SHABBY SHABBY SHABBY

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It's only 20 days until Canada Day. I hope that those who are responsible for this particular flag(?) will be replacing it before the town is inundated for the Canada Day weekend. It is interesting that it was ever permitted to come to this sorry state. I trust kawartha CREDIT UNION will see to it that their well-earned name will no longer be sullied with this trag.

On Labour Day in Toronto, I would walk the two blocks from my home to Queen Street West to watch the parade. Much to my dismay, many of the AFL-CIO and other international orgs that marched for free entry to the CNE, displayed the USAmerican flag front and centre. It wasn't deliberate -- it was negligent.

I have my doubts that USAmerican Labour Day parades reciprocate by carrying the Maple Leaf alongside their Stars & Stripe, but if they do, I feel certain that their national pride would not permit the Maple Leaf being carried front and centre while their own flag is marginalized.

There are always these fear-mongers ready to fling the epithet that patriotism is a refuge for scoundrals. So let them. Sometimes it is also display of community, an icon that identifies us as a people, as simple as that. Nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about.

THE BATTLE OF BALLAD BUNKER

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LOSS OF LIFE ON COBOURG BEACH; WAVE EDITING

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Many many years ago, I was smitten by a beautiful young woman; Kathryn McGlynn. One night when the moon was full of itself, bloated with shine, and the poet was full of himself, bloated with romantic inspiration, an sugarless non-fat organic twig became a quill pen for the poet to script a message in a meter-high font along the entire shoreline of Victoria Beach. “Wally and Kathryn, as simple as that, for what is more perfect than that which is truly simple.” The sentence began near the playground and … by the Breaker’s Motel !V! O T E L. !V! O ! E L. !V! O ! E ! !!!!!i!i!i!iiiiii~~~~

This memory strolled along the beach last fall when a wave of eurekas splashed my ankles. The waves were gentle, tantalizing. They convinced me to collaborate with them on a concept that toys with the dialogue between ‘nature’ and ‘culture’.

I scripted words/phrases into the sand where waves lick. I wanted to photo-document the before and after images of the waves editing the script. I only had a couple hours to learn the language of waves, particularly with a Lake Ontario accent. It’s one thing to eureka; it’s another to execute it.

Words would go into the sand and just as I lifted up my camera, it was wave-edited. Words would go into the sand and … wave-edited. There was a rhythm to wave-tongue that was necessary to learn in order to execute my eureka. It’s not clockwork. It’s T & E. [Trial & Error]

So my baggy jeans have their cuffs rolled up and I’m standing in the water taking pictures from a tripod, which made the rhythm of wave-speak a bit more complicated -- it added a bit of time [2 sec] to the set-up & record. It is quite apparent that I am unskilled with photography. My skill extends to the taking of snapshots 101. I have recently begun to learn a bit of Photoshop, I think its course 102.

[I have been fortunate to have had Mr Doug Curran as FOTOTEK for the Peoples Republic of Poetry from its inception to currently. Several different people photographed the activities of the Peoples Republic of Poetry ever since Loyalist College of Applied Arts & Technology hosted TECHNOROTICA, a 1972 poly-media poetry performance billed as the ‘first safe landing of the Peoples Republic of Poetry’].

Poetry circles and triangles of the day were resistant to the concept of the Peoples Republic of Poetry, so I found myself hanging out with conceptual artists rather than poets, but poets eventually evolved. WAVE EDITING is manifested on this blog as conceptual poetry. Nothing heavy, just a bit of creative whimsy.

Nevertheless, the bottom line is whether you get it or not. But I hope you get it.

Scroll below on the beach…

And the soul wears out the breast
And the heart must pause to breathe

And love itself have rest.

Is the shoreline a sure thing?

EAT AND D!E

POEMISCUOUS SLUTS @ ART BAR, TORONTO, MAY 12, 2009

Poetry Lovers in the Anglosphere know of bumblebee shepherd, Joe Rosenblatt. ZZZZZEEEEeezzzzzzeeee. He came in from Qualicum Beach, BC to perform at the Art Bar, Toronto, last May 12. Poet Rosenblatt won the Governor General's Award for his book, Top Soil, which included the Bumblebee Dithyramb, a charming slithy tove poem about swarmings & gardens & jackets & wockies. The photo below is Joe with long long time friend Marcie McVea.

Cynthia Gould grew up in Cobourg; often hung out with co-collaborationistas at that intersection west of George Street. "What did you say the name of the intersection was?" "Bond. James & Bond." Catch her here with HIGH HEELS LO FI doing the FREE SPEECH fabulousmess of speaking pink dahlings. Cynthia is an MC at the ART BAR poetry series, and I was charmed by her introduction to my performance last month, but here she is introducing Joe Rosenblatt:

Edward Nixon is bon vivante garde of LIVEWORDS, a vehicle whereby he traffics in poetry, big time. It was my pleasure to have his introduction to my feature performance at LIVEWORDS last September. James Dewar (below) should be familiar for poets in the Durham, Northumberland, Quinte region. He is the impressario of HOT-SAUCED WORDS, a poetry performance venue in which the audience actively engages in the poetry after the performance. There are no traces of classroom here -- like the poet says, red hot chili sauced poems.

THE 'INKWELL' OF POETDUNK

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The poets and calligraphic collaborators of Slobourg assaulted the banality boners of town council last month demanding acknowledgement and celebration of their creativity. The town council succumbed to the sarcaustic wit of satyr and rebranded the town as Poetdunk, the Feel Great town. To commemorate the event, the water tower north-west of town was crowned with a quill.

DISTILLERY DESTROYED; ILL-GOTTEN GAINS FROM THE PROCEEDS OF RHYME

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Bicycling around the north shore of Lake Ontario can be an enriching experience in local poetic history. The accomplishments of poetry are celebrated and well-documented, but less known are those unsung victories of creativity over the forces of mediocrity (Bland Land) that chronically restrict the expansion of the Imagine Nation.

As a poetic public service, I will document assorted sites where Poetry prevailed. The Peoples Republic of Poetry (PRP) is everywhere there is the Imagine Nation. The PRP's constitutional mandate is the Prime Policy of Poetry Proliferation and Proselytizing (P5).