greeted by an oriole/ cloven hoofed invaders

Hi Fran,
I visited ZRG this aft. I was hoping to visit Dan Dan the Fireman, but he'd already left. When I crossed the bridge I was immed. greeted by an oriole! - so I guess the nesting pair is back again after skipping a year or two. Another pair often nests on Dan's property.

I wandered around ZRG for about half an hour. I'm so glad you bought it, because just wandering about made me reminisce about Chase, & the rest of my visit was blurry :  (  There are several tulips in bloom in the rock garden, and 3 tulips in the funny little wedge garden between the 2 rocks below the shack. I went back thru the sacred cedar grove to the flat rocks, & lots of wildflowers are blooming along the path. Back at the shack I sat on the deck for 5 mins & reminisced, then walked back out thru the 'non-existent' driveway ;  )  If I were you, I'd just go ahead & use it as a drive, just don't call it a driveway! When I was on the deck a pair of wild finches were at the feeder ; )

Like your idea of taking the platform bed & turning it into a woodshed!  As usual, everything bright & beautiful at ZRG ... enjoy the summer!

peace,
Chris


                                          ~   ~   ~   ~



On 2016-05-10, at 10:50 PM, Fran wrote:

Hi Chris,

Glad you were able to enjoy ZRG today. I put in about 30 tulip bulbs last fall hoping a few would come up and they did! There should be some more down in the large rock garden by the bridge. Some kids must have been playing on those rocks because when I was up last weekend a lot of the rocks were knocked over....Grrr. Oh well, I just put them back. I planted a few other things here and there so will be fun to see if they bloom this summer.

I'd love to see the orioles. I put a couple of feeders up in the apple tree and so far we've seen blue jays, cardinals, a few different types of sparrows and lots of finches. I was thrilled to spot two Pileated woodpeckers on the other side of the river. They're big! We've seen a red fox strolling across the bridge one day (I thought it was somebody's dog at first), I'm pretty sure a beaver on the opposite bank and possibly a mink a few weeks ago.

It's wonderful to see ZRG through the seasons. I always have plans to do some work when I get there but I usually end up sitting and just enjoying the view.

Fran


                                       ~   ~   ~   ~

                                      



On May 11, 2016, at 9:33 AM, Chris Faiers <zenriver@sympatico.ca> wrote:

Hi again Fran,
That might have been a deer, rather than kids, that knocked over some of the border rocks! Every spring I'd find rocks kicked off the top layer of the rock garden, & incriminating deer prints in the garden where the shoots of last year's plantings had been nibbled off. I'm surprised that so many of your tulips have bloomed, considering ZenRiver's accessibility to foraging wildlife.

I posted my email to you on my blog, & if it's OK with you, I'd like to post your reply under this as well. It's a pretty harmless way to keep the spirit & memory of ZenRiver alive, esp for some of the blog readers who used to camp there during the 8 annual PurdyFest poetry festivals. ZRG and the fests have earned a place in the annals of CanLit and CanPo, & it's nice to keep some of the tradition alive under your stewardship.

Yep, I know how you feel about losing the desire to work on projects once you arrive at ZRG & just wanting to relax on the deck  ;  )-

zenriver peace,
Chris

Mark McCawley, poet (1964 - 2016)

rob mclennan's blog

rob mclennan's blog

Sunday, May 01, 2016

Mark McCawley (January 1964 - April 19, 2016)

Edmonton poet, fiction writer, reviewer, editor, and micro-press publisher Mark McCawley has died. 

[A 2008 photo of McCawley (in the background) from my Factory (West) Reading Series; see the post it came from here] An enthusiast for what he referred to as “transgressive, urban post-realist writing,” he founded Greensleeve Editions in 1988, a press that produced over fifty chapbook titles, including works by writers such as Janice Williamson, Daniel Jones, Neil Scotten, Ken Rivard, Richard Stevenson, Andrew Thompson, sd edwards, Faye Francis, Michael C. McPherson, Giovanni Testa, Beth Jankola, Shannon Sampert, alan demeule, James Thurgood, Carolyn Zonailo and Stephen Morrissey. 

According to one bio, “From 1986 to 1993, Mark taught poetry and fiction as a creative writing instructor for Continuing Education (now Metro College).” Since 1993, he’d edited and published the litzine, Urban Graffiti, a print journal that shifted to online publication in May, 2011 with issue 11. 

Well-known as both curmudgeon and contrarian, McCawley railed against monotony in literary writing and culture, and was a fierce and loyal supporter of a number of writers across Canada, from Amanda Earl, Stuart Ross, Liz Worth and Thea Bowering to Matthew Firth, Catherine Owen and Julie McArthur, among so many, many others, whether through Greensleeve Editions and Urban Graffiti, through numerous interviews he’d conducted, and reviews posted via his Fresh Raw Cuts. His dedication to the late Daniel Jones, for example, meant that he worked to keep Jones’ work in constant print, as Nathaniel G. Moore revealed in an article for Poetry is Dead:

Yet other work still remains in limited edition quantities. Mark McCawley, editor of Edmonton’s Greensleeve Editions and the underground literary journal Urban Graffiti, published Jones just before his death and kept the letters the late writer sent him. “I published a chapbook of Jones’, The Job After The One Before, in 1990. Ever since, I have endeavored to keep the chapbook in print, re-printing whenever necessary.” 

His own fiction and poetry appeared widely in Canada in magazines and in the anthologies Burning Ambitions: The Anthology of Short-Shorts, edited by Debbie James (Toronto ON: Rush Hour Revisions, 1998) and Grunt & Groan: The New Fiction Anthology of Work and Sex, edited by Matthew Firth and Max Maccari (Toronto ON: Boheme Press, 2002). He himself was the author of nearly a dozen chapbooks of poetry and fiction, including Fragile Harvest - Fragile Lives (Greensleeve Editions, 1988), The Deadman’s Dance (Greensleeve Editions, 1989), Last Minute Instructions (Toronto: Unfinished Monument Press, 1989), Voices from earth: selected poems/ with R. Kurt (Calgary: Prairie Journal Press, 1990), Scars and Other Signatures : prose poems (Greensleeve Editions, 1991), Thorns Without the Rose: fictions & prose poems (Greensleeve Editions, 1991), Stories for People with Brief Attention Spans : fictions (Greensleeve Editions, 1992), Just Another Asshole : short stories (Greensleeve Editions, 1994), Collateral Damage (Montreal: Coracle Press, 2008) and Sick Lazy Fuck (Ottawa: Black Bile Press, 2008). As Black Bile Press editor/publisher Matthew Firth, a long-time friend of McCawley, once said of him: “His own writing is straight-shooting, pulls no punches, honest and drenched in authentic experience.”

Far more active over the past decade or so than he’d been during the early 2000s, he blogged regularly for Sensitive Skin, posted music podcasts (here and here), provided essential critical and personal support to numerous writers, regularly started arguments and kicked against the pricks. I know he had a series of ongoing, and rather serious, health issues, some of which, presumably, was a result of his substance abuse (something he was pretty open about). The whole time I'd known him, I'd the sense that he was struggling through recovery.

During my year as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta (2007-8), we hung out a couple of times, and he even participated in a reading through my Edmonton reading series, The Factory (West) Reading Series. He was gruff, grumpy and engaged, and even startled that anyone wished to speak to him about writing, having been dismissed enough times that he’d begun to expect it. During our first coffee afternoon at The Garneau Pub [see the post I wrote after we hung out here], he complained of being kicked out of the English Department at the University of Alberta during his student days. When I pointed out that, since I was picking up the tab, technically that same department was buying his coffee, he lightened, and laughed. We’d kept in touch pretty regularly since, trading emails and a variety of links, and he was kind enough to review a number of above/ground press items, as well as conduct the occasional interview for ottawater (including one he did with Christine McNair)

I shall miss his complaints, criticisms and contributions, all of which were offered with enthusiasm.

He is survived by his son, Devin McCawley

Some further Mark McCawley links worth paying attention to:

http://thetorontoquarterly.blogspot.ca/2012/04/poetry-month-2012-mark-mccawley-heroine.html

http://12or20questions.blogspot.ca/2007/12/12-or-20-questions-with-mark-mccawley.html

http://robmclennan.blogspot.ca/2010/04/12-or-20-small-press-questions-mark.html

http://www.brokenpencil.com/columns/deleted-zines-7

https://devilhousepress.com/index.php?BLOGTitle=Mark+McCawley

http://www.thereviewreview.net/interviews/%E2%80%9C-ongoing-experiment-anarchist-publishing%E2%80%9D-chat-m

the 'College/Spadina vortex'

Hi David,
A quick reply - I'm finding in my late 60s that if I leave an email reply waiting too long, well, it may never get answered. The downside is that I sometimes freak out new correspondents with too many quick replies & questions  ;  )

One of the friends/contacts I forwarded your project to thinks they may have known Sharon in Toronto. A description of her would help them clarify if this is the same person, & might be of some help with your research.

Yes, I met Brian Purdy a few times, including featuring him as a reader at the Main Street Library Poetry Series I ran in Toronto from 1979 to 1985. I also featured his half sister, Sharon Berg, at another one of these readings.

Yes, please go ahead & contact Peter Rowe. A direct, personal request from you may be the final bit of persuasion Peter needs. Have you considered my suggestion of having a phone call with him? Peter may be reluctant to write a description of those years, but he sure can talk about them in a colourful & vibrant way!

It's good that William took you to visit Grossman's Tavern. It's part of an artistic/bohemian cultural vortex, which is just starting to dissolve as I write this. Across the street is El Mocambo, the nightclub where the Stones recorded their live album many decades ago (this was when Margaret Trudeau, the wife of our then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau & father of our current PM, Justin Trudeau, was running wild with the Stones).

Half a block away, across the divide of College Street, is the Waverley Hotel where Milton Acorn lived most of his final years in abject conditions. Next to the Waverley is the notorious Silver Dollar Bar, which still features alternative music (e.g. new, not yet famous bands). North up Spadina Avenue & around the corner on the next major street, Bloor Street, was The Brunswick House, home of the blues in the upstairs bar.

I spent several nights when I was younger pub crawling among these notorious haunts. A beer or 2 at El Mo, maybe a visit to The In Town (where black Americans congregated - kind of an update of the underground railroad in the era of Jim Crow in the U.S.). A pint at Grossman's, back to the Silver Dollar to watch a haggard stripper, then up to Bloor to close the evening above The Brunswick House singing (in my mind!) along with some famous blues player.





Lots more memories of the Spadina Avenue vortex!!! For several years I was a politko in The Canadian Liberation Movement, & our headquarters was at College & Spadina - a few doors from ElMo. A few years later, in 1978/80, I went to George Brown for my chef's papers (Nassau Street - little side street a few doors from ElMo - which leads to Kensington Market).

I received the first Milton Acorn People's Poet Award at Grossman's - think that was 1987. A few years before a doc was made of the poets I published with my small press, Unfinished Monument Press. I remember filming at Grossman's & being very drunk & singing in the alleyway (what else - Stones, "I'm just sitting on a fence")!!!  I'm very camera shy, but somehow I was twice filmed at Grossman's - for the UnMon doc & when I received the Acorn Award. We premiered the doc at The Brunswick House - where else (met a girlfriend that night, Laurie Henderson, she lived with me for a tempestuous year after that).  

Even wrote a poem about the College Streetcar - shit, I even titled my 1979 chapbook 'College Streetcar Runs All Night'. Jeez, never realized the extent that area affected my life  ;  )

better close & make morning coffee ...

peace & poetry power!
Chris

p.s. really like your art!!! It reminds me of the spiritual carvings at nearby Petroglyphs Provincial Park - I did somethign simiilar, combining elements of First Nations glyph carving with some 'zen Japanese' influence on the sacred rock face at my ZenRiver Gardens retreat. I sold the retreat at the end of last summer to a new caretaker/guardian. I'll see if I can find a pic.

The Easter Rising - when poets led the way

The following is from the excellent Bear Creek Haiku blog (thanks to Ayaz Daryl Nielsen and friends):


Thursday, March 17, 2016

Ken McConnellogue, Patti Smith, poetry and Easter's martyrs. . . "It all leads to each other. We become ourselves."
 
A century ago, about 1,200 Irish women and men - poets and dreamers - initiated a poorly organized, short-lived rebellion against brutal British rule.  Patrick Pearse, one of the leaders, shortly before execution, wrote to his mother, "Our deeds of last week are the most splendid in Ireland's history.  People will say hard things about us now, but we shall be remembered by posterity and blessed by unborn generations."  Seemingly a dismal failure, yet, stirred by the brutality of the executions, Ireland's "slumbering nationalist movement awakened" - in 1949, Ireland achieved full nationhood.
 
Ken McConnellogue, poet and journalist, amidst his Denver Post article: "the doomed, foolhardy, splendid effort galvanized the Irish then and continues to this day.  It was not a bad week's work for poets and dreamers who became martyrs to their nation's cause, remembered by posterity and blessed by unborn generations."

Ken McConnellogue (kieranmc13@gmail.com)



Patti Smith, in her latest,
    'M Train' (winner of the National Book Award),
states
"Where does it all lead? 
What will become of us?. . .
                                   It all leads to each other.
                                   We become ourselves."    


Easter's magnificent martyrs, leading us back to each other.

Beloved wife Judith, with ancestors from County Derry, directed me to Ken's article, even as 
ass't. ed.'s Frosty and Tama

insisted we create this post -
"we have feline ancestors
in County Derry, too!"



(from 'A New Zealand Prayer Book')

Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all, Loving God, in whom is heaven:
   The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
   The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world!
   Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
   Your commonwealth of peace and freedom
   sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,
now and for ever.  Amen.


Ok, Tama, Frosty, it's time for treats!



see you in a moment

ayaz daryl nielsen
                                            darylayaz@me.com
                                            (and/or)
                                            darylayz@gmail.com 
Posted by ayaz daryl nielsen at 9:45 PM
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To Open the Sky: Katherine L. Gordon

Three birds breached
that barrier between the seasons......
tore through the grey fabric
of a fitful March sky,
made swift passage to still familiar trees
and home again at last to me.
Fickle travelers I grieved for,
their music so missed in silent winter,
flip of saucy feathers in barely budding bush.
And on this day they bring me spring,
far too early, though I trust
that unlike me they understand the light.

 
Katherine L. Gordon
March 9th, 2016.


                                                  
                                                                 ~   ~   ~   ~

Hi Katherine,
Thanks for the poem - it's the first posting I've done in about 3 weeks, as I've been in deeper mourning over the passing of Chase 5 weeks ago than anticipated.

As usual, your poem really resonated with me. This premature spring thaw drew me to my back window, even before I started morning coffee preparations. Two crows were perching in the branches of my neighbour's tree which looms into my yard. A third crow flipped in to join them, and as always I thought of Milton Acorn and his love of crows and their shamanistic behaviour. While I stood watching and waiting for some sign from the animated backyard visitors, one crow dropped a watery poop from his perch, & thus endeth my visitation  ;  )

peace & poetry power!
Chris