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Louder Than a Bomb – screening of film about youth poetry slam

Title: Louder Than a Bomb – screening of film about youth poetry slam

Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Description: Film synopsis: Every year, more than six hundred teenagers from over sixty Chicago area schools gather for the world’s largest youth poetry slam, a competition known as “Louder Than a Bomb”. Founded in 2001, Louder Than a Bomb is the only event of its kind in the country—a youth poetry sslam built from the beginning around teams.

The film will be screened at Selwyn House School, 95 Cote St. Antoine Road, Westmount. A question-and-answer session (with co-producer Greg Jacobs) will follow the screening.

Tickets ($10 each) are available at:
Livres Babar (46 St. Anne St., Pointe Claire – Phone: 514-694-0380)
Babar en ville (1235 Greene Avenue, Westmount – Phone: 514-931-0606)

For more details and additional ticket information, contact Carol-Ann Hoyte (email: kidlitfan1972@yahoo.ca, phone: 514-738-3413).

Learn more here.

Date: October 17, 2012

Summer Sport Poetry Competition submission deadline

Go for poetic gold! Pick any summer sport, any style, any form. Bring your competitive spirit. Established poets and first-time participants welcome.
Winners to be judged by Griffin-nominated poet Priscila Uppal. Three winners will be chosen and awarded “gold,” “silver,” or “bronze” prize packs. The poem that takes “gold” will be published online and in print in Literary Review of Canada.

Learn more here.

The Malahat Review’s Twitter Monostich Contest deadline

Send your one-line, 140 character (or less) poems to The Malahat Review via Twitter @malahatreview. Enter as many times as you like, but each monostich must only be tweeted once for the duration of the contest. Winners receive a prize of a free subscription to Plenitude magazine and four new books (donated by Canadian publishers).
Learn more here.

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Song for the Song of the White-Throated Sparrow

Don McKay

copyright ©2000 by Don McKay



Before it can stop itself, the mind
has leapt up inferences, crag to crag,
the obvious arpeggio. Where there is a doorbell
there must be a door – a door
meant to be opened from inside.
Door means house means – wait a second –
but already it is standing on a threshold previously
known to be thin air, gawking. The Black Spruce
point to it: clarity,
melting into ordinary morning, true
north. Where the sky is just a name,
a way to pitch a little tent in space and sleep
for five unnumbered seconds.

Notes on the Poem

The title of this poem just might send you off to discover what the song of the white-throated sparrow actually is, or to hear it again if you've encountered it before. You'll discover or be reminded that it's a surprisingly ornate song issuing from such a wee avian, just as this brief poem is a deceptively rich puzzle.

Right from the start, this poem makes you pause, consider, question and certainly not take initial impressions at face value. For example, it isn't about a sparrow or the sparrow's song, but it's a song for ... the song? Nothing that follows seems to be paying tribute to birdsong, mind you. Someone's mind is racing, though, with a fast-paced musicality ("the obvious arpeggio") that could be just like the sparrow's intricate call.

As we leap from doorbell to door, we stop to make sure that yes, a door "opened from the inside" is one where someone is home and is going to greet us. But - "wait a second" - is there indeed a house behind the door? Is anybody home?

As the mind races on, to

"clarity,
melting into ordinary morning"

does the pace here, threatening to become manic, suddenly calm down as "true north" and possibly some direction indeed becomes clear? Does that racing mind finally find

"a way to pitch a little tent in space and sleep
for five unnumbered seconds."

... and, in the time it takes for the sparrow to trill its complicated scales, has that mind found peace?

Kerrytown BookFest

The Kerrytown BookFest is an event celebrating those who create books and those who read them. The primary goal is to highlight the area’s rich heritage in the book and printing arts while showcasing local and regional individuals, businesses, and organizations. The event features authors, storytellers, publishers bookbinders, book artists, book illustrators, poets, letterpress printers, wood engravers, calligraphers, papermakers, librarians, teachers, publishers, new, used, and antiquarian booksellers and many others associated with books and their diverse forms, structure, and content. The festival also offers a popular children’s area, with storytelling and creative activities.
Learn more here.

Hampstead & Highgate Literary Festival

The fourth Hampstead and Highgate Literary Festival is a celebration of writing for readers of all ages, which reflects the area’s strong literary heritage. The festival offers nearly 60 events to choose from over three full days, including a number of creative workshops.
Learn more here.

Irish Times Poetry Now award winner announced

The €5,000 prize has been presented annually for the past seven years for the best single volume published in the previous 12 months. The winner will be announced in The Irish Times on Saturday, September 8th, and an award ceremony will be held at this year’s Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Mountains to Sea book festival.
Learn more here.