Monday, August 4, 2008

Jeffrey Mackie reading at Vallum's Cafe/Culture

Jesus has forded the stream
Me, I am thinking I will put in a cassette
To record the 2nd coming
Me, I am watching porn
It is the closest to love
Half the world gets
Me, I am eating roots and berries
It's the closest to food
The rest of the world gets
Me, I am writing advertisements
It is the closest to literacy
The world gets

The lighting's less than optimal but check out this reading by the Montreal poet Jeffrey Mackie. I met Jeffrey when we read together at The Yellow Door a while back. I instantly became an admirer. A writer in the best tradition of the poet engagé, his work has an immediacy and an appealing unpretentiousness about it, not to mention humour, as you'll hear. He doesn't shy away from either the big questions or the most pressing issues of the day. And his voice is unique in the way it melds high and low culture, prosy language with lyrical flourishes, small quotidian experiences and big philosophical, spiritual, political and social concerns. Jeffrey firmly believes poetry matters and I think his does. He's reading here from a work entitled "Truth Among the Obsessions" which first appeared on the poets against the war website and is now available in limited edition chapbook format from Allied Widget. On a weekly basis Jeffrey can be heard on CKUT radio 90.3 FM

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