni/. “Given the range of work Gina exhibited, so much of her art called to me, but the instant I saw The Deepest Sleep, I had to write to it. Surrender is the result,” Garnett noted.
“My poems have appeared before in “The Light Ekphrastic,” and I am grateful to the editor for publishing them in this fine journal. It’s always an adventure when I embark on a new partnership with an artist who will interpret my poetry and whose art will prompt me to write a new poem. I never know what to expect of the artist or of myself. That is the ‘magic’ of the ekphrastic process. That’s why I welcome opportunities to be surprised by each, such collaboration.“
In response to Garnett’s poem For Nathan Cirillo, soldier, Gina created Lamentation, a poignant collage that captures indelibly the relationship between the soldier’s death and an aged mother’s response. Here’s where to find these works: https://thelightekphrastic.com/2016/11/25/november-2016-issue-28/
For the second time, Garnett’s centos took top honours in The Banister, the annual anthology featuring “ an eclectic mix of Ontario voices,” in the words of Poetry Chair Keith Inman.Here’s what award-winning poet and author Keith Garebian, who judged the entries, wrote: ” Never mind the first unicorn is an expert cento—a form that is a level ahead of the found poem as a poetic mode because its inspiration comes from multiple poetic sources. For a good cento, the poet’s mind must never merely wander across quotations. It needs to keep a firm focus on unity of theme, tone and rhythm—which this one does superbly, using surprising images in order to channel the poet’s melancholy reflection.”
“I am most grateful to Keith Garebian for these comments, which align closely with what I set out to accomplish in each cento I compose, “ Garnett noted. “I find joy in this form of poetry, Though considered by some poets and editors as ‘experimental,’ writing centos has become my mainstream.”
Never mind the first unicorn received second prize. Honourable mentions went to We lie down in each other, we lie down alone, and to The only song I know.
Garnett’s cento Nothing is eternal. Not even the trees won the 2013 contest judged by Gregory Betts. He also awarded honourable mentions to Against a guttering candle, written dreams and to Psyche.
When Silver Birch Press (SBP) featured Garnet Weiss’s “After ignorance, blessings” in its Same Name Series, it gave her the chance to mark how as an undergrad she ‘bumped’ into Leonard Cohen at university and how she evolved into a devoted fan. Here is the link:https://silverbirchpress.wordpress.com/2016/01/21/after-ignorance-blessings-poem-by-a-garnett-weiss-same-name-poetry-and-prose-series/
Given his passing yesterday at 82 and having seen a clip from the media conference at the September release of his last CD where he explained he was ready for death but rather would ‘live’ forever (and he will), it feels appropriate to republish that poem in his honour here.
After ignorance, blessings
Without much prompting, I return to that moment fifty years ago,
while we waited together for a book on reserve at college.
The librarian bellowed out my last name.
We both stepped forward, lightly bumping hips.
Shy as a virgin, I felt heat rush to my face
as the man at the desk glared through thick lenses.
“Leonard,” he harrumphed, dismissing me.
Just then, I realized who you were.
So did the other undergrads, the spectator chorus,
who stared as though it was my fault to carry
the same family name.
I bowed my head, rejoined their line.
Even as poems and songs brought you more fame,
I didn’t become a fan, though I recognized
some tunes, knew bits of lyrics from the CDs
my mother listened to every day till she died.
But after you had to come down from the mountain
‘cause someone had stolen away with your wealth,
after you started to tour, that’s when I fell for you.
I saw you perform live a first time, then again, and again,
just to hear you sing of love and loss and longing in that voice,
its low-growl purr seductive as the melodies that play in my mind.
Which is how I’ve come to regret having no kinship with you
either in blood or in the way you make your music turn words
into a benediction.
Go to the Bookends tab for JC’s most recent review of Rupinder Gill’s 2011 memoire, “On the Outside Looking Indian.” She gives it a 6.5/10 rating.
For kids of many generations, Nancy Drew mysteries by Carolyn Keene hooked them on reading. Whenever a new book came out, the local bookstore (and there were several independent! bookstores in my neighbourhood!) would sell out very quickly, as young readers couldn’t wait to follow their favourite sleuth as she unravelled threads of the next puzzle.
Garnett is pleased that Silver Birch Press of California chose her erasure poem “With original mystery” for the anthology, published on October 1. This poem extracts words from titles of Nancy Drew books in the order they appeared on the the page preceding the inside title page of “The Hidden Staircase,” published in 1930 and reprinted in 1995. The poem and the page showing the erasures both appear in the collection.
Copies of the anthology will be available through the publisher and from Amazon.com. The publisher’s price per volume is $15. Here’s the link to Silver Birch Press’s release:
https://silverbirchpress.wordpress.com/2016/10/02/new-release-nancy-drew-anthology/
Garnett’s second poem arising from Nancy Drew sources has been posted under the A. Garnett Weiss tab. “Siren” uses non-contiguous phrases, taken unaltered from”Nancy Drew: The Secret of Mirror Bay,” published in 1972.
JC is thrilled that the Alzheimer Society of Prince Edward Island (ASPEI) chose to anchor its 2016-2017 education program in schools with “What My Grandma Means to Say,” JC’s play and storybook for children and families about Alzheimer’s disease.
With the province’s Department of Education and input from JC, ASPEI developed a resource kit for teachers which puts a copy of the book, plus JC’s Discussion Guide, into every elementary school in the Province. Here’s a link to the CBC’s report:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-alzheimer-students-education-book-1.3773649
“As I wrote in my op. ed. piece published by papers across Canada (go to the Archive table to read the article), I feel it’s essential for kids to be part of the discussion when Alzheimer’s affects someone they know and about whom they care. Understanding what they can and cannot hope for is one way to get at the fears this disease raises,” JC believes.
A number of Alzheimer Societies in Ontario incorporated “What My Grandma Means to Say” into their programming. With the new program launched on September 21, World Alzheimer’s Day, PEI’s Alzheimer Society is the first to take “What My Grandma Means to Say” province-wide.
“I look very forward to whatever feedback comes my way from the use of this story and play in schools. I know that having an open and safe environment to talk about Alzheimer’s can really build awareness and dispel myths, without sugarcoating what people living with the disease face.”
JC responded to the Partners in Flight report in the Globe on the large decline in bird populations with a scathing indictment of governments that site industrial wind turbines in environmentally sensitive areas on bird migration routes and in habitats of endangered species, such as the Blandings turtle. The Editor included a verse from “Spectacle,” for which is she is grateful. The verses first appeared on this site. Here it is:
Dead birds cannot sing,
their melodies lost to winds
that rouse high towers
to our great hades of steel
that churn songs and soft feathers.
Here’s the link to the edition:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/letters/sept-17-whats-policy-got-to-do-with-the-us-election-plus-other-letters-to-the-editor/article31930945/
Silver Birch Press publishes “Splendid terms” for New Year’s Eve
JC Sulzenko is delighted that California-based Silver Birch Press chose her poem as a New Year’s Eve toast in its current series on Thoughts About the Earth/Healing the Earth. Here’s the link to the post:
https://silverbirchpress.wordpress.com/2021/12/31/splendid-terms-by-a-garnett-weiss-thoughts-about-the-earth-series/
Written under JC’s pseudonym, A. Garnett Weiss, the poem draws individual words from death notices and obituary articles which appeared in the April 20, 2017, Toronto GLOBE AND MAIL. The piece is one of a full collection of such five-line poems now in development. “Splendid terms” also featured in the Poetry Leaves 2020 project (Waterford Township Public Library).
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