Tag: ecology

Plasticine Poetry always offers us a line up of excellent poets. This month was no exception. After a stirling set of open-stagers the first feature Nyla Matuk gave a set that opened with Don Draper’s ‘silk pocket square standing at attention’ and ended with ‘hyacinth like a limp handkerchief.’ Her works are tightly structured, filled with precise images (‘shark sharp waters rings Alcatraz’) and literary references (‘the hyacinth girl’). Language so layered one misses lines absorbing what one has just heard. Poetry that may work better on the page, where one can stop to mull and move on, but lovely to hear.

Next up was Lisa Young. Her work is loose, casual, emotionally compelling and funny ‘if you’re nice people think you’re stupid.’ Conversational phrases would be touched with poetic imagery ‘this is all there is … the taste of the new moon.’ A strong use of nature images ran through her pieces without losing sight of people in those landscapes. Loved ‘as if you keep your head low enough/you can avoid whatever comes.’

Anya Douglas started the second set. Her often untitled pieces were spare and precise ‘you stayed like snow/like tire tracks.’ I enjoyed her pieces about Russia – watching TV in a house that didn’t have plumbing – about her family’s early days in Canada. She has an emotionally direct way of talking about relationships ‘it’s not love I’m feeling/if it is/it’s not going to last.’

I’ve heard these three writers before and enjoy them more with each hearing.

Final feature was James Deahl. His history in the poetry scene is extensive. It was fun to hear his recollections of sharing an apartment with Milton Acorn. The pieces he presented were filled with nature – images (‘the wind like a silk scarf slips through the trees’) and the need to protect what we have . Loved: ‘the moon braves the razor of darkness.’ He presented tender pieces about his various wives with direct clear images that left me wanting more ‘her hands/ like water seeking their own level.’

Charlie Petch kept the show moving with patience, humour and glamour plus they are crazy for my ass, for some reason.

this is a new, and barely edited, response to a recent news story about eco-worship:

On Yer Bike

according to concerned parents

recycling is a tool of satan

to reuse repurpose is an insidious evil

that values nature more than the comfort of people

that to worry about the ecology puts jobs at risk

makes it hard for a god fearing catholic

to earn a proper living

to feel guilt free

when they discard their coffee cups

wherever they fucking want to

it’s a free world after all

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they don’t want their children’s minds

to be sullied with the need to not waste

our dwindling planetary resources

after all human survival is in God’s hands

let’s take it back from the lawmakers

who are out to protect minorities

whose dubious sexuality

is condemned by the scripture anyway

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anyone who recycles is not only a tool of satan

but an abomination unto the face of the Lord

only faggots carry travel mugs

only queers care about traffic signs

that impair the biblical right

to drive as fast as you want

get those devil bicycles off streets

after all it says in the bible

Jesus drove the money lenders from the temple

even if doesn’t mention the make

of the car he was driving

it doesn’t say

he told those money lenders to get on their bikes

to spare the air

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Jesus wants to save your soul

not the planet

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