Wilber's 'squirrel shawarma', worms, beer, Keebec, Eel Pie Hotel,

email blather Nov. 24/12

Hey Chris,

Thanks for the thumbs up from Christy.  There were many there at the Milton night I didn’t have the chance to talk to, but if nothing else it was good to see so many familiar faces. Like so many poets who have just gotten fed-up with other poets and people in the arts community I too have my nemesis and can’t bring myself to be in the same room with Wilber at any public event.   It is bad enough I have to put up with him in private.  However, I am sorry it prevented me from connecting more with the friends who showed up there that night.

Wilber and I got home safe-and-sound yesterday just as it was getting dark.  In a surprisingly spry leap Wilber hopped out of the Van and immediately grabbed a squirrel that was running up to me looking for seeds due to the fact I had been away and the feeder was empty.  Wilber wrung its neck and proceeded to gut and skin it, mumbling something about how the whole time he was in Toronto he hadn’t managed to find one eatery that served “Squirrel Shawarma.”  Who knew there even was such a thing????  In no time he had an outside fire going and proceeded to cook it spread eagle on some contraption he made out of a coat hanger.  And the amazing thing is in a wrap with lots of garlic sauce, and the fall herbs and mushrooms Wilber found in the woods, it wasn’t half bad.  Wilber claims the key to squirrel is the garnish.  And like most things… it is hard to argue with Wilber. And why would you bother????

Old Comrade, thank you so much for all your hospitality and for facilitating my being able to be part of this big city event.  Ask Chase to forgive me for Wilber taking his bed… I hope the old shit didn’t smell it up to much.  If Chase needs to stay off of it for a while I guess that would certainly be a comment on Wilber.



“Eel Pie Island Dharma is a magnificent hippie haiku reflection of times-gone-by.  From the Canadian master of the haibun form; poems like starry eyes, twinkle out from the text, a haijin’s worn face.”   Jim Larwill

“Eel Pie Island????  Oh that old derelict hippie hotel.  I crashed there once.  So Canadian Chris was that furry grave digging little twerp sleeping in the closet at the top of the stairs?  What a flaked-out looser he was.”  Wilber Walnut


Sorry…. Wilber had said you looked familiar and when I was working on my quote for your book he saw the cover and it sparked his memory.

Need to go get more twigs for the fire….. thanks again…. And sorry again for Wilber drinking most of our beer…..

RK  aka  Jim

                                   XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Greetings Jim & Wilber,
Good to hear you 2 reprobates made it home safe & sound! I almost emailed to make sure, but thought that would be a bit too close to parenting (altho Wilber sure could have used some decent parenting early on - about a century too late now). Good to know you guys eventually found yer way back to the shack across the Keebec border OK.

Glad the new book is growing on you ... thanks for your kind words, & as for Wilber's comments on Eel Pie and me being a furry grave digging "looser", well, I f***ed all the skoolgirls while he snored holes in his rotten sleeping bag in the corner of my closet. Man, he was so ancient even back then a few chillums of Nepalese Temple Ball knocked him on his butt. Liquor, maybe, but the old fart sure couldn't hold his soft drugs ...  

(Phone call interrupted these important correspondences - it was Dan at Malone wondering if we survived our trip to TO. I lied thru my remaining teeth & told him the gig was a super success.)

Anyway, hope the squirrel vindaloo doesn't come back to haunt the 2 of you in the middle of the nite. 

peace & poetry power!
Chris ... and Chase (who's going to get wormed tonite after havng Wilber sleep on his couch  for 2 nites) ... wffffffffffffff (a pitiful plea for no worming, pls - it's Wilber who should be wormed!)

p.s. until an appropriate pic of Wilber appears somewhere on the web that I can cut & paste, I'll just have to use a generic pic of a hillbilly - apologies to Wilb ... 

                 X X X X X X X X X X 

 

Squirrel: It’s what’s for dinner in Romney, W.Va.

Erin Julius - Calvin Riggleman stirs a batch of squirrel gravy during this year’s Squirrel Fest in Romney, W.Va.

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By Whitney Pipkin, Published: November 27

ROMNEY, W.Va. — The news that another critter has been added to this year’s Squirrel Fest buffet fails to impress at least one arriving guest.
“I don’t want no ’coon,” he says, even as he meets the man who supplied it and is told how it will be prepared.

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Not to worry. Tangy rabbit nachos, a vegetarian lasagna, potato soup, a salsa-inspired raccoon dip and fried raccoon did not divert attention from the headliner at the 13th event of its kind held the Sunday before Thanksgiving: a giant vat of squirrel gravy, lightly caramel-colored and smooth on the surface, with shreds and chunks of long-cooked meat waiting to be ladled up and onto biscuits and baked potatoes.
In this 250-year-old seat of Hampshire County with a population of 2,000, where vegetable farmers turn in their hoes for hunting gear as the weather turns cold, small-game season is a big deal. Squirrel hunting in particular.

Residential squirrels help themselves to bird feeders or scamper into attics. But hungry rural squirrels can wreak havoc on a farm. Squirrel Fest host Calvin Riggleman, son of Gary Riggleman (the raccoon meat raconteur) says the bushy-tailed Sciurus carolinensis digs up newly planted seeds and munches away at apples ripe for the picking at his 85-acre farm. A boom in the squirrel populations of some Northeast states this year led to sizable crop losses on orchards in Vermont and New York, according to recent Associated Press reports.

While pest experts use chemicals to control squirrels, the farmers here have a sustainable solution.
“I’m not sure why there’s a season for squirrel,” says Cal’s mother, Linda Riggleman, who has been making squirrel gravy for years. “We never have run out.” The gravy’s a standby; last year, Riggleman made squirrel potpie for the fest and did, in fact, run out.

American squirrel cuisine has something of an official birthplace in Virginia’s Brunswick County, where in 1828 four of the critters, onions and stale bread went into a pot and became the dish known as Brunswick stew. The Irish Times reported in January 1997 that the “American habit of eating squirrel has arrived in Britain,” chronicling a sampling of roasted squirrel and casseroles with herbs and chanterelles served at an estate owned by the Duke of Buccleuch. The U.K.-based Wild Meat supplies grey squirrel meat (an invasive species) to British grocers and sells online.

Cal Riggleman returned from two deployments with the U.S. Marine Corps in 2006 to start his own farm and family in Romney, next to the 80 acres of orchards farmed by his grandparents.
Now 31, he was just out of high school when he started Squirrel Fest with a few friends at his parents’ house. It grew; when the number of attendees hit 250, Riggleman moved the operation to a commercial kitchen and warehouse he bought with a business partner two years ago. (His Bigg Riggs Farm sauces and jams are manufactured there.)
The free event coincides with the start of deer-hunting season — something folks here tend to appreciate.

“Makes me want to hit something on the way home!” Kevin Moore, a friend of Riggleman’s, said as he cleaned his Squirrel Fest plate.

draft (beer) report on AN EVENING WITH MILTON ACORN AND FRIENDS

\Hi Marvin,
Returned from TO an hour & a half ago. Wilber Walnut is still keeping me company - we are drinking Zywiec beer, because we already drank the ritzy Quebec beers Wilber
'acquired' somewhere.

The EVENING WITH MILTON ACORN & FRIENDS last nite was a super success. The event started out as a potential disaster, as the shift manager at the pub wasn't aware of our room reservation. But all of us fed on the chaos, & I sold about 12 books, & gave a few copies to people I owed one to (e.g. haijin John Hamley, who wrote the intro, poet Bruce Hunter, who has given me copies of his books, & Anna Yin). I sold 5 package 'specials' of EEL PIE ISLAND DHARMA & ZENRIVER: POEMS & HAIBUN  for $20 (all I had). I'm very pleased at the positive reception EPID received - I packed 15 copies for the gig, & returned home with just one!

Everyone performed at the top of their game, from the opening skit of "finding Milton Acorn" to David Fox's professional reading of a number of Milt's poems, to Joyce Wayne's reading from her new novel. Morley Ellis (my best bud) started the whole shebang off with his music, & provided background music at the break. For the first half hour+ we all struggled without a mic against the backdrop of rowdy drinking Ryerson students. But once we were miked, we took over the upstairs room - hard to believe a raggle-taggle group of poets could hold a room against a bunch of drunken students, but we did - showing the power of poetry & Milt's legacy.

It was about the time we were getting amplified that an orange-uniformed SWAT squad of 5 swarmed thru the crowd - looking for ?????  - completing the anarchic fun & confusion of the first part of the evening!

By the halfway point of the evening, the students hellbent on rowdying had left, & the more astute of their number remained, captivated by this circus of Canadian people's poetry at its living finest! Terry Barker read 3 poems, and then was shouldered aside by Jim Larwill's alter-ego, Wilber Walnut. Wilber brought down the house, as I knew he would. His eye-popping performance (literally! - fortunately it turned out to be a pickled egg, which was unceremoniously juggled by several audience members - possibly eventually eaten) kept the entire room HUSHED and spellbound by his charismatic literary codgerisms. One sexy & bold young thing bought this horny old centurion (?) - 100-year-old-dude - a scotch & gave him her phone number with hugs & kisses. Wilber disappeared soon after, only to resurface for the ride back to Marmora, where he's now bragging of his conquests & giggling in a nasty way while drinking MY beer! Of course, Wilber is the author of "The Carnivoresque Self-help Guide for Swingers" and is used to "helping" him self.

Wilber & I are starting to fade as the beers & last nite's adrenalin rush are starting to take their toll   ...

whatever else we might write now could get us jailed, or bring back the SWAT team ... ?????? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

peace & pootry poer1
cris,m, wilrv, chse, ect


p.s. when the haz clrs well ti to rmeber who els wz trhe



On 2012-11-20, at 6:35 PM, marvin orbach wrote:

Hi Chris,
  I must add to my previous e-mail a great big thank-you for your
very kind inscription in my copy of EPID.   It was a big honour for
me. I am still enjoying the book.
  Have a great time in Toronto.
  Woof woof to Chase.
  Marvin.

On Tue, Nov 20, 2012 at 11:39 AM, Chris Faiers <zenriver@sympatico.ca> wrote:
thanks for the support, Marvin
A quick thank you note, as we're heading off to TO in a couple of hours.
back to you when we return,
thanks again! glad you like the book!!!
P&P!
C&C ... Wrfffffffffffffffffffff!


On 2012-11-20, at 11:20 AM, marvin orbach wrote:

Hi Chris,
 I received your Eel Pie Island Dharma  just yesterday.  Thank you
very much.   It's  a great work of art,   I enjoyed rereading it.  It
is really an important piece of literature.  And the book itself with
the beautiful cover is very well done. Three cheers to Hidden Brook
Press.   It will soon be on its way  to Biblioheaven at the U. of C.,
where it will keep scholars busy for years to come.
 I thought I would mention to you that I recently attended a small
press fair here in Montreal and met the Ottawa haiku poet Mike
Montreuil. He said he is vert  familiar with your work.  He added that
his haiku are less traditional than yours.  It's a small world, isn't
it.
 I trust Chase is doing well.
 Please keep in touch.
 Peace and Shanti.
 Marvin.

Wilber Walnut Warning and Disclaimer

Wilber Walnut Warning and Disclaimer

Hey Chris, it looks like you are doing a great job as usual… and all the others too, of course.

The schedule for the Acorn Night looks good and it may make some sense having Wilber be the “hammer” for the evening coming before the round robin where people read poems inspired by Acorn, given in contrast Wilber is claiming to have inspired some of Milton’s work.  If people who have come for the poetry have left by the time Wilber starts his rant I don’t think it will make that much difference to him, it’s a bar, there will be a room full of drunks of some kind, and he fits in better there, than with literary types anyway.

Wilber is assuring me his rant and ramble will come in around 12 minutes long, but it seems to me he doesn’t have control over how much people laugh at him.  As for the historical accuracy of some of Wilber’s claims all I can say is I remember sitting across from Milton Acorn in the Crest Grill with Milt claiming between cigar puffs that “history is always more interesting when you make it up.”    Wilber’s response to Acorn’s aforementioned observation is that Milton always was a charlatan and a phony.   “My policy is always to speak the Truth as it appears to me in the moment unencumbered by hierarchal frames of knowing.”  Is the standard retort of Wilber’s authenticity I have heard him may times claim.  Thus spoke the man whose birth was never even registered.  (Wilber seems to think that registering guns only becomes an issue once people start registering their babies, and that Mary and Joseph are the ones who really betrayed Jesus.)  In addition to all this: Wilber is now proclaiming to be an “Elder.”  However, I am not sure being very, very old automatically makes one anything, other than in Wilber’s case, an uninhibited pain in the ass.

Wilber Walnut is at least over 100 years old given he was playing Indian and Trapper in the backwoods of northern Ontario with Gray Owl before the outbreak of the first world war.  The son of a single mother, an old woman who ran a trap line on her own and only came in to the Fort once a year to trade.  His father????  Well let’s just say the ghost spirits which wander the northern woods are not holy.  And with this new self-proclaimed status of “Elder” he has now puffed himself up to the point that Wilber thinks he has some sort of wisdom to pass on to others and is in the process of publishing a series of  “Carnivoresque Self Help Books.”  What ever that means?

I attach the cover of the first in the series.  I can send more.  But one is maybe enough.


Jim Larwill

aka The Raven King…. with at times, a raving100 yr old, one-eyed leering jester in tow.

                                                    .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 

note: Jim somehow managed to capture a picture of Wilber, but for reasons of rationality & sanity my blog refused to accept his existence & publish this rare photo.  damn!
- Chris

Wilber Walnut/Jim Larwill at Imperial Public Library Evening No.v 21st

Hi Jim (aka Raven King),
Knew you'd come thru! It's just too cool a gig for you/and/or/Wilber to miss  :  )

Good thing I read today's email before this one, or I'd still be wondering if you/Wilber/both were planning on plarticpating in this tribute to Milt & PP, & even in a roundabout way, to good ol' CLM (never thought I'd say that! - it's so far in our pasts now that we can let the good memories surface & the bad ones fade).

Since I emailed your invite (haven't re-read it, so don't know exactly WTF I wrote), I believe our FELLOWSHIP OF THE ACORN has broadened our perspective on the gig at The Imperial Pub. We have a whole evening to fill, rather than organizing an event with the limitations of 1 1/2 hours in library meeting rooms, which have been our previous venues. So we're starting to expand our scope, & perhaps the evening will evolve in sections - a 'warmup' - a 'feature' - and then the fun 'participatory freeform' part (which is where I envision Wilber holding forth from a barstool or under a students' table). 

I'm also anticipating a round robin for Milt in the third part of the evening, like we held for Ted Plantos at "PlantosFest" a couple of years ago. Sharing anecdotes, poems by or about Milt, that kinda thing. This is perhaps where Wilber & his insider history of Milt & Big Al & the A-frame could be dissected for posterity!  :  )  :  )  Even icons need to have their foibles shared ...

I like your suggestion to drive into TO with Morley & me (and Chase). I'm used to driving into TO - not so good at driving AROUND TO - and it'll save on gas & stuff. And thanks to Joyce & Sandy for offering to put up you & Wilber on their couches!

Interesting to learn about your play DAVID AND THE ANGEL. Would love to see it performed somewhere. How many acts? How many actors required? I've been hanging around with novelist/poet/raconteur/PLAYWRIGHT Jim Christy, & he's done some interesting plays as well (so he claims). Don't know if you guys connected at AcornFest this summer?

coffee's sounding perked - Chase needs poopifying - gotta call Tai & deal with 'final' proof of EEL PIE ISLAND DHARMA, which, the Gods willing, will be printed in time for the gig as well - getting down to the wire on this ...

peace & poetry power!
this'll be one fun tribute to Milt - know he'll be there in spirit
Chris ... and Chase ... Wrfffffffffffffffffffff! (why aren't dogs allowed in effing bars!!???)



On 2012-10-13, at 2:16 AM, Jim Larwill wrote:

Hey Chris,

Sorry I have been quiet... been distracted and busy.  Shift of seasons... still have running water for now, but lots of other stuff to get ready for winter, but headway being made. Youngest son Kent has had a week off work and has been up helping, got a tree down today that was threatening to fall on the tee-pee at the top of the hill where I park my van in the winter.  (Yes, believe it or not, I park in a big tee-pee at the top of the hill in the winter and walk down to the lake.)

I am not sure how a Wilber performance would work in with the Milt thing.... time for a long enough Wilber performance is one consideration, but also given Wilber is a "take" upon a Milt generation of poets.. and earlier, and present... in some ways keeping Wilber at arms length and not too closely associated with Milt is also a consideration.  (They only did meet that once when Wilber stayed over at the A-frame with Milt and Purdy.... and Wilber's grumpy opinion of the two of them is maybe best not aired at a Milt commemoration.)  And Wilber is always using the excuse of being over 100 in one way or an other.

For myself if I feel up to making it I would love to... but haven't been to Toronto in years.  Hate to play the poor, old, drunken poet card.... but just where is Toronto????  Is that still part of Quebec???

One thought I had is maybe I could drive to Marmora and go with you and Morley.  I really don't feel like driving in TO.  And I could take the train but I would still need a couch to crash on... I don't really like the underpasses in big city's for sleeping any more... well not in November anyway.

Funny as I am writing this I realize how old I am getting, remembering in other ways it seems like yesterday when the CLM was tearing its self apart and as the Ottawa Chairman I didn't know what the heck was going on with the movement down in Toronto, and wanting a clear picture I just drove down to Spadia and Collage from Ottawa and looked up Milt at the Waverly.  "The Doctor is in," is what the desk said and Milt was in his cigar butt ashtray of a room.  After a few hours at the Crest grill apart from Milt's assessment that sectarianism was rampant in the movement, I don't know if I had too much of a clearer picture, even if I knew Milt was the only one in TO who would give me a straight opinion. And I was right, Milt suborned himself to my superior position of being a "Club" chairman in the way he treated me. Gave me the goods as he saw them, but then I also saw at that time as the Movement poet outsider he couldn't really give me the insider picture I needed. But in a tangent he also told me I was a poet... and when he did I thought he was totally nuts.... he spoke of Zulu... I spoke of my possible mixed Montreal Polynesian heritage... Jim.... Jim... Jim... as the interview was ending.. as if he needed to go off and write a poem...  we parted... crossed paths a few other times... last time was near his death when he showed up at my play about Riel and Dumont.... "David and the Angel"... the whole show I was worried he might cause a disturbance... Marty Flowman who was looking after him told me he was astounded that Milt was quiet though out the play and in the end Milt gave me the best review I received.... "Larwill has shown us the Riel and Dumont we have wanted to see."  I heard him declare with vigor as he left the theater. He was old.  He was dieing.  It was the last words I hear Milt speak.

but this too is an Acornesque ramble....

for now let me give you a firm I don't know... but will try and let you know...

RK

aka

Jim

***********************************************

Ed Baker has left a new comment on your post "Wilber Walnut/Jim Larwill at Imperial Public Libra...":

just got my copy of In A Springtime Instant
& I'm a tellin you had I discovered his work in the 60's I just maybe might have taken a short-cut to her(e)

been dealing all day with daughter's blood patch so my
VERY FIRTST Acorn piece e v e r is was just a moment ago his Ashaye Dancing

When Ashaye with the nerve-devouring fire
in her eyes, Ashaye
with her body's secret places,
when Ashaye dances;
(etc)

sounds like he (also) knew Stone Girl and a few of my other cute muses and I did a piece called ASHERA a few years ago... I think I got it as a pdf in this computer somewhere

I am guessing that Ashaye and Ashera are the same
goddess ?

etc






Posted by Ed Baker to Riffs &amp; Ripples from ZenRiver Gardens at 18 October 2012 19:39

*****************************************************

 

Dorothy Livesay feature for PurdyFest #7 - Pauline Johnson for PurdyFest #8!

Dorothy Livesay (oops)



There's been a lot of discussion in the couple of days since the initial proposal from Terry & me for having D'Arcy McGee & Jose Marti as the theme for PurdyFest #7 (the "two Ms" Terry now calls them).

Poet Pearl Pirie of Ottawa sent me a brief email commenting on the lack of women features at the fests. She's 100% right, and I 'challenged' the women who attend the fests to take action - which they did immediately! Joyce Wayne offered to help organize next year's fest with a featured female poet & to present a paper. Anna Yin also immediately volunteered to do a video presentation as well. So the die was quickly cast!

Even Jim Larwill's 'familiar', that drunken reprobate Wilber Walnut, chimed in on the discussion & proposals. Many emails further confirmed the building consensus that it's past time for PurdyFests to honour our Canadian women People's Poets.

I had been holding fire for a few days to get further input and to let the consensus jell before I publicly confirmed the joint decision for next year's fest. But the overwhelming and continuing support has conclusively decided that the poetry, politiks & legacy of Dorothy Livesay will next year's fest (LivesayFest!), and then the work of Pauline Johnson will be featured the following year (PaulineFest!)

Featuring these two key women poets will help restore balance to the fests, and will also continue with the 'reverse chronological' documenting of People's Poetry in Canada. We have (unintentionally) been working our way back thru PP history with the fests:  Purdy/Plantos/Acorn/ - next back to Livesay & then Johnson. Wasn't planned this way, but the historical, poetical & politikal logic makes great sense  :  )    

Featuring Livesay and Johnson will also open the doors to many key issues in Canadian poetry and culture: more Marxism (Acorn was a devotee of Livesay)/feminism/racism/First Nations culture/internal colonialism/performance poetry/traditional poetry/moderism's beginnings  ... the list goes on and on.

I hope many of you make plans to attend again next summer, and perhaps you'll feel inspired to perform pieces by Livesay and Johnson (not so subtle a hint to Honey Novick - what a treat to have you perform some of Pauline's performance pieces - Wilber Walnut would be entranced into tranquility for once!!!)



p.s. Terry & I haven't forgotten "the 2 Ms", just going to relegate them to PurdyFest #12 or something  :  )



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Conrad DiDiodato has left a new comment on your post "Dorothy Livesay feature for PurdyFest #7 - Pauline...":

Right on!

Posted by Conrad DiDiodato to Riffs &amp; Ripples from ZenRiver Gardens at 30 August 2012 07:52


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Congratulations, Chris, on this excellent strategy and the approach that led up to it.

I remember suggesting Dorothy Livesay a couple of years ago, and I really like the sequence of having her follow Acorn.

My commitments re: the very ambitions Fall season for Quattro Books prevented my attending AcornFest, but I hope to make it to LivesayFest next year. 

All the best,
Allan

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Great stuff! Great discussion! I'll start right now preparing my schedule for them.... hugs for you, pats for Chase, Katharine
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Dear friends,

I've been reading the volley of emails with great interest.  From where
I sit, the Acorn festival (and the Toronto book launch) were a great
success and a revelation of sorts for me. It was all about the magic of
place and connecting with people that I haven't  seen much of since CLM
days. Sometimes we forget what a huge influence Milt exerted on all our
lives and honouring him in the way we are doing, is definitely the right
thing to do.

As for next year...I must admit to having some reservations about D'Arcy
McGee and Jose Marti, although I'm more sympathetic to Marti than to our
own Canadian.

Could we agree that it's time to tackle a woman people's poet and see
where she fits into the picture of people's poetry?  Jim Deahl's papers
are a great place for us to start because Jim defines people's poetry
and puts some meat on its bones by talking about who counts and what the
tradition is about. I'd be content with either Pauline Johnson or
Dorothy Livesay.  Milton and Al both respected Dorothy and she certainly
fits the bill, but then there is something remarkable and intrinsic to
the landscape about Pauline Johnson.  We would be breaking new ground if
we decided that Pauline Johnson's life and work could be seriously
explored next year.

I'm more than happy to help, both in terms of organizing and delivering
a paper on Johnson.  There is also a recent documentary on her life, I
believe, that we might screen at the library or at night in the Marmora
Park.

Let's continue this discussion and see where we end up.

In peace,
Joyce

* * * *** * * * *** * * * *** * * * * ** * * *** * * * * *** * 

Dear Chris:
What a lovely message.  thank you.
Yes, I will definitely look into Livesay's poetry and it's musical quality.  What a great thing to do.  Hope to see you soon.  Be very well until then.
we'll be in touch
Honey


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On 2012-08-26, at 8:05 PM, Jim Larwill wrote:

Hi Again Chris,

DON'T ENCOURAGE WILBER!  You don't have to deal with him.  You would think two cases of Quebec buck-a-beer beer would keep him busy for more than 15 or 20 minutes... he is already half way through the first 24.   Sheeh....  And I thought he was distracted while I was checking my email...

Wiber's passing comments....

"Now you tell yr little friend Chris that I have in principle nothing against keeping women in a ghetto or a harem, and believe me, me and my one eye have seen our share of both...  "   (The train of his thought has been broken and he has shot off rambling on with some quite frankly disturbing antidote about a three way he once had with Emily Carr and her pet monkey....   I'll never look at those paintings in quite the same way.  ...  Especially in the ones with a totem pole only showing one eye to the viewer...  God help me where is that case of beer...)


Okay after a break and fortifying myself I think Wilber is about to make a salient point of some kind and I will transcribe it as best I can.


"In my experience the only problem with a harem is they inevitably sneak in a very sharp knife and I thank my one remaining eye that at least that time their aim was way too high.  So tell your little friend Chris it might be better to pick one woman at a time.  Six years of men being a separate features at Purdyfest, each male in their own right, and then maybe after next year there will be a "woman's peoples poetry" symposium?  Okay I realize woman in Canada weren't legally people until the Person's case in 1929 when our British over lords in the Privy Council overturned the Supreme Court of Canada's unanimous decision that woman were not persons in Canada, but despite the contradictions of colonialism, what about the next three years being dedicated to Pauline Johnston, Dorothy Livesay, and Jane Jordan; each in their own right, as they more than deserve to be."


He has finished and he has gone out for a pee, so he will be a while.  I swear his hundred year old bladder is in much better shape than mine which is half the age of his.  So anyway I really don't know what to think about Wilber Walnut's one-eyed semi-feminist spouting other than some how or other at age 100 he is still just trying to get laid.


God help me "Wolf-fest at the Raven's Nest" is coming up the labour day long weekend and I already have a hang over....

Hopefully Wilber will just wonder off distracted by a chipmunk or a random wild flower or something and I will get time to send you a notice for yr blog

! # % ^  ^ ^ & * * ** * & G G G Y %#** &&  $( H F DF J!!!





On 2012-08-26, at 12:10 PM, Jim Larwill wrote:


Hi Chris,

Pearl makes an interesting point.  As it happens Wilber Walnut has been visiting and was looking over my shoulder as I was reading the recent posts.  Now, the one-eyed Wilber is never to be trusted, but apparently this year at Acornfest he was skulking around in the bushes watching us at Zen River  (which might account for where some of those beers disappeared to and explain the unpleasant odor in that heavy clump of belching Sumac).  The elder Walnut (he is over 100) seems to have formed a less than appreciative opinion of our poetic endeavors and after reading Pearl’s comment he has been sent off on a bit of a rant.

Pauline Johnson!  Pauline Johnson!  Pauline Johnson!  He keeps proclaiming.

Now I don’t know much about Pauline Johnson, but my mother Rejeanne, who claimed to be of very mixed heritage, years ago after hearing of my interest in poetry and my trying to tell her about Milton Acorn she scolded me with a simple… “Jimmy!  If you want good poetry go read Pauline Johnson!!”  At the time I dismissed her advice assuming her taste in poetry had been informed by residential school nuns,  only now after looking at some of Pauline Johnson’s poetry all I can say is I wish I hadn’t waited this long and I want to go read more.  It seems to me Pauline Johnson it the quintessential Native Canadian Poet.  World famous best-seller in her own time.  Forgotten and ridiculed upon her death by traitor academics who do not root poetry “in the land” but judge with imaginary elsewhere theory – at best upon our deaths any Canadian success is a lesser example of the firmament of high-blown “excellence” elsewhere, a footnote pushed off the page of history.  Most Great Canadian Writers upon there deaths don’t even get to stay on the margins.  Twenty years after Margaret Atwood dies it will be…. Peggy Who???

Coming back to Pauline Johnson it seems to me I remember Acorn claiming to be descended from a first-nation princess, and while he may have been referring to a genetic connection to the past, I strongly believe he was drawing his poetic line directly back to the poetry of Pauline Johnson.

Now the one-eyed criticism of Wilber Walnut is never mild.  And after going out into the woods he has come back with some sort of single barreled blunderbuss, a muzzle-loading flint-lock shot-gun of some kind, (to be honest it looks like a small hand held cannon) and he has now pulled the balance weights off of my van’s tires and is melting them down pouring the lead into some ancient casting mold for over-sized musket balls.

So if you hear the bushes rustling at Zen River … BE CAREFUL!!!

I will go buy beer to try and distract him and hopefully the now rough ride of my van will shake the bottles up to the point of exploding in his face when he opens them; however, he has written a poem and I guess I should attach it here.  As far as I can tell it is a rip-off of a Frank Scott poem (Wilber is hardly ever original and yes he also claims to have known F.R. Scott).   It seems in Wilber’s opinion, today’s People’s Poets are not much better than the “Canadian Authors” of Westmount back in the 30’s.



The People’s Poets Meet

Beneath a sketch of Milton Acorn
poets before and since they scorn;
they grieve loss of the Canadian muse
now that tea has been replaced by booze.

The mulberry bush is now transformation
at last, at last THEY alone define a nation,
Carman, Lampaman, Roberts, Cambell, Scott,
can passing be mentioned, but best are forgot.

By the river the famous People’s elite
are stumbling to and fro on their feet,
psychedelic sixties - their pearly time;
other ages, merely grunting of swine.

Perverts past sixty who once lusted with passion,
I hate to say it, for now it seems a limp lashing,
forever not a lick next to a Double Wampum maid,
her Victorian doggerel makes them seem staid.

Academics and their what-ta-bes from other states
teach trendy progressive forms, and what to hate:
For here grand sails always arrive claiming to travel,
rolling them up, we stick to our songs of the paddle.



Well Wilber’s view of things tends to be myopic… what can I say?


The Raven King…. aka   Jim Larwill….. notes from the Raven’s Nest with a one-eyed mad-man in tow… a hundred year old past who refuses to remain buried!

 
!! $ % ^ & &^ % % & &*    **** *  !$ G H ( Y^& @!!!!!!!



Hi Chris,
   I am really looking forward to receiving  your latest package of
Unfinished Monument Press booklets.  They will be important additions
to my collection at the U. of C.  It is great that your publications
will be preserved in western Canada, for future generations.
   I continue to get copies of your exciting e-mails.   Chi-miigwetch!!!
   I thnk it is wonderful that future PurdyFests will feature both
Dorothy Livesay and Pauline Johnson.Dorothy is the mother of modern
Canadian poetry. She deserves the attention you will give her.
Pauline Johnson has been neglected by the non-Aboriginal community
because she was not part of the modernist movement.  Her style is very
traditional.  My collection in Calgary includes her very rare first
book of verse published in 1895.   I acquired it many years ago at an
antiquarian book fair.   I have always enjoyed listening to the song
her paddle sings.
    It was with delight  that I read  there will be a Layton
happening at the Univ.of Ottawa. No doubt Seymour Mayne is behind it.
    I must go now. As soon as your parcel arrives, I will let you know.
    I shout love!!
    Marvin, in Montreal West.

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September 3, 2012

Dear Chris,
            Glad to see the news about LivesayFest! A much-deserved tribute to a very fine poet.
 
Poetry Power!
            . . . James

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Hi James,

Thanks for sending these important talks on to Joyce. She has offered to both present a paper and to emcee next year's symposium on Dorothy Livesay. And I'm pretty sure I've posted both these pieces on my blog recently.

PurdyFest #7, "LivesayFest", is shaping up to be another keynote examination and amplification of People's Poetry. I hope you have the time to present a paper on Livesay, or on any parallel aspect of People's Poetry next summer.

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  HearOurWords has left a new comment on your post "Dorothy Livesay feature for PurdyFest #7 - Pauline...":

Perhaps Chris could post some examples and we could check in and comment.



Posted by HearOurWords to Riffs &amp; Ripples from ZenRiver Gardens at 6 September 2012 16:05

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Chris, YES. This is a great decision to dedicate PurdyFest #7 to Dorothy. I would dare suggest not because she is a woman but because she is a great poet
whose time has come to be "officially" celebrated.
I was suggesting to Terry that we do something for James but it does not have to be at PurdyFest.

In any case, if you agree, I would be prepared to provide an analytical perspective on her work. I have some of her books but I do not believe I have all.
I will talk to Terry. But if you have any of her works let me know.
 
Paulos Ioannou
Sept. 19/12

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