A Great Confusion: Joe Fiorito

I am heading north
although it feels as if I am
heading south

but I am coming from
the south. I am
distraught.

I am trying to avoid
all those places
you are not.

(Vehicule Press)

In his third collection of verse, Quicker Than The Eye, Joe Fiorito continues to craft short, sharp poems that define the harder edges of urban life. His principal tools are a photographer's eye for detail, and a musician's ear for the sound of the human voice. Now, in Quicker Than The Eye, Canada's poet of the streets turns his gaze inward, writing about the influences of early love, family tragedy, and the search for meaning in a world where "the desolate things are mine." A master of spare, razor-sharp language, Fiorito manages to strip sentiment from memory in order to find tenderness and enduring truth on the margins of the city. He has never written more austerely or more beautifully. (From Vehicule Press)

Joe Fiorito is the author of eight books. He has won the Brassani Prize for Short Fiction in 2000 and the City of Toronto Book Award in 2003. He has written two previous poetry collections: City Poems and All I Have Learned Is Where I Have Been.

 

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The Ballad of Eel Pie Island (lyrics)

http://www.eelpie.org/jon_janoff_the_ballad_of_eel_pie_island_(jon_janoff_chris_faiers).mp3

The Ballad of Eel Pie Island music by Jon Janoff  -  lyrics by Chris Faiers performed and recorded by Jon Janoff (2004) In a time long ago seems just like yesterday we were travelling in space and got lost on the way Chorus: Down on the Island, Eel Pie Island down on the island, it's nothing but a figment of your mind we were hippies and runaways gurus and thieves poets and songwriters all smokers of leaves Once a playground of power famous stopover of kings where Dickens wrote Bleak House and Pickwick Papers The Stones and The Faces did sing Chorus: There will always be an island it has always been here if you are so young and lonely young and lonely and down hearted and lost Chorus: Go find your own island go down and find yourself some new friends let the spirit flow upwards in your head down where the great river bends Chorus: ends with: do not ever let it slip your mind Chorus refrain: - Chris Faiers (written 2004, transcribed 2023)

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Chris Faiers (home)   |   biography & bibliography   |   Eel Pie Dharma

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After Four of Us Have Been Let Go: Patrick Connors

for Angela

And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;

from “God’s Grandeur”, Gerard Manley Hopkins

We tip-toe through the office
try not to be seen or breathe too loud,
overcome by a sense of, not quite surprise–
we knew this could be your reaction
when costs are up and profits are down
and the people we call don’t want to buy
tchotchkes* since they can’t pay their bills
and had to fire their own people.

We don’t know how to feel.
Should we be relieved it wasn’t us
or afraid that we will be next?
Should we be sad our friends have lost
their livelihood and don’t know where
they will end up, or glad they don’t
have to go through life hating themselves
so you can make another dollar?

We know you like money.
We need it, too. We use it to pay
for our homes and feed our kids
and get to the office so we can
make you some more money.
But we are also living, breathing
human beings with hopes and
dreams beyond your bottom line.

You need us.
You need us to sell your stuff,
and do it with skill and personality.
We need you.
We need you to value our work
and treat us with respect and dignity.

 

*tchotchkes are trinkets which are more decorative than functional

Previously posted on Dissident Voice on October 8/23

drizzle on The Bay of Quinte Trail

 
I went to Belleville his morning. I walked around Canadian Tire and bought what I hope is a new rain proof jacket. Then I ran across busy Bell Boulevard to the Quinte Mall and visited the Modern Primitive shop, which is more of a Buddhist shop. Great stuff, much on sale now, which is sad. They have beautiful singing bowls and colourful carved wood Buddhas for half price. Crazy cheap compared to online. Wish I didn't have enough stuff like this already. I did buy a pack of expensive copal incense - it's $20 for a small packet, but a very unique scent so worth it to me. The woman who runs it, Sophia Pearl, has written and published a book of her channeling experiences, so she's very interested in chatting with another writer. I may post some of her work on my blog. After my brief shopping expedition I went for a drizzly hour walk on the Bay of Quinte Trail. Then on to Toro for yaki tori, rice, miso and hot tea. A real treat after the damp hike.

 

fall low water
a homeless nest
woven in the reeds

There is a large homeless population living in tent cities in Belleville and across Canada. Some of the more independent homeless have made hidden shelters and resting spots along the edge of the Bay of Quinte.

I was an imprisoned Canadian poet for one day in 1975

 

NOVEMBER 2023 NEWSLETTER
TODAY IS DAY OF THE IMPRISONED WRITER

 

  

Every year, on November 15, PEN calls for urgent international action to protect writers and journalists across the globe, who increasingly find themselves targeted for peaceful dissent.

This year, PEN calls for urgent international action on behalf of María Cristina Garrido Rodríguez, Go Sherab Gyatso, Iryna Danylovych, and Soulaiman Raissouni.

Your voice matters. Take action:
Send a letter of solidarity to the imprisoned writer
Appeal to their governments and embassies
Post with #ImprisonedWriter on social media
Please take action with us between November 15 and 22.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Above is from the PEN Canada (Poets, Essayists, Novelists) newsletter yesterday. I'm a member, but my one day of imprisonment in a Canadian jail was luckily more comedy than the usual tragedy experienced by imprisoned writers.  I believe I was the first person arrested under the then new Canadian"hate laws". Of course wearing a bright yellow tee shirt emblazoned YANKEE GO HOME was a politikal act, not a hate crime. The nationalist political group The Canadian Liberation Movement successfully  fought my  charges all the way to the Supreme Court of Ontario. The judge even reprimanded the testifying officer that he was close to giving false testimony. Here's the poem:

Dominion Day in Jail

(Celebration 1975)


I spent last Dominion Day in jail
in a cold cell
on a steel bench -
cold, sleepless angry and proud
tho almost wanting to feel foolish.

Fed a cheeseburger and a coffee in 24 hours
fingerprinted
stripped of my shirt
frogmarched - mugshot
insulted.

All of this for the patriotic crime
of daring to say Yankee Go Home!
to theYankee Shriners
parading through downtown Toronto.
They thought it was the 4th of July (Canada Division)

Cold, sleepless hungry angry
              Proud
that I was cold, sleepless hungry angry
and not enjoying theJuly sun
lounging on the green grass in Queen's Park
or lining the parade route for the Shriners.
This growing pride made my solitary jail cell
a celebration of Dominion Day.


from my self-published chapbook Dominion Day in Jail
Unfinished Monument Press,  Toronto, 1975
printing by Muskox Press