In which I tell you the plan for the week in Season 7, then introduce The Admen move on Lhasa by Steve Heighton, read some underlined segments from the chapter In the Suburbs of the Heart and comment on them, insert a sentence from the book’s review and then at the end, recite Island by Gluck as my random connecting poem. Enjoy!

This is a brutal long poem to read with all its many names of rivers. I think I only flubbed once though the pronunciation of the names was dubious at times! Still, one of his finest. And from the Eco Poetry anthology!

Collected in the Ecopoetry anthology. Four parts. Beautiful.

In which I talk about my first official royalty cheque, offer reader responses then after a musical break, read two random passages from Mary Ruefle’s On Fear lecture in Madness, Rack and Honey and finish by reciting Murmuration by Frances Boyle. Enjoy!

Bits about her self (1956-2001), fragments from a review of her last book and a reading of The Sparrow Drawer from Radiant Life Forms (1990). Thanks Diana!

An earlier poem in the Ecopoetry anthology (Fisher-Wirth and Street, Trinity Press, 2013) and a beautiful reminder of the moose I saw on New Years Day, as I returned from Fort St John.

It’s Jan 2nd and I have thoughts! Since I put out my first trade book in 1998 so much has changed in the poetry scene in Canada. I talk about reading venues, publishing in presses and mags, the MFA glut, supporting poetry through sales/PLR and grants, ageism, boxes, the biz and the continued joys of reading and writing. Enjoy?!?!

In ten parts. Some tongue-twisters in here but her work endlessly fascinated. From Saskatchewan but this book was published in 2021 by New Directions on New York. She’s too wild for Canada ;)

Her poem is about a vanished toad. Which we, poets, must not become by yielding to the robots. Contains reactions by Katherine Autio, Katherine Bitney, Chika Buston and Karen Moe with AI input from Michael Bendner and quotes from Krista Tippet and unknown on art as vocation not work. Also includes a cat fight!!

From her small beautiful collection Orchid Heart Elegies, out this year from McGill-Queens. I love reciting long poems. It’s a challenge and meditative too. And elegies are the highest form of poems. Enjoy :)