Buoyant blog of septuagenarian Kanadian poet and lifelong haikuist Chris Faiers/cricket. Poetry, esp. People's Poetry in the tradition of Milton Acorn, haiku/haibun, progressive politikal rants, engaged Buddhism and meditation, updates on the revitalizing of Callaghan's Rapids Conservation Area, memories of ZenRiver Gardens retreat near Marmora and annual Purdy Country LitFests (PurdyFests), events literary and politikal, and pics, amid swirling currents of earth magick and shamanism.
ah, TISH & the tishites - before my time on the CanPo scene, & truthfully, I've never had a remote interest in them, but I know my old Canadian Liberation Movement (CLM) comrade Milton Acorn had a hate-on for them - but that's Milt. Heard on CBC radio last week that Fred Wah is 'our' newest nat. poet laureate ... arrggh - he read a boring, rhyming piece - lots of "K' sounds, which are supposed to be funny if I remember an old Seinfeld episode - but he mostly sounded like a dry old stick ...
KATHERINE L. GORDON SHOULD BE OUR NATIONAL POET LAUREATE! She posts timely, inciteful, politikally astute, readable & enjoyable poems on my blog several times a week. But as your piece notes, the tishites are great at that circle-jerking, favour-trading thing akademics love to do, & at which they are unfortunately so often successful : ( arrrgggghh Pretty sure I shared a reading with Fred Wah a quarter century ago at Northern District (head) branch of Toronto Public Library. Ted Plantos & I were the 'local' CanPoets, & Wah and another 'westerner' were the visitors. I invited Wah & the other guy (can't remember his name) out for drinks afterwards, but Ted & I were rebuffed several times, & our invitation was NOT returned.
Did finally meet George Bowering & his wife, Jean Baird, at a fund raiser in Belleville in the fall of 2010 - Jean is the guiding spirit behind restoring the Purdys' A-frame in A-burgh, & George was amiable enuff, even friendly to an old supporter of Uncle Milty. Bowering told me he had published the first treatise on Al Purdy, which, synchronistically (word?) I had been browsing in the 819.1 section of the Belle. Library before our reading. Yeah, I wish more true SHIT would happen on the CanPo scene - readable, humanistic poetry, politikally relevant POEMS (e.g. thanks for reminding me to dig out an old Alden Nowlan collection). peace & poetry power! Chris (Faiers)
Thanks, Chris I agree with every word: TISH is a pampered academic exercise at best, overblown, its importance grossly overexaggerated. The Kootenay School of Writing, its successor, is even worse! I'll have something to say about Kootenay in a later post. Davey, Wah, Bowering are second-rate poets who've had a free (mostly taxpayer-funded) ride for too long on this TISH=SHIT bandwagon. The only poetry in Canada is the People's Poetry whose iconic figures Katherine Gordon, Milt Acorn, Al Purdy, James Deahl, Ray Souster, etc etc deserve some of the top prizes. I'd love to see a national revival of this 'people's poetry' and would sure love to be part of it.
On a personal note, I don't think I'd be writing poetry weren't it for Katherine: she inspired me through kindness, encouragement and devotion to her writing. There should be no confusion in anyone's mind about how much I loathe "academic poetries" in Canada. Let's "occupy" the English faculties and give poetry back to the real 99% who write it!
Have a great day, Chris, and long live people's poetry in Canada.
"A reading of Frank Davey's "When TISH Happens""
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