Just because...

I have a special affinity for working joes (janes) who somehow find the spare (ha!) time to write novels. Anne Giardini takes the cake (and it's not even a family-owned business!)

I'm a fan of David McGimpsey. Anyone who can make poetry out of Gillgan's Island and Hawaii Five-O is okay with me. I always said his cherubic punim belonged in the Canlit pantheon.

Kids' Castles

Last week I was unexpectedly inspired to start another blog. (I say unexpectedly because the one thing my life does not need right now, besides another pet, is another blog.) A few weeks ago daughter Tamar (age 10) came home with a school assignment. The task was to build a castle. Knowing full well that she was incapable of pulling it off on her own, and initially doubtful of the whole point if the parents were going to do most of the work, we ended up labouring together on it for several hours and enjoyed the experience. We talked about the kind of castle she wanted, the style, size and materials etc. I taught her about getting organized and good planning. We also chatted about her friends, music, books, gymnastics, TV shows, her likes and dislikes, you name it. The project ended up being a boon for our relationship. The parents of Tamar's class, being who they are, threw themselves into the assignement with gusto. The assemblage of castles that arrived on the project due date was truly something to behold. Some of the castles were conservative while others were wildly inventive, more imagined than real. Some were tidy and others were messy. Some were clearly mostly grown-up built while others were completely kid constructed. Each one said so much about the creator(s). The thought occurred to me that there must be other castles made by kids floating around. And maybe folks would send me their pictures of them. Anyhow, please check out the kids' castles blog site and pass on the message that we're looking for photos. By the way, the awesome castle pictured above was not built by Tamar and me. It's the work of classmate Jonah B, with, I suspect, a little help from his dad Jack and mom Eliza.

Almost Swine Flu...

The VP Finance of our company spent a week on holiday in... wait for it... glorious Cancun Mexico. He came back about two weeks ago and then developed flu-like symptoms - after spending five days in the office touching files, the coffee pot, shaking hands etc. I spent a week avoiding him like the plague. Yes, VP Finances are insane workaholics who, in spite of fever, nausea and aches, spend 18 hours a day infecting the office with their presence. Finally, enough of my co-workers bullied him into going to the hospital to get tested. Turns out he's clear (I'm still doubtful.) One of my favourite bloggers Lawrence Nyveen thought he may have contracted swine flu on a visit to Texas in late April...I don't know what's worse having the overblown bug or the tests to find out. After reading about his experience I think I have an idea.

April - poetry month (and Spring)

BULL’S EYE

For me a poem
is worked soil
turned and watered
a thousand times over
green profusions pruned
with blunt tools
strangling weeds uprooted
dug out stones cast aside
on a growing pile
sweaty body bending
as praying bodies must
that draw closer to their source
sifting pale fingers squirming
through black earth till
my stiff spine
refuses to straighten up again.

Amid the struggle questions occur:
Does the perfect poem radiate
like a garden in bloom
multi-coloured bands expanding
outward forever?
Or does it zero in
on a single symmetrical flower
a golden bull’s-eye word
the unpronounceable Name
as succinct, precise and encompassing
as the well-aimed arrow-point
embedded in silence?

And how can a tired man
awaken from his cramped cage of bones
to yawn and stretch
at the long, sun-circled day
as it reaches its perfect
unheralded conclusion.

Passover reading

It is that time of year again - to recycle old chessnuts because things are just too damn stressful around the house to come up with anything new. So here is a post from last year that is sure to become a classic Blood on the family doorpost, and a new gem from the incomparable Reb Woody Allen.

Richard Ford explains himself, sort of.

This is why I love Richard Ford's novels. (Thanks Mark)

Impeccably crafted lines like this about his protagonist Frank Bascombe: And I can certainly imagine that a millennial standard-bearer might be worth having; a sort of generalisable, meditative, desk-top embodiment of our otherwise unapplauded selves - one who's not so accurately drawn as to cause discomfort, but still recognisable enough to make us feel a bit more visible to ourselves and possibly re-certify us as persuasive characters in our own daily dramas.

He certainly says it better than I did.

Kudos for my friend, co-author and co-editor Seymour Mayne

Louis Rosenberg Canadian Jewish Studies Distinguished Service Award 2009
Prix d'excellence Louis Rosenberg en études canadiennes juives 2009

The Association for Canadian Jewish Studies is delighted to announce that Professor SEYMOUR MAYNE of Ottawa is the 2009 recipient of the Louis Rosenberg Canadian Jewish Studies Distinguished Service Award. The ACJS is proud to recognize Professor Mayne’s lifetime achievement in literary scholarship, poetry and translation as well as his central role in the founding and directing of the Vered Program in Canadian Jewish Studies at the University of Ottawa. Please see below for more information on Seymour Mayne’s achievements.

The Louis Rosenberg Award was established in 2001 to recognize an individual, group or institution, who has made significant contribution(s) to Canadian Jewish Studies in one or more fields. Professor Mayne joins a distinguished list of writers, scholars and community leaders who have received this award in the past. This list includes Miriam Waddington, Rabbi Gunther Plaut, Ruth Goldbloom, Abraham Arnold, Professor Gerald Tulchinsky, Professor Irving Abella, Cyril Leonoff and Seymour Levitan.
The executive of the ACJS wishes a hearty congratulations to Professor Mayne and looks forward to presenting this award to him on the evening of Sunday May 24, 2009 in Ottawa as part of our annual conference.
Dr. Randal F. SchnoorPresident, Association for Canadian Jewish Studies

Professor Seymour Mayne is one of Jewish Canada’s foremost poets and literary scholars. He has been active for close to four decades as a published poet, and has enjoyed a long and illustrious academic career in the University of Ottawa’s English Department. He is author, editor or translator of more than fifty books and monographs, and his poetry has been widely translated into French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish, and Yiddish. Moreover, he has organized countless forums to promote Canadian letters in the Ottawa region, including reading groups, journals, anthologies, and literary events. Professor Mayne has also been instrumental in the promotion of Jewish Canadian Studies. After many years of rallying, he oversaw the establishment of the Vered Jewish Canadian Studies Program in 2006. The Vered Program, which was created to promote an understanding of Jewish life, culture, language, literature, and history in a Canadian context, offers an array of interdisciplinary courses in both English and French, as well as a minor. Prof. Mayne continues to serve as the program’s director and most ardent promoter