Prince Edward County to the southwest from the point

Category: Archive

  • Silver Birch Press features “After ignorance, blessings” in its new Same Name Series

    California’s Silver Birch Press (SBP) features Garnett’s recent poem in its new Same Name Series. The poem, based upon Garnett as an undergrad bumping into Leonard Cohen at a university library, goes beyond that moment to capture her evolution into a fan. “I am honoured to be included in this innovative series and thank the editor for choosing this poem,” Garnett states.

    The post by SBP includes a photo of Garnett around the time of the incident, plus notes on Garnett’s creative process. Here is the link:

    After ignorance, blessings, poem by A. Garnett Weiss (SAME NAME Poetry and Prose Series)

  • JC’s Awesome Poetry Workshop a hit with 9-12 year-old poets

    On January 22, JC led a great group of enthusiastic and talented young poets in her one-hour poetry workshop in advance of the Ottawa Public Library’s 2016 Awesome Authors Contest deadline, February 15. The annual contest encourages poets ages 9-17 to submit their original poems and short stories in English or French so that they will have the chance to both win prizes and see winning entries published by the Friends of the Ottawa Public Library in the annual anthology, Pot Pourri.

    “Can you run, steer or stumble into writing poems? What makes a poem great?” JC took a vote and everyone agreed that all three ways of getting into a poem can work. She read aloud selected, winning poems from past Awesome Authors contests, plus used hit song titles from this week’s charts, to tackle these questions and others raised by the group. JC’s call to poets 9-17?  “Swamp me with your poems! I can hardly wait to read them!”

    For information on the contest, go to the Awesome Authors Contest page on OPL website: https://biblioottawalibrary.ca/en/about/awesome-authors

  • January 11 deadline for February “Poetry Quarter” in the Glebe Report

    Here’s the OPEN CALL FOR POETRY SUBMISSIONS from poets in Ottawa’s Glebe neighbourhood and surrounding areas for the 2nd Poetry Quarter, a compilation of poems curated by JC, which appears four times a year in Ottawa’s Glebe Report. The next Poetry Quarter will be issued in the February 2016 Glebe Report. The deadline to submit is January 11, 2016.

    Poems should be:

    • Original and unpublished in any medium
    • No more than 30 lines each, including stanza breaks and title
    • On any subject within the bounds of public discourse

    The poem or poet must have a connection to the Glebe or close neighbouring community, i.e., the poem must be about the Glebe or the poet must live, work, study or volunteer in the Glebe (or close neighbouring community.)

    Poets of all ages are welcome to submit up to 7 poems at a time in one doc. or docx document attachment. Please include your contact information, your connection to the Glebe and your grade if you are in school in your covering email.

    Please email submissions to editor@glebereport.ca

  • JC’s post-Christmas reflection with the annual posting of her “Boxing Day Colours”

    Boxing Day Colours

     

    Three black pigeons found solace

    in the too-warm puddles

     

    They alone had not dreamt of a white Christmas

    Did not regret the grim, gray slush

    that bequeathed lines of salt to new leather boots

    still stiff from packages, now crushed and

    stuffed along with blue reindeer wrapping

    and rivers of silver ribbon

    into bulging green garbage bags

     

    at the curb

    of a new year

     

    A. Garnett Weiss

     

    Best wishes to you all for a healthy, happy 2018 in which peace is given a chance.

     

  • JC’s Guest Post for Mike Stewart, the OPL’s first Writer-in-residence

    When Mike asked JC to write a guest post about poetry for his blog in December, she was delighted.

    The piece appeared this week at: https://biblioottawalibrary.ca/en/blogs/guest-post-jc-sulzenko-hits-hints-post-about-poetry.

    What way did she choose to give tips about how poetry works? She used song titles of the top singles from the week of November 27-December 3. What tips about writing poetry can song titles offer? “It always surprises me that poetry isn’t considered ‘mainstream,’ when songs are poems with music,” JC laments. “Just listen to Adele’s “Hello” as an example. There’s a hit song, made memorable not only for its compelling melody, but for its words which remind me of a ballad.”

    “It’s great that I had the chance to write a post for teens and ‘tweens’ now, because the Ottawa Public Library’s 21st Awesome Authors Contest just opened on December 1.” The deadline for submitting short stories and poems in English or French for young writers aged 9-17 is February 15, 2016. Winning entries will be announced in the spring and be published by the Friends of the Ottawa Public Library next fall.

    “I sure hope students across our city will swamp the judges with fine poems and stories.” JC returns to judge English poetry entries. Governor General Award winner Caroline Pignat will choose winning stories from 13-17 year-old writers, while Catherine Austen will judge stories by 9-12 year-olds. Sylvie Frigon has poems and stories in French as her focus. Entrants must have a valid OPL card.

    The OPL is hosting workshops to give young writers a chance to hear from the judges and ask them questions. JC’s poetry workshop for 9-12 year olds takes place at 10:30 AM on a PD day, January 22, 2016, at Beaverbrook Branch. For information on the other workshops, go to the Awesome Authors Contest page on OPL website: https://biblioottawalibrary.ca/en/about/awesome-authors.

  • A. Garnett Weiss: Sole Canadian poet in Silver Birch Press’s “Ides” collection of chapbooks

    The past has a habit of not only of catching up but also of having a future.

    A few years ago, JC Sulzenko began interviewing people whose choices about what to do and who to be in life interested her. In many cases, she spoke with friends and acquaintances. She also sought out strangers in lines of work she thought could offer possibilities for reflection and subject matter for her poetry.

    Her purpose: To assemble up to forty ‘portraits’ as the basis of a volume of poetry which would capture what she learned and from which she could draw out the essence of her subjects through free verse.

    She met with more than two-dozen individuals and wrote poems arising from each of these discussions. Several poems appeared in such publications as Maple Tree Literary Supplement and various volumes of The Saving Bannister.

    Then, JC admits she allowed the project to be overtaken by other events, including the production of her play and later her book for families about Alzheimer’s disease, “What My Grandma Means to Say.”

    That is until Silver Birch Press offered her the chance to have 15 pages of thematically-linked poetry included in its 2015 chapbook anthology, “Ides,” which was released on October 16, 2015.

    Published under her pseudonym, A. Garnett Weiss, “Cameos, appearances” features poems informed by the lives of a doctor, a puppeteer, a passenger train engineer, an adjudicator, a jewelry artist, a librarian, a lyricist, a friend, a teacher, a composer, an innkeeper, a chef, a volunteer and a naturalist.

    Here’s the link to the excellent video trailer Silver Birch Press produced for “Ides.”

    https://silverbirchpress.wordpress.com/2015/10/16/ides-a-collection-of-poetry-chapbooks/

    The collection is available from Amazon.com at a cost of $ 15.

  • October 22 Launch of “Pot Pourri,” winning poems and stories from the 2015 Awesome Authors Contest at the Ottawa Public Library

    JC is a huge fan of emerging poets and authors in the region who participate in the Annual Awesome Authors Contest at the Ottawa Public Library (OPL).

    “I am pleased return to judge the English poetry submissions to the 2016 contest which closes in February. The quality of what poets aged 9-17 submit always blows me away. These poets are awesome, indeed.”

    Each year, the Friends of the Ottawa Public Library Association (FOPLA) publishes an anthology of winning entries entitled “Pot Pourri.” The OPL and FOPLA join in launching the new collection on Thursday, October 22, at 6:30 PM in the downstairs auditorium of the Main Branch on Metcalfe at Laurier.

    “This publication celebrates the creativity and courage of these emerging artists. I encourage all participants in the contest, whether past or prospective, to come out and applaud the release of “Pot Pourri!” Copies of the anthology will be available for purchase at the launch and through FOPLA.

     

     

  • On the Eve of the Canadian Election, here is JC’s plea

    This poem first was broadcast on CBC’s program Commentary. JC brings it back to these pages on the eve of Canada’s federal election to BEG voters to turn out and vote.

    So much is riding on each riding’s choice. \ JC hopes Canadians know how much each vote counts. Feel free to comment on her poem, “Anthem.”

    Anthem

     

    A Mountie sings Oh Canada

    A Fine baritone in scarlet

    Odd how his stiff brown hat stays put

     

    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 for thee

     

    I will the words to be true

    Fear we are not up to it

     

    Many don’t vote

    They squander their choices, our democracy

    Grumble at leaders in power almost by default

     

    Our fault, really

    Centred in little lives, blind to our need to protect

    our country — beautiful, fragile

     

    We ought to know better, to know

    what to do for Canada every day

    and in times of flood, plague, war and fire
    Could someone tell us how

    or should we go out there, start somewhere

    Work not only for ourselves

    but for our Canada

     

    A half hour a day

    times the 34 million of us or so

    (minus the sick, the too-young)

    would sure buy a lot

     

    of standing on guard

  • “Breathing Mutable Air” launched at Railroad, Oct. 18

    JC appeared with Carol A. Stephen to launch their collaborative chapbook, “Breathing Mutable Air” at the pop-up poetry series, Railroad. http://railroad-ottawa.ca. Award-winning poet John Pass previewed poems his new collection of early poems, “Forecast.”

    Carol and JC created 17 poems for this chapbook using a variety of structures, for example: in some poems, alternating lines; in others, alternating stanzas. Each poet contributed two of her own poems to the collection. Carol describes the collection this way: “17 poems, 2 poets, 1 voice.”

    JC found the experience of writing with Carol enriching. “I found the process to be surprisingly satisfying, at times frustrating, but never dull. We are working on a new chapbook of ekphrastic poems in which each poem arises from a work of art in the National Gallery of Canada’s holdings. ”

    Their next chapbook, “Slant of Light,” from which JC read three teasers, is in the final editing phase and uses ekphrastic poems to explore artwork held by the National Gallery of Canada.

  • Deadline today for the Glebe Report “Poetry Quarter,” curated by JC Sulzenko

    The deadline for submitting poems to be featured in the first of The Glebe Report’s new feature, Poetry Quarter, is October 9, 2015. Here’s the link to the website for specifics on how to submit. http://www.glebereport.ca/2015/08/glebe-report-poetry-quarter/

    JC is delighted that the Editor of this community newspaper has chosen to bring a poetry focus to the community four times a year by publishing poems JC will select as ‘curator.’

    “Poetry Quarter” welcomes submissions from poets who work, live, study or volunteer in the Glebe in Ottawa or in its close, neighbouring communities on subjects that reflect the lives and sensibilities of people living in this community and that are appropriate for publication in a paper with an audience of all ages.

    Poems can be in any form – rhyme, free verse, sonnets, haiku, found poems, etc., but must not be more than 30 lines in length. The work must be the poet’s own and should not have been published before anywhere, in any form or medium.

    “As ‘curator,’ I will recommend a number of poems per quarter to the Editor. Poets will be contacted if their work is slated for publication in “Poetry Quarter.” We have already received many fine submissions and look forward to reading what emerging and established poets contribute to this project.”