Category: Archive

Season’s greetings!

JC welcomes feedback on her poems at this site. She just received these remarks from a careful reader of poems in Life, after life — from epitaph to epilogue:

“Hardly any poem could I pass without at the very least two reads…It’s a charge of depth and lightness. And the structures lend themselves to the contemplation of ephemeral lives in the context of the mystery of time, each with its wisp of complex experience.” EP, Montreal.

JC thanks EP for these discerning and positive comments.

From Life, after life, she offers this found poem in the hope readers will take up her call.

Splendid terms

 Make a toast to those you love,

to one-of-a-kind places that meant the most

right down to the lawn chair.

Recall one act of disobedience, rarely-made

mistakes, holy like a startled forest animal.

                 Sources: April 20, 2017, notices in remembrance of: Earl, Ernst, Rosalind, Phyllis, Irit, Thomas, Derek, and Sylvia; and obituary articles, “Edmonton star won six Grey Cups” by Allan Maki; “Songwriter Sylvia Moy helped Stevie Wonde find his sound,” by Richard Sandomir, New York Times News Service.

JC hosts a conversation with celebrated author CS Richardson at the main branch of the Prince Edward County library at 7:00 PM, Thursday, October 17, 2024 in Picton.

The evening will focus upon Richardson’s Giller short-listed novel, ALL THE COLOUR IN THE WORLD,  which JC promoted at the 2024 County Reads Debate.

“I have so many questions of my own to ask Scott Richardson about this gem of a novel, which I have now read for the third time and still could not put down,” JC explained.

The interactive discussion will give the audience an opportunity to speak directly with the author and to gain insight into how he comes to write his novels, each of which have attracted much attention and praise.

JC is one of 5 panellists who will face-off before a live audience in The County Reads debate, Thursday, April 18 at 7PM in Picton, Ontario.

On the eve of the annual Authors Festival, the event has a reputation for animated moments to uphold where each debater presents a Canadian title, published in the last 5 years, as THE one everyone in Prince Edward County should read. After the verbal fisticuffs, the audience votes by secret ballot, and the book of the year emerges.

Here is the link to the site of the Prince Edward County Library, organizer of the event:

And here is the link to story in this week’s Picton Gazette, penned by its publisher who happens to be one of the presenters.

“I am delighted to have been asked to take part in the debate. I chose All the Colour in the World, a finalist for the 2023 Giller Prize, because I could not put it down! And it’s not a whodunnit!” JC explained.

Tickets for The County Reads are available from Library branches in Prince Edward County as are passes to the Authors Festival on April 19-20.

I bring this forward and publish it each year in recognition of September 30 as national truth and reconciliation day.

This cento, written under my pen name A. Garnett Weiss, uses lines drawn unaltered apart from changes for the sake of punctuation from individual centos in my 2021 collection, Bricolage, A Gathering of Centos, a finalist for the 2022 Fred Kerner Book Award from the Canadian Authors Association.

I did not know what to do

                                

Let us stand here and admit we have no road,

though what we say can cover truth

beneath the bitter ground this year—

the past itself disgraced by the ferocity of the new

edges curling with blasphemy and blame—

oppression which preceded history.

Vigilant in anguish and unattended grief,

my own heart and I catch my breath in pain,

now ululate in deep despair,

in deep apology,

lonely for something, nameless as they had been

like shades of broken stars.

               Cento gloss

                Title: Olena Kalytiak Davis, “On the Certainty of Bryan”

                Line 1: William Empson, “Homage to The British Museum”

                Line 2: Fred Cogswell, “Black and White”

                Line 3: Susan Hahn, “January Ovaries”

                Line 4: Campbell McGrath, “Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool/The Founding of Brasilia (1950)”

                 Line 5: Molly Peacock, “Blasphemy & Blame”

                 Line 6: Richard Greene, “Independence”

                 Line 7: Gloria Burgess, “Blessing the Lepers”

                 Line 8: Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, “The Race”

                 Line 9: John Whitworth, “The Room under the Eaves”

                 Line 10: E. J. Pratt, “Come Away, Death”

                 Line 11: Claudia Emerson, “Cyst”

                 Line 12: Elliot Fried, “Daily I Fall in Love with Waitresses”

April is National Poetry Month and JC’s interview with Lynn Pickering gives her the chance to share poems that celebrate both the Month and the sun on the eve of the total eclipse, taking place during the afternoon of April 8.

“Because Prince Edward County is right on the path of totality, when the moon will block the sun for more than 3 minutes, I thought it important to mark the experience with poetry that ranges from the mid 1880’s to today. This event won’t happen in the County for more than 400 years, well after my best before date,” JC noted.

The interview can be live-streamed right after the noon news on Sunday, April 7.

JC honours the memory of her late mother in this poem, posted by Silver Birch Press on July 2 as part of its series, About My Mother.

Here’s a link to the poem, November 13, 2008.

https://silverbirchpress.wordpress.com/2024/07/02/november-13-2008-by-jc-sulzenko-all-about-my-mother-series/

 The notes which form part of the post explain the provenance of the poem and include a photo of JC with her mother taken when the poet was about two years-old.

“As the notes show, I am often torn between writing about my mother or even speaking about her, given how much of a private person she was. I don’t want to intrude. Or in any way erode the closeness of our relationship even these many years after her death,” JC added.

 “I am grateful to Silver Birch Press for publishing this poem on the day of what would have been my mother’s 106^th birthday.”

It’s timely to republish “Anthem” JC’s poem, which first was broadcast on CBC radio nationally on the program “Commentary.”

When thinking people cannot ignore how democracy and related values are under assault everywhere and how many forces conspire to weaken the fragile balance that is civility, many others pay little heed. It’s as though they embrace a new mantra, a combo of “that can’t happen here” with”what do I care, anyway.” They do so without regard for the facts and the truth or the consequences of ignoring both.

Here’s JC’s poem which calls upon Canadians on the 157th anniversary of the country’s founding to smarten up, tune in, and step up to do his/her/their part for Canada and for democracy.

Anthem

 A Mountie sings the anthem

Fine baritone, scarlet tunic

The odd, stiff brown hat

I strain to hear the others –their singing jumbles off

high glass planes, transparent walls

I make out

Des plus brilliants

God keep

Glorious and free

I hear my voice, small in the great room

Oh Canada, we stand on guard

I will the words to be true

Fear we are not up to it

Many of us don’t bother to vote

We squander our choices, our democracy

Grumble at leaders in power

almost by default

Our fault, really

Centred in everyday lives

Blind to the need to protect this country

Beautiful, fragile

We ought to know better

Know what to do for Canada each day

and in times of flood, plague, war, and fire

Should someone tell us

Should we ask

Or should we go out there

Start somewhere

Work not only for ourselves

but for our Canada

A half hour a day

times the 38+ million of us

(minus the sick, the too-young)

would sure buy a lot

of standing on guard

Calling all County Book Clubs and mystery lovers to attend the Prince Edward County launch of Steve Burrows’ 8^th ‘birder murder’ mystery, A Nye of Pheasants.

This fundraiser for the Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory takes place on Saturday, May 18 at South Bay United Church, 2029 County Road 13, starting at 2:30 PM.

Here’s a unique chance to get up close and somewhat personal with the author for a conversation moderated by Lynn Pickering. You will be able to ask him questions about his popular series, now optioned for the small screen by the folks who produce the highly successful Murdoch Mysteries for CBC and streaming services. Refreshments in the church hall follow the reading, discussion, and Q & A. There’s a door prize! And Books & Company will have copies of the novel for sale on site.

Tickets @ $20 each can be purchased from https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/prince-edward-point-bird-observatory/events/steve-burrows-book-launch/  Information: comms@peptbo.ca 

After championing “All the Colour in the World” at the County Reads debate in April, JC is delighted the Library invited author C. S. Richardson to read and discuss this excellent novel with her.

The event takes place at 7:00 PM on Thursday, October 17, at the Picton Branch of the Library. The hour-long program will feature a reading by the author, a conversation between him and JC and a Q and A opportunity. Books & Company will offer copies of the book available for sale at the event. Tickets are available at the library at $15 each.

 “At the 2024 County Reads Debate, I championed All the Colour in the World, a finalist for the 2023 Giller Prize, because I couldn’t put it down. And it’s not a whodunnit,” JC explained to the 200-person audience at the debate. She suggested the book contains not only a good story but also is innovative in the way it uses facts and tidbits from history, the arts, science, culture and literature to illuminate and illustrate, to inform the story and its characters. And in the sensuous way it incorporates the colour palette.