A Dream of Birds takes flight

On some occasions, however, the brevity of the poems make them pithy and entertaining. in "Savoury" Rotchin declares, "I have tasted the bird; savoured both the flavour of its freedom and flesh," and in his inexplicably striking (and thus aptly titled) "Stopped in my Tracks" he proclaims, "What's truly suprising? Someone walking down the street with a bird on his shoulder." While such moments aren't entirely representative, they are refreshing and keep this light collection afloat.

We had a good Ottawa launch of our poetry book "A Dream of Birds" at the Tree Reading Series organized by Dean Steadman with the help of able host/poet Don Officer and webmaster/poet Rod Pederson. It was preceded by some vegetarian Indian fare at a somewhat cramped but nonetheless recommended restaurant next door (sorry, the name escapes me, next to the stately Royal Oak pub where the reading took place.) The audience was warm and receptive, most of them poets, as there was an open mic to begin the program. I was exhausted having worked all day before making the two hour trek to Ottawa from Montreal. Then I forsook the offer of Seymour's legendary couch to drive back after the reading. I say 'legendary couch' because he claims that some of the luminaries who'd slept on it in the past include Irving Layton and Adele Wiseman. "Maybe some of their greatness will rub off in your sleep." In the end I passed on the couch, getting home at 1 a.m. My psiatica doesn't know from Layton or Wiseman.

This morning there is the first bonafide press review of the book. That quote upstairs is about as praising as it gets. Here's the full review from the McGill Tribune online. Stay tuned for some news on the Montreal launch at the Jewish Public Library on Sunday, April 6th.

A Dream of Birds

I may have mentioned that my latest publication is a poetry collaboration with my friend Seymour Mayne and artist/award-winning film animator Sharon Katz. It's a collection of word sonnets called "A Dream of Birds." Seymour and I exchanged these short poems (a word sonnet is fourteen lines long with one word set for each line, hence fourteen words,) and Sharon designed the book with images (really markings) suggestive of birds in flight that actually move in real time as a flip book.

Now poet and editor Maria Scala has had something nice to say about the book on her blog:

http://mariascala.blogspot.com/2008/02/book-beauty-dream-of-birds.html

The first time I read a selection from this book for an audience it was at a Cote St. Luc book club, one of the rare occasions where the subject was poetry. The ladies were, how shall I say, underwhelmed. Mystified, may be a better description. They didn't see (or rather, hear) these pieces as poems. "Too short," they said. It's hard to blame them. Fourteen words does go by fast. The hyper-short form is challenging and approaches the very edge of what may or may not be considered poetry. Short poems can be highly evocative, as in haiku. But how short can a poem be before it ceases being a poem at all? Is there a minimum length required? Maybe it's like the difference between a song and a ditty. A few bars does not a song make. Are these poems or rather poetic moments? Some in the book, admittedly, are more like koans than poems. I had these sorts of thoughts (misgivings?) while writing A Dream of Birds. The word sonnets themselves were challenging (and addictive) to write for exactly this reason. I think where the collection may overcome some of these issues is in the exchange. Each poem essentially responds to the one before it, one voice playing off the next, so it is like a dialogue in poetry which, I think, brings the enterprise some weight.