A TOSOO Review + a nice note to boot!

It was a lovely surprise, 3.5 years after publication, to receive a review of The Other Side of Ourselves, courtesy of poetry review blogger Michael Dennis.

His "Today's Book of Poetry" site covered my book on December 23rd, and was a great early Christmas gift. You can read the review here.

Michael offers up a warm, positive assessment of the book, along with three sample poems (which happen to be three of the oldest in the book - which leaves me wondering what he'll think of my second book, if and when it comes). My favourite note of his is his last:

Another thing that we here at Today's book of poetry really liked -- Rob Taylor confidently tackles the big issues -- God, love and morality. But he isn't preachy, he leaves us to draw our own conclusions.

Today's book of poetry can only conclude that this is finely tempered poetry, strength built from being held close to the flame.

Since finding out about Michael's blog, I've quite enjoyed following his reviews (which come at a feverish pace). Think about doing so yourself.

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Michael's review wasn't the only unexpected present to pop up on my screen this December. I also received this really lovely... I don't know what to call it... life review? Internet hug? Nice thing? from Vancouver's most dreamy-eyed poet, Mariner Janes. The... whatever it is... includes a shout-out for silaron, which is always appreciated!

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Thank you to Michael and Mariner, for your time and attention, and for thinking of me as the holidays rolled around. I appreciated it a great deal!

new tosoo review (#3)

I leave the country and reviews of my 1.5 year old book start coming out monthly. I should have left ages ago!

CLARKE: New poets bring Layton to mind

This new review is from the Halifax Chronicle Herald, and was written by recently-appointed Toronto Poet Laureate George Elliot Clarke. The review is a double-bill along with Darren Bifford's Wedding in Fire Country. In it he speaks of the "wonky fusion" of Al Purdy, Irving Layton and Richard Brautigan that he found in my writing. Who knows which poet(s) someone is going to find in there next...

George Elliot Clarke visited my high school when I was in Grade 12. Funnily enough, I wasn't able to attend his reading (drama rehearsal, I seem to recall). I didn't really have poetry on my radar at that time, anyway. But Clarke was my first poet, that first corporeal being I encountered who actively spent their adult life writing poems in this day and age, and in this country. How peculiar, but also how suddenly possible. Simply knowing he was in the same building as me was, though I didn't know it at the time, a formative event in my life. So everything that's followed is Clarke's fault, in a sense.

Often when I visit a high school classroom to read or conduct a workshop I think of Clarke's visit, and the similar corrupting influence that I might be having on one or two of the students around me.

My point here is that to wake up in Zambia and read George Elliot Clarke describe my book as "full of promise" and me as a "writer of talent" is more than a little surreal and full-circle-ish, and I'm very grateful.

Thank you to Clarke for his time and attention, and to the Chronicle Herald for giving him the space in which to work.

new tosoo review (#2)

The Other Side of Ourselves came out in May 2011, and soon after I was labeled "The Next Al Purdy" in the National Post (it turns out that's a bad thing). Oof.

Since then, things have picked up considerably - launches, readings, high school class visits, interviews, a book club, a photo contest, a poem-in-transit, a response poem, a finding, an anthology, a second edition, and more. It's been incredible.

On the critical front, though, the book has suffered the most Zwickensian of fates - total radio silence. Until now! I just came across this review of TOSOO by Gillian Harding-Russell, published in the 2012 edition of Prairie Fire Review of Books.

Gillian's review is thoughtful and generous, and the considered attention she gave to the book is both evident and very much appreciated. Also, lines like "A simpler and more clever poem I have not read in a long time" will stick with me for quite a while, and will warm me on many a... um... hot Zambian night. But also the cold Vancouver ones when I get back!

Thank you to Gillian, and to Prairie Fire for providing the venue.

Here's hoping we keep up this rate and I get a third review by 2014!

two publications

Some of my first new post-TOSOO poems have found there way out into the world!

I have two new poems ("Transatlantic" and "The Exterminator") in the Summer 2012 all-poetry issue of The Fiddlehead. The issue has a number of strong poems in it (you can read some sample excerpts here), including a sharp little set of five poems by Elena E. Johnson, who is one of our five Dead Poets readers on September 9th.

Also coming down the pipe, two poems from TOSOO ("The Wailing Machines" and "Rejection Slips") are going to be republished in Alive at the Centre: An Anthology of Poems from the Pacific Northwest. Put out by Portland State University's Ooligan Press, this anthology is going to be a big one, containing three mini-anthologies of poems from poets in Vancouver, Seattle and Portland (around 80 pages each, and 284 in total with all the paratexts thrown in). I haven't had much writing published in the U.S., so this should be fun.

The book, with its "Skeletor v. Tweetybird" cover, is already available for pre-order on Amazon, and my understanding is that it will be coming out in March of next year.

Thanks to The Fiddlehead and Ooligan Press for giving these poems of mine a chance!

(29) Photos of Summer

If you've followed this blog for any length of time, you'll know that I'm a big fan of the Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia's Poetry in Transit program, in which ad cards with poems on them are placed inside Vancouver buses and trains. You'll also know how gonzo-excited I was, then, to have a poem from The Other Side of Ourselves selected for the 2011-2012 PiT run! The poem in question:

Summer

All day the phone rings. Yes.
Thank you. Not today. Please.
The kettle quivers. Tonight’s chicken
puddles in its melt. Upstairs,
goldfish o the water’s surface.
A forecaster’s voice twirls
on the radio: Sun, sun, sun!
Outside, children buzz and loop
like model airplanes. Newspapers
crackle on the porch. A squirrel
scrambles up a bird feeder.
If someone doesn’t pick
those zucchinis soon, they’ll burst.

"Summer" went up just in time for Fall, in October 2011. At that point, I asked for people who saw my poem to send me a photo of it, in order to confirm it existed. The response I got was fantastic - even after the first couple months (and my confirmation that I'd seen it) the photos kept coming in.

The 2011-2012 poems are coming down at the end of August, to be replaced by the recently announced 2012-2013 set.

Here then, in celebration of the year of "Summer", are the twenty-nine photos sent in to me since October. Thank you to everyone who sent something, especially Carolyn Churchland - she did a yeoman's job, snapping over 50% of the photos!

I loved receiving the pictures, especially the ones accompanied by a little story of how the poem was found or how the photo was taken. Each was a testament to how this program can brighten a rider/reader's day.

My poem will still be up around Vancouver for a couple weeks, after which it will be moved on to BC Transit buses throughout the province, where it will stay for a year. So folks living in the rest of the province: keep your eyes peeled, and if you spot it know that I'd love to add to my collection.

Here, then, are the big twenty-nine (complete with photographers' notes) in all their redundant glory. Thanks again, everyone!

October 2011 - Skytrain - Bridget Gilbride
The first sighting!

October 2011 - Skytrain - Marc Beaulieu
"It was after the Lions game, we were going to check out Commercial for Halloween fun, and the car was absolutely packed.  As we were getting close to the station, our buddy who was with us asked us what we thought the poem meant.  So I glance up and there's Rob Taylor at the bottom.  Remembering you wanted people to get pics if they saw it, I hurried to get one with my phone before we had to get off.  I wouldn't have noticed if he hadn't said anything, because like I said, the car was packed and there were two giant boobs pressing into me.  Seriously, two young ladies had gotten on each dressed like a breast and ended up standing next to me."

October 2011 - Skytrain - Marta Taylor
 My first sighting of the poem! On the Skytrain on our way to a Cross Border Pollination Reading Series event at Harbour Centre.

October 2011 - Skytrain - Marta Taylor

November 2011 - 145 Bus - Anthony Jjumba
"The not so good pictures of a very good poem. I was really delighted when saw it on the 145 SFU bus a couple days ago."

November 2011 - 145 Bus - Anthony Jjumba

November 2011 - 145 Bus - Anthony Jjumba

January 2012 - ??? Bus - Carolyn Churchland
"I am sure a million people have done this exact same thing."

January 2012 - Skytrain - Allison Schein
"I saw your poem on the Skytrain today! I've been looking for it a lot, but I'm usually on the bus, so I hadn't seen it until today. It was funny because I had been sitting for a while, and then I suddenly remembered "Oh, I should look for Rob's poem!" And I looked up across the aisle and your poem was right there! I couldn't believe it. So then I got up to take a picture and was standing really close to the guy sitting under your poem, and had to explain that my friend wrote the poem so he wouldn't think I was totally crazy."

January 2012 - Skytrain - Allison Schein

January 2012 -  Skytrain - Allison Schein

January 2012 - 84 Bus - Carolyn Churchland

February 2012 - Skytrain - Carolyn Churchland

February 2012 - Skytrain - Carolyn Churchland

February 2012 - 84 Bus - Carolyn Churchland

March 2012 - Skytrain - Carolyn Churchland
"Finally! It had been too long."

April 2012 - Skytrain - Carolyn Churchland

April 2012 - ??? - Carolyn Churchland

April 2012 - ??? - Kevin Farrow
"Lighting was a bitch."

May 2012 - Skytrain - Carolyn Churchland
"This is your poem on the other side of my train. I didn't want to lose my seat so I didn't get up to take the picture. Trust me, I can recognize it from several cars away!"

May 2012 - Skytrain - Ian Smedley
"I read it out loud to everyone on the train... OK, I didn't read it out loud. But I was shameless in taking the picture."

May 2012 - Skytrain - Carolyn Churchland

June 2012 - Skytrain - Carolyn Churchland
"I was too lazy to move to the other side to get a better picture. But it's glowing!!"

June 2012 - Skytrain - Carolyn Churchland

June 2012 - Skytrain - Carolyn Churchland

June 2012 - Skytrain - Carolyn Churchland

July 2012 - Skytrain - Carolyn Churchland

August 2012 - Skytrain - Carolyn Churchland

August 2012 - ??? Bus - David Sadler

found!

Somewhere in the busyness of preparing for my trip to Poland (which I've recently arrived back from), I forgot to mention here that another crazy book dream of mine had been achieved: a poem from TOSOO was "found" by Geist!

"The Slave Castle of Elmina", one of my two poems from Ghana in TOSOO, was republished in the "findings" section of the Spring 2012 issue. They even got a mention in there for One Ghana, One Voice. Thanks, Geist - and thanks to The Antigonish Review for originally publishing the poem way back in 2008!

from the other side

My dear friends, Chrissy and Rob, sent me these shots of my book out on the town in Newfoundland. Coast-to-coast coverage is complete. Thanks, you two!

If you've been wondering why the site has been quiet for a bit, it's because I'm in Poland, visiting with Marta's family and taking in the Euro Cup festivities. I've brought along a few copies of the book for family, so we'll see if I get my act together enough to take some "other side of the planet" TOSOO pictures.

I've been reading Larry Levis' The Gazer Within over the last few days. It's a lovely, sometimes challenging, book. His essay on place in poetry, "Eden and My Generation", is particularly notable. Quotes to come once I get home and have reliable internet access.

Until then, play nice, internet!

Vancouver Book Club report

Wow! What a wonderful afternoon it was on Sunday at The Waldorf. After all these weeks of HYPE and photos, the book club event finally happened. I read for 15 minutes or so, though I spent at least half of that time talking about shark repellent and the Salton Sea (different subjects - don't worry, last I checked there were no sharks in the Salton Sea... perhaps because of the effectiveness of the shark repellent?).

After that came the Q+A, which I thought would last, at best, twenty minutes or so, but instead took up the rest of the two-hour time slot! The questions the audience came up with were thoughtful and probing, and went well beyond the more superficial elements of the book - and they just kept coming, one after another. Along with my book launch and spotting my poem on transit for the first time, being a part of that Q+A was one of the absolute highlights of my first year with The Other Side of Ourselves.

At the end of the gathering, event organizer and recovered-poet Liam Ford announced the winning photo from the TOSOO photo contest, David Jez's "Endless Rope" from week five of the contest, inspired by "The Horse Grazes":

"Endless Rope", © David Jez

Dave was on hand to receive his luxurious prize - a copy of TOSOO and the VBC's next pick, Anakana Schofield's Malarky.

You can read VIA's account of the event (from which I stole these photos) here.

Heaps of thanks to Liam, Liisa, Jen, Erica and everyone else at the Vancouver Book Club for making the event happening, and to Cormorant Books and The Waldorf for doing their part. And to everyone who came out. And to everyone who sent in photos. And to... goodness... let's just say everyone. I couldn't have asked for a better one-year birthday present for my little blue baby.

p.s. To those of you who were at the event and are still looking for a definitive answer to the burning question of the afternoon, I give you the disturbing answer: poop.

TOSOO Photo Contest - Week 8, "Computer Monitor Ekphrasis"

"Abstract" by © David Jez

Results are in from the eighth (and final) week of the TOSOO photo contest are in. I suspected the photos from this week, inspired by my poem "Computer Monitor Ekphrasis", to be a little weird - but I didn't expect them to be weird in almost exactly the same way, as demonstrated by these two really cool photos by David Jez (above) and Carissa D'andrade (below).

"Archetypes stay few….Red and green and blue" by © Carissa D'Andrade

That's it! Thank you so much to everyone who submitted photos over the last two months. We're now less than 24 hrs away from the big event where we'll be discussing TOSOO, celebrating all of these photos, and awarding prizes to the winners!

The poster, in case you've somehow missed it so far:

You can RSVP here. I hope to see you tomorrow!

TOSOO Photo Contest - Week 7, "You Can't Lead a Horse"

© David Jez

We're in the home stretch now! Results from the second-to-last week of the TOSOO photo contest are in. This week's batch, inspired by my poem "You Can't Lead a Horse", includes the above photo by David Jez and the below photo by Liisa Hannus.

"Light will dance with many partners, but none like water", © Liisa Hannus

The last poem of the series takes things in a different direction - no more water or horses! Instead, we're getting meta with "Computer Monitor Ekphrasis". I'm more curious than ever about what/if this poem will inspire. Click here and scroll to the bottom of the page for the poem and the guidelines - submissions are due in by Wednesday at 6 PM.

And (in case you've lost track) the book club event that this is all leading up to is less that a week away!

All of the photos (from all eight weeks of the contest) will be shown in a slideshow during the TOSOO book club event on Sunday. The event is free and open to everyone - you can RSVP here.

TOSOO Photo Contest - Week 6, "Advent"

"To Open", © Tara Lowry

I keep expecting (pessimist that I am) that the submissions to the TOSOO photo contest will slow down, but to my delight they keep coming in! This weeks batch, inspired by my poem "Advent", is as strong as any, including the above photo by Tara Lowry and the below photo by Alais Mara.

© Alais Mara

Thank you, as always, to everyone who contributed.

This week's poem, "You Can't Lead a Horse", is a quasi-ghazal, so it offers up a number of largely disconnected little images. I'm excited to see which of the stanzas spark photos. Click here and scroll to the bottom of the page for the poem and the guidelines - submissions are due in by next Wednesday!

And remember, it's only two weeks now until the big event!

All of the photos (from all eight weeks of the contest) will be shown in a slideshow during the TOSOO book club event at the end of the month. The event is free and open to everyone - you can RSVP here.

TOSOO Photo Contest - Week 5, "The Horse Grazes"

"Grazing Shadows", © Tara Lowry

The latest batch of photos submitted for the TOSOO photo contest have been posted. Taking in the weekly post has quickly become the highlight of my week - I'm not sure what I'm going to do with myself when they stop (only 3 weeks until the book club event!). I am especially fond of the trend that's developed to title the photos after pull-quotes from the poems - it makes me a little dizzy with happiness to see the work of different artists mix and mingle in that way.

The photos for this round were inspired by my short poem "The Horse Grazes", including the above photo by Tara Lowry and the below photo by David Jez:

"Endless Rope", © David Jez

This week's poem, "Advent", brings the focus back into Vancouver. It came out of a time when I worked at the Vancouver Maritime Museum and was daily taking the 22 bus from Kitsilano, through downtown and into the East Side. So it covers a good swath of the city, and hopefully will inspire some great local photos. Click here and scroll to the bottom of the page for the poem and the guidelines - submissions are due in by next Wednesday!

And as a reminder, these photo posts are leading up to the big Vancouver Book Club event at the end of the month:

All of the photos will be shown in a slideshow during the event. The book club event is free and open to everyone - you can RSVP here.