launching new People's Poet: Kelly Rose Pflug-Back

 


Hi Ursula,
Serendipity on receiving your email with Kelly's pics - as so often happens when you are on the 'dharma path' - doing the right thing & what you were born to do ... I was reading Kelly's little chapbook to prep for doing a blog write-up, & brought my coffee into the study to start work. And here are your pics of Kelly!

The more I read her work, & learn of her life, the more convinced I am that Kelly Rose has the potential to be "the next great Canuck People's Poet" - perhaps she already IS! Milton Acorn is smiling somewhere, perhaps raucously celebrating Kelly's arrival in his new suit of raven feathers. THESE BURNING STREETS announces a  landmark in Canuck People's Poetry, as did Livesay's POEMS FOR PEOPLE and Acorn's MORE POEMS FOR PEOPLE.

It is amazing that a poet in her early twenties is writing with the depths & skills of a master poet in their seventies!

I was honoured that you asked me to read one of Kelly's poems at the launch Friday nite in Peterborough. To repeat what I said then, there are hundreds of young poets who have major talent, but only a handful who are occasionally incandescent. But Kelly Rose not only writes transcendent poetry, she lives it to the fullest, taking it to the streets and now to her jail cell. The MFA students, writing their precious pieces in creative writing classes, lack the heart of a Kelly Rose to make poetry live & burn & light up the streets in these dark times of Harperite neo-fascism.

Thank you & Don for raising such a poet  : ) I believe there is much insight into Kelly's poetic development in your recounting of Kelly's year of home schooling at age 14, when she read voluminously and lived her young life vicariously with the greats of world literature. Al Purdy recounts a similar time in his teen years in his memoir/novel A SPLINTER IN THE HEART.

Thank you & your circle of friends & supporters for organizing such a comfortable & heartfelt book launch & reading. I have told friends it was one of the most enjoyable readings I have attended. It was a treat to meet Kelly's self-proclaimed 'gutter punk' friends - they provide much hope for Kanada's future, post this current Harperite miasma. And congratulations to you for anchoring an event which so obviously tugged at your heart for every second, thinking of Kelly Rose's circumstances.

I'll do all I can to promote Kelly Rose, her new book, and to raise support for obtaining her release asap.

peace & poetry power!
Chris ...
and Chase ... wfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff! (a dog can't begin to imagine being stuck in a cell all day)

p.s. I'll prob. use this email in my posting - trust this is OK?
p.p.s. have never met Kelly - in the pics she's a real punk cutie - never hurts to be photogenic in these crazy media times

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Thanks, Doug :  )
I'll add your email as support for 'Sweet Kelly Rose' on the blog. Unfort. she may not be FREE to attend PurdyFest next year - the Harpyites are making a real
example of her. Witch hunts are alive & currently on the move in Kanada :  ( 
peace & poetry power!
Chris ... and Chase wffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff!

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 2012-09-30, at 3:53 PM, Douglas Roy wrote:

Chris!
BRAVO!!! and thank you for forwarding this info on sista Kelly Rose!  How about inviting her to be a feature reader next year?
Whenever I get discouraged with the Fat Cat Health Care Bureaucrats, I go and spend time with my young-brilliant-courageous- punk-activist-poet-humane-friends …and they renew me!
-RDR

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For paypal donations post:
we.love.our.leader@gmail.com

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info email on Kelly's launch

Friday , September 28, 2012 7:00pm until 9:00pm
Catalina Salon, Peterborough, ON Please come out to the book launch of Kelly Pflug-Back's first book of poetry published by Combustion Books. There will be drinks & snacks, readings from Kelly's book and live music by singer/songwriter Tara Williamson - http://music.cbc.ca/#/artists/Tara-Williamson, and singer/songwriter Jordan Page. From the Forward by Juliet Belmas: ... "Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, and I know of no experience that has generated a wider range of emotion for me than the effective communication of revolutionary spirit through an amazing song or poem. In These Burning Streets, Kelly Rose Pflug-Back writes openly and tenderly about themes of hope and fear, exhilaration and humiliation, hatred for the enemy and love for fellow comrades in ten absolutely beautiful and visionary poems about a centuries-old war that has been slaughtering the earth, the feminine psyche, and the minds and bodies of oppressed people worldwide for generations. Her heroines show us their cuts, scrapes, and decomposing bodies barely left in pieces, limping, all bloodied but unbowed to speak to us from the dead on behalf of the living". All profits received by Combustion Books will be passed along to Kelly Rose Pflug-Back until she is free.

http://www.combustionbooks.org/products-page/poetry/these-burning-streets/ Links to Kelly's work: http://kellypflugback.wordpress.com/these-burning-streets/ Here are some awesome cover blurbs: “There is something so visual about these words I can almost taste them! Poems graceful on the page, and full of grace in flight.” ­Susan Musgrave, author of Origami Dove “From the deeply personal to the socio-political, Kelly Rose Pflug-Back’s voice in These Burning Streets resonates deeply within each of us. Arriving through shared chords of remembrance and tears, it touches those once beautiful, scarred places inside that we most always ignore, cover, hide.” ­Bruce Kauffman, poet, editor, radio show host of “Finding a Voice” on CFRC 101.9fm. “In this groundbreaking first collection, Kelly Pflug- Back has found a new way to use metaphor, audaciously collapsing the whole structure of what we believed was external and internal. Each poem is crammed with these new images that shock with recognition and drench the senses of the body.” ­Heather Spears, author and winner of the Governor-General’s Award in Poetry and the Pat Lowther Award “...at once a book of windows into fantastical places, an album of love songs for the small things we’ve all forgotten, and a celebratory political manifesto for worlds we’ve yet to imagine... a simply stunning first collection from a wise and talented emerging poet.” ­Leanne Simpson, author of Dancing on Our Turtle’s Back: Stories of Nishnaabeg Re-Creation, Resurgence and a New Emergence. “Pflug-Back is a poet who speaks the truth­more accurately, shouts the truth, just as Milton Acorn did in his best poems.” ­Chris Faiers, award winning author first ever recipient of the Milton Acorn People’s Poetry Award

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The lovelorn hunt for deer - Katharine Beeman

The lovelorn hunt for deer


The lovelorn
hunt for deer
pining
to country crooners
on the car radio.

Why shouldn't old highways
hold histories,
signposts passing
signal our past?

The hunt, deftly performed,
is the prideful, gratifying part.
The kill, only
the momentary conclusion
of a carefully crafted plan
based on intimate,
detailed knowledge
of the quarry.

Even though a deer may be
almost anywhere
in a given section of cover,
most of the time,
it won't be.

Deer beds
in cedar swamps,
green swamps,
jackpine flats.

An individual deer may be,
at any time,
anywhere it wants to be,
which means that it may be ...
anywhere.

Water is the key,
looking for the particular --
where the deer may be.

Meat hunters, rather than trophy,
we must know anatomy.

The sight of the human face,
the sound of the human voice,
the human smell
anathema are to deer.

Learn
lore and lure,
the lexicon of deer --
rubs
scrapes
yards
evolved expressions
of the tail,
and in the night,
what lonely few have heard,
the bark.

There are deer here

in the centre of 100 acres,
one or more deer,
at most 575,
at least, 350
yards away.

Rattling of antlers --
like a broken heart,
proof of deer past

Ever hopeful
we enter the hunt. 


Katharine Beeman

from her chapbook The lovelorn hunt for deer
Kasus Books, Montreal
2010, 20 pages  n.p.



note: I received this haunting collection from Katharine at PurdyFest #5, and she dedicated the copy: 
For Subaru Chris, along the hiways' histories

Katharine, Simon, Melanie and I had spent an afternoon visiting Petroglyphs Provincial Park, and the four of us found the experience spiritually empowering.    

p.s. I have heard the deer bark


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Sept. 25/12
Hi Katharine,
Glad you like the blog, & approve of posting your poem. It's a lovely little chapbook, if hunting for deer can be considered lovely  :  ) I know some of my TO friends thought I'd gone redneck when I moved out here & started hunting & fishing again. (but then they eat mammals, & I don't - if you're going to eat something, you should be ready to hunt, kill & butcher it). There is so much contained in just a few pages of LOVELORN, & the pics are evocative of what it's like to be in the woods, esp. on a hunt. Hope the posting gets you some new readers.

peace & poetry power!
Chris ... and Chase 

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On 2012-09-25, at 11:39 AM, Katharine Beeman wrote:

Hi Chris,

Thanks a lot! I know many people read your wonderful blog, The  t  is missing in meat, first word in a stanza in the middle of the poem.
hugs, pats and walks in the woods,
Katharine

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dog day afternoon (haibun)

 

 


After an endless, hot and drought-stricken summer in Ontario, the mid-September weather has cooled dramatically. I'm dogsitting my friend's cairn terrier, and rather than walk both dogs in the village, I decided it was more relaxing to take them to ZenRiver for a visit. A bonus is I don't have to poop and scoop among the sumacs and campsite trails. MacDuff almost immediately lost his wandering privileges, though, as he sauntered off on a trail and didn't return. Chase and I went to retrieve him, and found him standing halfway up the dirt road.

Realizing I had to keep a closer eye on my new charge, I decided to take the dogs back through the sacred cedar grove to the flat rocks. Two years ago several geologists visited, and explained these crazily twisted surfaces are the roots of an old mountain. Previously I had believed the rough dark surfaces to be a lava flow, pockmarked with kettle holes, worn into channels by the Moira River and laced with silvery mineral veins.

walking on the roots
of an old mountain range

I sat on a large weather-bleached tree branch, gazing across the small pool and the river, while the dogs sniffed and explored.

gentle river sound
wore down this mountain

Suddenly the shape of a blue heron came into focus. I reminisced about Big Blue, the heron spirit who had first greeted me at ZenRiver seven years ago when I bought the property. Big Blue met a sad fate, hanged in the tangle of a sapling too small to bear his substantial size. It is a good feeling to have a new blue heron spirit among us.

buzzard floating
above the poised heron

Although zen-like in their activities, both large birds were hunting. MacDuff had disappeared again, and when I arose to look for him, my motion startled the heron, who slowly lifted upstream across the shallow pond, crossing the buzzard's shadow.


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Ulaaqut Chris   (Greetings in Inuktitut),
    Thanks so much indeed  for the new haibun.   It was a pleasure to
read it.  I am glad that you have a heron spirit in your forest
retreat.   I have always loved great blue herons.  Occasionally I see
one flying above my house,  heading to the river to fish.
    I would be curious to know what kind of birds can be seen in your
ZenRiver  area.
    Aye, we are flowers all.
    I shout love, and peace.
    Marvin.

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Ulaaqut Marvin,
ZenRiver Gardens, in the pioneer hamlet of Malone, is a regular sanctuary for birds (& mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, even a few humans, & lots of gentle nature spirits - a few 'little people' even caught on film carelessly wandering around!)

We enjoy visiting orioles, several varieties of doves & woodpeckers, flickers,  finches, butcher birds (nest in the stunted thorn trees), king birds, robins (lots of nests), swallows, bluejays, gray jays, cardinals, nuthatches, buzzards, kingfishers (a bit rare), varieties of ducks & geese, herons, wrens - and I'm probably forgetting a dozen or more other species :  )

It's always enjoyable to sit on the shaman shack deck, drink a beer, & just relax & watch 'nature's TV'. We've seen some quite incredible sights doing this. Foxes slink by, & one aft a blue heron flew right over us, immediately followed by its mate. As they flew over the shallow river, they did a synchronized barrel roll !!!! Also watched otters swim on their backs & play like 3-year-old humans, unaware that human eyes were watching. And mating giant snapping turtles with moss on their huge backs, some stuff almost too crazy to believe, & likely seen by only a few of our human kind ...

peace & flowers,
Chris ... & Chase ... and visiting MacDuff (cairn terrier) 
Wrfffffffffffffffffffffff! Wrffffffffffffff! Wfffffff!

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brief history of haiku/haibun

Hi Marvin,
The forthcoming reprint is of my 1990 book, EEL PIE ISLAND: a memoir/haibun. Haibun is considered a form of poetry. Actually haibun is prose, interspersed with haiku. The prose gives the haiku context, something which is generally missing when poets/haijin publish individual haiku.

Basho, the wandering Japanese poet priest, created the haibun form. His classic is THE NARROW ROAD TO THE DEEP NORTH. Sometimes this title is interpreted as THE NARROW ROAD TO THE INTERIOR, which gives a better sense that Basho's journeys were as much internal as external.

The English language haiku movement began in the 1950s, when many Americans stationed in Japan during post WW2 reconstruction learned of the form and attempted to both describe and imitate it. The classic works on this are by RH Blythe.

(The book I recently finished reading, JAPANESE PILGRIMAGE, was also written by one of these Americans stationed in Japan after WW2.)

Early English language haiku were almost always written in imitation of the Japanese form, which decreed a strict syllable count of 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second, and 5 in the concluding line. Thus these early haiku have been nicknamed 5-7-5s.

Canadian medical doctor Eric Amann founded a very crucial haiku magazine, titled appropriately, if not very creatively, HAIKU. I believe he founded HAIKU while pursuing medical studies in New York City in the early to mid 1960s. Eric was an early proponent of writing a shorter, more concise style of English language haiku. The rationale for this is the Japanese definition of syllables. Apparently the Japanese language has a different method of labelling syllables than English, and individual letters such as "m" and "n" are counted as syllables. Thus English language attempts to write in 5-7-5 form were much longer and wordier than Japanese haiku.

Eric and others intuited that to be truer to the spirit and essence of Japanese haiku, English language haiku should be written in a more concise form. Eric promoted this with his HAIKU magazine, and over time these shorter haiku have become the established form of English language haiku. This has become true to such an extent that the old 5-7-5 haiku are often not even considered haiku anymore.

I was fortunate in discovering Eric, and his magazine, and Eric's insistence on this shorter format around 1966/67. Poems I had submitted to the college litmag were rejected, but the editor informed me that my brief poems reminded him of haiku. In the back of a copy of THE VILLAGE VOICE in the college library I found a classified ad for HAIKU magazine and wrote for a subscription.

Thus began a mentorship between Eric and myself, prob. for around 2 or 3 years. I was 18 or 19 years old when I began writing haiku, and I am among the first English language haijin (haiku poets/masters) to literally grow up writing (and spiritually living) the form.

Although Basho, the creator of the haiku, wrote haibun, most English language haijin haven't written in this format until quite recently. My EEL PIE DHARMA, published in 1990, is among the first English language haibun. An old friend from my hippie days, Weed, published EEL PIE DHARMA online about a decade ago, and it's one of my 'brags' that EPD is likely the most widely read English language haibun so far.

(Of course Jack Kerouac's books contain haiku, and perhaps Kerouac should be considered the earliest, and most popular, writer of English language haibun.)

I tell most of this background in my introduction to the reprint. I've heard the claim that haiku/haibun has become the most quickly growing genre in English language literature.This is largely due to the success of the internet in providing access and examples of the form (e.g. my EEL PIE DHARMA).

So the reprint of EEL PIE DHARMA (as EEL PIE ISLAND DHARMA) should help establish it as the definitive literary landmark it is, especially in Canadian literature and Canadian haiku.

I'll send you a copy as soon as it's off the presses  :  )

peace & poetry power!
Chris ... and Chase  wrfffffffffffffffffffffffff! and MacDuff wffffffffffffffffffff (Sylvia's cairn terrier who is hanging out with Chase and me for a week or so)

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Hi Chris,
   Thanks so much for your quick response.  And thank you for your
elucidation, explanation, and history.  I now have a better
understanding and grasp of the subject.  You certainly played a
prominent role in the field.   I did grow up enjoying Basho's
evocative thoughts and beautiful imagery.  I will be honoured to pass
a copy of your reprint on to the Univ. of  Calgary Library.
     I will keep in touch.
     Regards to Chase and MacDuff.    Wrrrroof.
     I shout love.
     Marvin (Orbach)

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People's Poetry and the shamanic/3 'wise guys'/Larwill's wild vision garden/

(recent Larwill/Faiers email blather)

Hi Jim/RK,
I've been busier than usual, esp as I like to take an extended break after PurdyFests. But Tai & I've been putting the finishing touches on the re-issue of my hippie memoir/haibun, now to be titled EEL PIE ISLAND DHARMA. With luck, it should be out this fall, & Chase &  have enjoyed the trips down to the hamlet of Wicklow on Highway #2, the old Kingston Road, to work with Tai.

Energy, time and $pondulak$ allowing, Chase & I may finally make it up to the Wolf Den sooner than later ...

Canuck People's Poetry
 

There are all kinds of poets writing all kinds of poetry labelled people's poetry. I think the whole People's Poetry label, at least as referring to Milt,  started as more of a friendly in-joke & a convenient tag to honour him with, rather than a true attempt to define People's Poetry (or Milt ...). But it is a convenient label, & James Deahl says that currently most poets writing in Canada consider themselves People's Poets.

The first PurdyFest was a continuation of the "Controversies" James Deahl and Terry Barker had been holding on Milt's legacy and the current state of Canuck People's Poetry. At the start of the first PurdyFest, I believe Terry was even predicting the death of the tradition in Canadian poetry. But the very success and ongoing energy produced by six PurdyFests so far proves that People's Poetry, however we may perceive it, is still very much alive & kicking - and evolving by, as you put it, 'moving to the future by looking farther into the past'! 

The shamanic* and Canuck People's Poetry
Much People's Poetry documents the day-to-day lives and struggles of Canucks. Milt and Big Al did this of course, & it's part of the charm & strength of their poetry that it became so widely read. Most of us do this with varying degrees of success (or annoyance to our readers & audiences). But I believe one of the major qualities of People's Poetry is that it also attempts to lead the writers and readers to a higher life - be that a higher existence in social/cultural/economic terms, or even (especially) in spiritual terms. And this is where I understand People's Poetry leads to the shamanic.

If all poets just write about themselves, and their immediate circles of friends and activities, well, this would be one big circle jerk (hmmmm, sounds like a university English department). I've heard Terry pose the question a few times of 'the problem of modernity'. The beings on this planet have put ourselves and the existence of our ecosystem into a seeming death spiral. So how do we get ourselves out of this trajectory?

Only new ways of thinking and being will save us and our planet. It was ever thus. The tribal shaman examined auguries - signs - which weren't apparent to the rest of the tribe. and then he/she led them across the mountains, or over a land bridge, or discovered fire, or the double helix!

There are many ways to tap into the shamanic consciousness. My preferred methods are meditating, reminiscing, and daydreaming - combined with reading & writing healthy doses of good poetry. Rituals help (like drinking beer on the shaman shack deck - or holding our annual PurdyFests, which are really excuses to gather and share these experiences and any possible wisdom or knowledge gained which may benefit our much larger modern tribe - the entire population of planet earth.)

So at its highest level People's Poetry grows into the shamanic, and this is very much the direction we've been heading with the PurdyFests. For the past couple of fests you have been the prime exemplar of the shamanic, with your howls and chants and songs at fest #5, and this year with your inspired reading of Milt's "I Shout Love". And of course who/what could be more shamanic than your crazed familiar from another time & dimension, Wilber Walnut!  :  )

enuff blather for one nite, gotta try & call Terry again about next Acorn launch & poopify Chase at mdnite ...

peace & poetry power!
Chris/cricket ... and Chase ... Wroooooooooooooooooooooooof!


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On 2012-08-28, at 3:05 PM, Jim Larwill wrote:

Hey Chris getting back to another note...

It would be great to see you here in October, it is a beautiful time of year... Just an idea.

I will put together a little notice for Wolf Fest... and get it too you soon.

I am still very interested in McGee etc... and I still think the 3 wise guys (ironic with the recent tempest) should meet and explore some ideas.  But it looks like we have three years to do it now....  ;)

You are a better man than I when it comes to this democracy thing... My position is it is all Pearl's fault.

I also think Katherine might be right on the money when it comes to Riel.  His poetry maybe not his strongest writings... but his diary visions waiting for the gallows...  prophetic in many different ways.

For what it is worth I am beginning to think more and more about Omnigothic Neofuturist writers than "People's Poets".... far as I can tell "People's Poetry" cannot really be linked to Shamanistic writing*... yet the true core of Canadian poetry of the land may be Shamanistic... certainly something to talk about by the fire late into the night...

... and for what it is worth I was actually going to suggest that since you have a book coming out next year that the symposium be on your work.... but at this point that might mean a sex change... well we are all moving towards a weird wrinkled androgyny of some kind...  How are things with Canadian Poetry moving to the future???   Maybe the first step is to keep looking farther into the past.....

keep marching comrade

RK


----- Original Message -----
From: Chris Faiers:  Today's Vision/3 wise guys of PurdyFest

Hi Jim,
Beautiful description of a natural 'secret garden'  :  )

AcornFest was another success for People's Poetry (& neogothnic omnipresent miasmic whateverness!)

Yeah, I finally managed to drag Terry away from his house for a PurdyFest overnighter - in fact, he stayed at the Belle Vista Motel for 3 nights! And he loved it and had a great visit. So I'm sure it won't be a problem to convince him to do this again next year.

Terry mentioned several times on our trek to A-burgh on Monday how much he enjoyed sharing a long chat with you on the shaman shack deck. Wish I'd had the energy to have stayed on to participate. Most definitely the 3 of us should share an extended yak fest, sooner than later.

I'm planning to head into TO this Sunday for my annual visit to the CNE. Maybe I'll hook up with Terry at some point (mis-typed 'pint' - maybe more accurate!).

Don't know if I can lure Terry back out to Marmora before next year's fest, doubt I can lure him all the way up to your place in Quebec for a visit (hard enough to drag myself & Chase up there). But maybe we CAN convince him to come for another visit to Marmora before next year's fest. Are you OK to drive back down here if we can get him out here?

Getting together in TO is no prob. for Terry & me, but don't know if you have a place to crash there, & if the extra couple of hours drive is just too far & too expensive for you to consider?  If we can drag you to TO, then the 3+ of us could tour the Necropolis ...

gotta go poopify a patient Chase,
peace & poetry power!
Chris ... and Chase ... Wrfffffffffffffffffffffff! (yeah, get me outta here ...)

p.s. thanks for being a great Kamp Kommandant once again! - you got a nice mention in the EMC newspaper article I sent you a few days ago - can't find it online yet to post on my blog

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On 2012-08-15, at 10:42 AM, Jim Larwill wrote:

Hey Chris

Today’s vision…

A clump of cedars were down in the swamp on the edge of the hydro slash.  They have pulled up a clump of earth making a mound that was taller than I was; behind this tipping is a large black pool of muddy muck.  It is as if someone had turned on a light in the swamp. New growth in the open area is almost immediate.

The main part of the fallen clump was made up by two massive cedars about 2 ½ to 3 feet diameter at the base: Their roots interwoven.  They had been growing towards the open light ever since the hydro lines had been put in; great curved stumps moving out to become straighter trunks, shafts sprouting with emerald crowns that had hung with majesty at a diagonal of 45 degrees to the earth.

Now on the ground they are a massive protective hedge providing a cradle for new growth in the open area of bog land.  They will live for many years to come, but their days are numbered.


We didn’t have much chance to talk this year at Acornfest; however, I did finally get a chance to have a good long visit and discussion with Terry.


I think the three of us (Chris Fairs, Jim Larwill, Terry Barker) should get together for a few days of informal chats.


The Raven King

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first Canadian haiku collections 1969 (?)

Subject: my 2 1969 booklets: first chapbook collections of Canadian haiku (?)
email Sept. 9/12

Hi Marvin,
Great to hear from you - you sound well & in good spirits  :  )

As always, I'm pleased that you are finding a good, permanent home for all these poetry-related items and ongoing communications. I'm trying to be selective in the emails I copy you on; I don't want to send anything which would compromise another writer's privacy, & yet I want to give future readers & literary historians an inside view of the day-to-day life of Canadian poets and how we interact among ourselves, our publishers, our non-literary friends, and of course the readers (who of course are mostly other poets and academics anyway).
                                                          
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I'm pleased with your request for copies of my two 1969 chapbooks, CRICKET FORMATIONS and GUEST IN A GARDEN (or I AM A GUEST IN A BEAUTIFUL GARDEN). I self-published these two collections in the late summer and fall, months after I had moved to England to avoid the draft for the Vietnam War.

Both these chapbooks are quite seminal in the world of English language haiku, and they are very seminal for Canadian haiku. They are possibly the first collections of haiku by any Canadian haiku poet (haijin)

Eric Amann is generally acknowledged in the haiku world as one of the godfathers of modern English language haiku, and as Eric is Canadian, he is most definitely the  godfather of Canadian haiku. In the mid-1960s it was Eric's magazine, Haiku, which promoted the form (and to a lesser degree the content) of modern English language haiku.

I've told the story of Eric's long distance mentorship and encouragement of my haiku elsewhere, including in my memoir, EEL PIE ISLAND DHARMA (about to be reprinted).
After several initial rejections of my first attempts at haiku, Eric began publishing my work in "Haiku". This was circa 1967/68, and I was in my late teens.  

The style of haiku I was writing back then with Eric's encouragement, and which I continue to write to this day, has become the dominant and established style and content for modern English language haiku. This wasn't necessarily true back in 1969 when I published my two haiku collections, when many or most haiku poets were still writing stiff and formulaic haiku, often in the strict 5-7-5 syllabic pattern. None of my haiku were (or are) 5-7-5s. Inspired and encouraged by Eric I worked hard to shorten the haiku form and content to better reflect what I believed to be the spirit of the Zen-inspired Japanese haiku masters.

Unfortunately I do feel to some extent the primacy of my early haiku work and publications has been overlooked among my fellow Canadian haijin, or more accurately, perhaps, strongly downplayed. The existence of my two early haiku publications, and their creation by an individual writer and haiku poet, perhaps runs counter to another version of the development of 'Canadian' haiku. This version of Canadian haiku might be described as group oriented  - that first came Haiku Canada (originally THE HAIKU SOCIETY OF CANADA - founded in the late 1970s), and that out of this organization modern English (and French language) Canadian haiku developed.

The problem with this Haiku Canada historical narrative is that I had already - a decade earlier - published these two slim collections.

As you note, they are extremely rare. I'm not sure if I have even one copy of GUEST, but I'm sure I can find a copy of CRICKET FORMATIONS to add to the Univ. of Calgary special literary collections.

Thanks again for all you do for CanPo ...  :  )

peace & poetry power!
Chris/cricket and Chase ... wrfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff!

p.s. I have donated a copy of CRICKET FORMATIONS and some other haiku materials to the Special Haiku collections at a Univ. in California


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On 2012-09-06, at 9:23 AM, marvin orbach wrote:

Howdy Chris,
  Just a short note to say hello.   I trust that  all is well with
you and that the  reprint  of your memoir is coming along fine.
  I continue to receive copies of your recent e-mails.  About a week
ago I sent off  3 packages to the Promised Land.   These include all
your recent contributions, plus correspondence.  They will be
preserved for posterity.
  I must say that I enjoy reading Katherine Gordon's new poems that
appear in your blog.  She certainly is a talented poet.
  I wanted to ask you about your first two publications that you did
in England.  I assume these contain poems.  I checked Amicus, the
online catalogue that lists the holdings of thousands of Canadian
libraries.  I couldn't find any listing of these two  books. That
means no Canadian library has these two titles.   If you have spare
copies, I would be happy to deposit them in my collection at the
University of Calgary, if they contain poetry.
   The weather here is still unseasonably warm. I don't remember
such a hot   summer.
    I imagine Chase is doing well.
   I must go now. Looking forward to your response.
   I shout love.
   Marvin.

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On 2012-09-19, at 2:58 PM, marvin orbach wrote:

Hi Chris,
    Your copy of Cricket Formations, your first book, arrived safely
in this morning's mail.   Thank you very much.   What a little
treasure this booklet is.  I enjoyed reading the amazing haiku.  Was
it by accident that your name does not appear anywhere, or was this a
Zen way of minimizing your ego?  As far as I know the U. of C. Library
will be the first library in Canada to have this book. What an
honour!!    It will head west with my next shipment.
     I am looking forward to rereading Eel Pie Dharma when it is
reprinted. If you happen to have a spare copy of the first ed., and
you are wiling to part with it, I would be happy to deposit it into my
collection in Calgary.
     Aye, we are all flowers!!!
     I shout love.
     Marvin.


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Hi Marvin,
I'm so pleased the copy of CRICKET FORMATIONS  arrived OK. It is a real rarity, both for my work and in the field of English language haiku.
And of course I'm very pleased you enjoyed reading it ...  Yes, it was youthful idealism, rather than youthful egotism or carelessness, which omitted my name from
the small booklet  :  ) ... and I'm glad I did it that way. There is so much overbearing egotism in the haiku/haibun world now, that it makes me pull
away from it most of the time.  (but from time to time I try to assert myself and what I feel is my rightful place in the development of English language
haiku/haibun - the blog is a great way to chest thump!)

I wish I had a copy of the original EEL PIE DHARMA to donate. I don't have a single complete copy myself, at least that I can find.

I borrowed the line from James Joyce, but of course,

Aye, for we are flowers, all!

peace & poetry power!
Chris/cricket ... and Chase ... and MacDuff    Wrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrf!    Wrffffffffffff!   Wffffffffff!



You have asked several times for some new haiku/haibun from me, so you can take substantial credit for encouraging the following, composed a few hours ago: "dog day afternoon haibun".

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this book got me fired!

EEL PIE ISLAND DHARMA: a hippie memoir/haibun


But Tai Grove's Hidden Brook Press is going to do a re-issue anyway this fall.

First published with Unfinished Monument Press in 1990 as Eel Pie Dharma: a memoir/haibun, fellow Eel Pie Island Hotel communard Weed put this online in the early 2000s. Six years ago I was fired after a decade as Head Librarian by a village library for putting 'sexual content online'. This must have been the culprit. Buy a copy of this beautiful & comprehensive edition & learn my sordid secrets ...

This new version will also contain Weed's personal heady memoirs of our misspent hippie youth.

Meet a Beatle, attend the first Glastonbury Music Festival and both Isle of Wight Festivals, hitchhike and walk across the British Isles to visit sacred sites, drop acid (LSD), fight with skinheads in the infamous 144 Piccadilly Squat, and get seduced by schoolgirls. Visit Formentera in the Balearic Islands and sleep in a cave on a cliff above swimming sharks.

As well as being a sixties memoir, Eel Pie Island Dharma is also a seminal haibun: prose interspersed with haiku. Many of these haiku have been widely published and are now classics in the exploding genre of English language haiku.    

Readers of Riffs & Ripples will be kept informed of the publication date & the availability of copies.
I was there, and I remembered almost all of it ... and fortunately I wrote it down.

- Chris Faiers/cricket/Canadian Chris

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Conrad DiDiodato has left a new comment on your post "this book got me fired!":

Chris,

you're living proof that Canada is not really a place where viewpoints can be freely expressed without penalty. Censorship (and oftentimes in the guise of 'political correctness')is alive and well here.

I salute you. You got balls, my friend.


Posted by Conrad DiDiodato to Riffs & Ripples from ZenRiver Gardens at 8 September 2012
17:06

*** * * ** **** * * ** * **** * * ** * * * ** **
Thanks, Conrad, for your support & for  immediately comprehending the hidden  'politiks' behind the firing. Even some friends & supporters haven't clearly understood this.

An irony in the firing is that it was by very reactionary people, who used (or tried to use) progressive rhetoric as their weapon. Their ruse failed on one count, in that I received wrongful dismissal payments for 8 months. But it did succeed in that I'm no longer in charge there, & now reactionary backstabbers are.

Also the firing did force me into premature retirement (at age 58), and ever since I've been able to focus on my true callings, which are writing & publishing poetry*, organizing PurdyFests & grooming ZenRiver Gardens for meditation and nature appreciation. Wouldn't trade back but do miss the money sometimes  :  )

peace & poetry power!
Chris ... and Chase ... wrffffffffffffffffff!

*including this blog
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"this book got me fired!"

3 Comments - Show Original Post Collapse comments

1 – 3 of 3

Conrad DiDiodato said...

Chris,

you're living proof that Canada is not really a place where viewpoints can be freely expressed without penalty. Censorship (and oftentimes in the guise of 'political correctness')is alive and well here.

I salute you. You got balls, my friend.

8 September 2012 17:06

Ed Baker said...

well... they most likely didn't have the foggiest
notion

nor a single clue as to your (the pieces') intention

well-lll just goes to show you that

politics and religion are bologna ... except when
sex-you'all in-you-end-dohs enter ?

further-ly will look for this "eel" and
just matebe I/we can trade my forth cuming
with yore froth-comin ? My
ARS POETIC HER for your "Eels Pie" ?

My opening line if this was 1966 (or 1990) or (next week) I'd be arrested !

well I just can't hep my self. Here is the opening line

(and, it s ALL about commerce, eh?):125 ofTaCTA

"Sometimes you can kiss my pussy," she said.

28 September 2012 05:22

Ed Baker said...

just found you Eel Pie Island Dharma
en toto on the net... and read "Alice"

now DIG THIS:

on the way back from Greece (Lindos)
late 1969 early 1970
I made my way to London and stayed for about 3 weeks on a friend's (Bill Canada)friend's boat .. On the Thames on the Chelsea Embankment ...

(is Eel Island near there? Was Alice ?)

in the next boat was living a band
who was all night long playing and singing I went over one night to complain and this cute bare-breasted girl said: "ask Donovan"

will wait for the print version of your book... reading books via an electronic device... not my 'cup of tea'

28 September 2012 05:46

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 Sept. 28/12
Hi Ed,
Thanks for posting yer comments on the blog; they're always appreciated to clarify & further the cause ...    Definitely up for trading forthcoming books, & looking forward to reading ARS POETIC HER : )  We've improved the title for the republication to EEL PIE ISLAND DHARMA (added "island" to the title - books with the words "island, river, lake" etc. are always popular with book buyers - & besides, some peeple thought the book was a recipe collection, or a Jeffrey Dahmer memoir or somesuch!!!).

I wrote a piece, now posted on my blog & added as an intro to the republication, about EPD as an example of haibun serving a variety of lit funcitons: memoir, historical document & personal spiritual diary of sorts. I'll forward you my publisher's pdf for the new book. We are currently in limbo, waiting for the Nat. Library of Canada to supply CIP data so the book can be shipped off to the printer. Should be out in early to mid-November. I'm honoured that it'll launch in TO, prob. at THE IMPERIAL PUBLIC LIBRARY, along with another premiere of Milton Acorn's new selected, IN A SPRINGTIME INSTANT.

Yeah, the small town, small minded mofos here in rural Ontario really don't like writers, poets esp. - we're dangerous anywhere of course, always the first to be shot in a revolution, a coup, etc.. So what they conducted to fire me was a good ol' fashioned rural backstabbing cowardly witch hunt. They were so afraid of this semi-articulate little old hippie (maybe 5 1/2 feet) & beer bellied, that the entire library board (several 6 foot++ reactionaries) were afraid to even let me speak. And their lies to justify my firing were so outrageous their lawyers tried to prevent me from showing them to anybody but my own family! At least I got 8 months severance pay from the cowards, & thank God in a way they fired me, because I was just about working miracles for their library & their miserable little community. Now I can focus on my writing & hanging out at ZenRiver Gardens & organizing annual PurdyFest poetry confabs  ... oh yeah, & blathering on this blog  ;  )

thanks again for contributing a riff, a few ripples & a rant or two  :  )
peace & poetry power!
Chris/cricket ... and Chase ... Wrffffffffffffffffffffffffff! (coffee's ready!)



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