Ms. Lyric's Poetry Outlaws

The final launch of Moving to Delilah at Delilah with some poems, audience reaction, and a reboot of an interview with Katherine Autio that I had to re-record due to the heat frying my phone. A beautiful afternoon with music, art, fiction and snacks and drinks and excellent conversation also. Enjoy!

The final installment of my Moving to Delilah book tour featuring a Toronto preamble, then 3 days in Kingston, Hamilton and back for 2 days in Toronto. Reading and gatherings and traveling and eating and conversations galore! Interspersed by a Bruce Kauffman reading of his poem “moon,” my piece from the Wolfe Island Graveyard, Li-Young Lee’s To Hold as one of my home poems we discussed and ending...

Of Edmonton, Calgary, Medicine Hat and Lethbridge. I chat all things road trip and performing, starting with a poem I wrote in a hotel. It’s a blast. Enjoy outlaws!

Plus bird songs and a poem from Yeats. Enjoy :) Goodbye BC! I love you.

In which I first walk in the woods, then read a poem by a Palestinian poet on lost homes, I grumble about empty virtue signalling without artistic substance and glory in the performance, friends and reviews. Enjoy!

Including a Gathering, a Conor Kerr poem, some poetry etiquette, a reading at Planet Earth and gratitude. Enjoy!

And elsewhere in the Lower Mainland at poetry readings and gatherings. Talking about the bookbox prior to leaving Edmonton. Reading The Hairbrush by Kayla Czaga. Grrrrring and glorying. Enjoy outlaws!

In which I read Shakespeare’s Sonnet 62 and speak about the vanity of the artist, the need to transcend for performance, and what my experience was like launching Moving to Delilah for the first time at the Olive series at the Rooster Kitchen for the Edmonton Poetry Festival. Enjoy!

The most amazing way to end Season 10 and its host of long conversations with women poets. Sue and I rave about imaginal goo, forests, Suzuki, the need for connection, the need for a living wage for those who have committed their lives to an art form and practice, the need for transformation within each book via multimedia and participatory means. And we swear a bit. Because we are smart as fuck o...

Two 19th c Canadian women poets who aren’t really read anymore but I read two of their poems and chat about their ill-begotten lives. Also some grrrs and glories! And a lyric for Chris on his death day. Enjoy!

But first, some chat about my week off and then an homage for Theatre in the Raw director who died suddenly a few days ago. Then an intro and bio for Joelle and we talk her poem The Witch in the Stone Boat, queerness, poetry cliques, childhood literature, sound, form, teaching, and the celebration of friendships. Enjoy!

Plus so much more: a Joe Rosenblatt poem, chat on the Griffin and books and weird people and a good Netgalley review and being number one and also Trisia reads two poems and we guffaw mightily! Enjoy :)

Very early and in one case, underestimated, Canadian women poets plus a poem on Dorothy Wordsworth, chat about a good Netgalley review, the revelations of the ER, my new book and so much more ;) Enjoy!

On happy international women’s day! Joanna reads her poem Gyre, we talk grief, the environment, hauntings, language, colonialism, aging as a woman, being a penurious artist and the power of community. I also read some positive responses to my home arts salon episode and a poem by a long dead Canadian woman poet. Celebrate! And enjoy outlaws!

Plus a reading of an Anne Stevenson poem, a 1958 list of what Canadian poetry is by Ralph Gustafson, a rant against Net Galley (not gallery!) reviews, an intro in which I talk book merch and express gratitude for Marrow review response THEN a recitation of an Elizabeth Brewster poem and snippet of discussion from Wyoming prof Tim McGee, then EB’s bio, memory and poem. Enjoy!

This question is answered by historical websites and Canadian creators and myself with my personal experiences and general tips. It’s fun! Also a poem by Alice Oswald and a few poetry-based rants. Enjoy!

My usual aural collage of bits of her reading Penelope from the Six Toronto Poets album in 1955, bio stuff, excerpts from a 1984 CBC tribute featuring letters from Alan Crawley, a snippet of her prose and me reading Still Life. Plus an intro on emotion, rejection, acknowledgments and reading freakishly in front of Walmart. Enjoy!

In which I chat about podcast and text recommendations amid my minor grimness then, after an author bio and book intro, interview the spunky and brilliant Sonja from Toronto. She reads two segments from her long Mobius poem (in Monitoring Station), and we rap about gardening, science, grandparenting, community composition, reading voraciously, translation and the pandemic. It’s full of laughs! Tru...

My mini-lecture featuring an excerpt from my anthology The Other 23 and a Half Hours (you can hear a shorter excerpt from this relating to performing on Season 2, Ep 16), some quotes from poets on peformance and my yays and nays of what I like and don’t like about poetry performances. Featuring interspersed clips of me from 2015, Maya Angelou (1987), John Berryman (1967), Aiya (2019), Rudy Francis...

With bio, memories, bits n pieces, personal encounters, prose and two poems, one recited by him and one by me. And first, I rant and rave about anthology editors, the need for higher paying review jobs, and why we need to always be renewing our risk relationship to our art. Enjoy! And rest in fierceness Brian!!

In which I first talk criticism, the plagiarism machine, trying to make a living in the arts, the inanity of excessively identity-politicked bios, and nod to Brian Brett, who died this week and who I will pay homage to the next episode. Then I intro Donna, how we met, her books and we have a lively repartee for the next 45 minutes on her poems, of which she reads two, after we get through a recita...

1931-2012. Intro on blurbs and Plath. Then Macpherson’s bio, a bit from Tanis MacDonald on finding her plaque and house, obit, scholarly stuff, the Frye School, Atwood remembers and before and after I read two of her poems then at the end (following a random ad!) you can hear Jay herself reading Whale from 1957’s The Boatman. Enjoy!

Mostly 2010 (edited by Lorna Crozier) vs 2024 (selected by Bardia Sinaee). I include review excerpts, comparisons and contrasts relating to intros, formats, bios, notes, style etc and end by reading my poem White Sale from 2010 and Carolyn Smart’s piece Ashes from 2024. My raspy cold-gritty voice goes in and out of rough but at least I don’t cough! Enjoy!!

The last collage with two verses of a tune by Krummi, a teensy bit of a story about a troll Alda told in the car, my prattle about the residency”s benefits, a long interview with psychologist of the creative brain, Barb Kerr from Kansas, and a poem, yes, I wrote this morning at the creek. Enjoy! Skol!!

Called Turning Back. The profiteering government/aka the dangers of high winds forced the evacuation of a trailer park in 2021-22 in Laugarvatn. What’s left? I find a nest. Recite a creek lyric. I heard a fly buzz when I did not yet die. Enjoy!