Fish quills, feathers and Sushi

Yesterday (June 15, 2013), local poetry fans shared a wonderful afternoon at Beaver House, the home of the Elora Poetry Centre, with the Fish Quill Poetry Boat crew (Linda Besner, Leigh Kotsilidis, Andy McGuire, Gillian Savigny, and David Seymour) and First Nations singers and drummers the Mino Ode Kwewak N’gamowak (The Good-Hearted Women Singers).
     And thanks go out to hosts Carol and Daniel Bratton for allowing us all to explore their magical property on the Grand River.

For more about Daniel Bratton go here...

"Linda Besner’s poems are seriously playful. The title of her book, with its pair of rhyming words, suggests that rhymes can echo at point-blank range. Children love playing with such sounds. Northrop Frye – a critic we don’t think of as playful – said that lyric poetry was built on two principles from early childhood experiments with language: 'babble' and 'doodle,' or sound play and structural play."
— Bert Almon, mRb
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You can find out more about when and where you can see and hear Linda Besner and all of the other Fish Quill poets here…

And find a related article here...

Buy books by all the authors mentioned in this post here...

Dactyls on the Grand

Illustration: Ian Turner

"Join the Fish Quill Poets on June 15, the day before they launch their canoes from the low-level bridge in the Gorge Park [Elora, ON] on their usual 10-day poetry trip down the Grand River.
     They will be performing with the Good Hearted Women Singers, who will dance, sing, and drum.
     We [the Elora Poetry Centre] are also bringing the New York School poet and art critic Bill Berkson to Elora Oct. 4 & 5... As you can see from these and our previous events, we are promoting international poetry [and] making the literary scene in Centre Wellington even more vibrant and diverse."

— Daniel Bratton, Elora Poetry Centre

Find out more about the Fish Quill Poets here and on their Facebook page.

See a profile of Daniel Bratton, and learn about "Beaver House," the future home of the Elora Poetry Centre here...

From: Blue Press Books

"Born in New York in 1939, Bill Berkson is a poet, critic, teacher and sometime curator, who has been active in the art and literary worlds since his early twenties….
     He is the author of some twenty books and pamphlets of poetry, including Gloria, a portfolio of poems with etchings by Alex Katz (Arion Press, 2005); Our Friends Will Pass Among You Silently (The Owl Press, 2007); Goods and Services (Blue Press, 2008); Portrait and Dream: New & Selected Poems (Coffee House Press, 2009); and Lady Air (Perdika, 2010).
     His poems have also appeared in many magazines and anthologies."
— The Poetry Foundation
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Buy all of Bill Berkson's books here...

Fish Quill Poetry Boat

"From August 4th to August 13th – A group of poets is setting out on a ten-day reading tour by canoe down the Grand River from Elora to Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. The group, calling itself Fish Quill Poetry Boat, will be reading their work in cafés, arts centres, and heritage sites along the way.[...]

Friday, August 5th: Elora: 7pm @Bissell Park Pavilion"

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