eating words...

Despite my objections to the CBC's Literary Competition's ridiculous new eligibility requirements, last night between 1 and 3 in the morning I pieced together a pretty nice sequence to grace their airline magazine. And none of it can I recall reading in public. I rather doubt it's a winner, but it may have a shot at the short list. Deadline's tomorrow.... but if you want to participate, keep those poems to yourself! Mumble them down your shirt front -- resist any temptation to declaim them in the streets!

The Tight-ass Awards

Was just going through the eligibility requirements for this year's CBC Literary Competition when suddenly, I couldn't believe my eyes. Italics mine:

All entries must be original and unpublished works. All works that have appeared in print or on the web, including self-published works, as well as works that have been broadcast or delivered in front of a public audience are considered previously published and are therefore not eligible for the competition.

In other words, if you've so much as farted a poem in public, it's ineligible for the CBC Literary competition.

What a ridiculous gag order!

I guess they want to encourage the silent, anal-retentive types who keep their unpublished work to themselves, who never share new work on the spur of the moment in a reading.

Even if most of my poems are eligible, I don't feel like even implicitly condoning this nonsense by submitting to it. I'm sure Robert Weaver, who founded this competition -- and who championed the likes of Irving Layton and Al Purdy -- is doing somersaults in his grave right now.

PS. John Fretz, organizer of the Poetry Plus readings, sent me this e-mail in response, reproduced here with his permission:

Hi Brian:

Thanks for your attention to this salient detail. My view of a public reading is somebody like John Steffler given an honorarium to read/talk before an organized crowd of people who have basically never met the poet - a funded event...and not poems read before a group of friends or circle who mostly know each other, and who do so without a predetermined honorarium. In any case, the CBC should define and clarify what they mean. It's not stopping me this time around.

Cheers
JF

My response, here considerably refined, went something like this:

Even if [public reading] were as you define them, [their restriction on them] is BS. I don't want to make too much of this, but it seems to me an outgrowth of our culture of surveillance -- the over-controlling, neo-con proto-fascism that's becoming more and more pervasive in our times (see CBC's own radio/podcast series, The Suspect Society). I've read for honorarium too -- and sometimes reading new poems for such a public (well, any public) helps me to spot phrases that could be to revised, etc. Considering how spotty attention can be at such readings, how malleable people's memories are, this hardly constitutes "publication". Your reply, though, makes me reconsider sending work to them... at least provides a more reasonable way to word a letter to the CBC on this matter. Another question of a potpourri of questions: if one revises one's poem after reading it out loud, does it constitute the same poem? Perhaps they do indeed need to define their terms. But again, whatever way you cut it, the terms are ridiculous.

Nina Bruck on CBC Sunday Edition

Today Nina Bruck was interviewed on the Sunday Edition for 9 minutes about our Sky of Ink chapbook, "Still Light at Five O'Clock". Although the introductory hook was how an 85-year-old had put out her first book, amazingly, it was a very literary broadcast: she got to read four of her poems in their entirety on national radio. Fantastic!

The effect was my site meter lit up with some 30-odd Nina Bruck google inquiries, and we got orders for six books! (NB, as of Wed. June 18, that's 10 books.)

A typical letter:

Heard Nina Bruck on Sunday Edition. Wonderful! Now how do I buy a copy? Tried to respond on blog but got frustrated with the process.

thanks


****

My own question is, did my recent comments on their website have an effect on CBC poetry broadcasting policy? Perhaps... but I'd be surprised. At our urging Nina turned the focus from being some sort of icon of old age creativity (she'd already had that on her TV interview), to the work itself, insisting on the kind of broadcast that came out.

If you want to read more about her book, here's the link for that. A click on the label below will also yield more excerpts of her writing. If anyone wishes to order copies, visit my website and inquire or write me at beedeecee@videotron.ca

Robin Blaser

A nice interview with Robin Blaser here on the CBC. I like what he says about language being a great tradition that greets you with every encounter: all you have to do as a poet -- and reader -- is answer the invitation. (Something like that -- I'm transcribing from my almost illegible scrawl.)

He won the Griffin the other day (for a book by a Canadian poet) for his collected, "The Holy Forest". John Ashbery won the international award. (Nothing succeeds like success, as they say.)

True to form, I've made a comment with links to actual poems & readings that they posted today. As I've said, they should have such links at the foot of the article itself: might even increase traffic through their site. Eventually I'll write CBC management about that.

A couple of poems by Don Domanski: here and here. The first is particularly fine. On Words at Large, links like this would be a good idea on, say, the Poet of the Month feature...& I'll write them to say so. (For anyone reading this blog over the last few days, this was certainly a roundabout way to come to a simple conclusion!)

Here, another interview well worth reading.

Sasquatch / CBC

On Sunday I went to Ottawa to do a poetry reading at the Sasquatch series.

As we drove up (my partner & I), we listened to Michael Enright interview Nancy Huston at the Metropolis Blue festival -- an interview we had been seriously considering going to hear live. It was excellent: Mr. Enright is clearly a devoted reader of Nancy Huston, and asked many pertinent questions about her latest book, Fault Lines -- which sounds like it would be a very interesting read -- as well as other things she had written, her relationship to the English and French languages, living in Paris, etc. She didn't read from the book, and that was absolutely fine.

Which made me reflect upon an obvious point related to my foregoing complaint about the lack of actual poems in the poetry coverage on the CBC. Talking to a fiction writer (or non-fiction prose writer) about his or her book without actually having them read from it is OK, because the writer can give an adequate sense of the book by talking about its story and central issues & main characters. But when a poet is interviewed the same way, it's hard to get that adequate sense of what his or her poetry is like. And since poetry is compact & soundbite friendly, as I put it, it seems evasive (particularly during a long interview) not to actually read from it, or, in the case of a print review or interview, to show or link to some of it. Especially as one can't count on picking it up during ones' next bookstore browse. That's all I'll say on the matter for the next while.

The Sasquatch reading turned out to be a remarkable experience. I'd recommend that venue to any poet who could be featured there. At first, though, it seemed auspicious, then terribly inauspicious: here it was the first truly warm and beautiful day of the spring, and the restaurant/pub where it takes place is quite classy, until -- after filing past an outdoor terrace of couples sipping their daiquiris, one discovers that the poetry reading takes place in the damp basement barroom of the place. How symbolic. Poetry as "hairy beast, hidden in the forest" indeed. Today, there were about ten there, including the hosts and me -- about half the usual number, they told me, and all but my girlfriend had come to read their creations (of varying levels of quality of course) at the open mike -- if I don't include the blowzy man who interrupted the proceedings by clomping down the stairs and bursting in with, "Where's the washroom?" Ah well... But the host was gracious, and as I was the "star attraction", they gave me plenty of time -- I read more poems than I'd planned + translations of Francisco Santos and Gabriel Celaya + 4 songs -- maybe an hour of reading and music. And in the end, sold four books and a CD -- amazing sales for such a small group. I think I made some personal friends in Ottawa with this reading. Without a doubt, League funding did what it was designed to do this time.

CBCeed cont'd

I sent the letter in the post below plus an appeal to write similar letters to fellow members at the National Council of the League of Canadian Poets, including the Maurice Mierau, League President. Maurice wrote back to say he agreed with me completely; Dymphny Dronyk, of Alberta, wrote back with this well-considered response (which she gave me permission to publish here.)

It’s a good letter Brian but before we paint ALL of CBC with one brush I’d just like to bring your attention to the possibility that regional CBC shows may do a better job than the national ones. CBC Alberta does a fantastic job of showcasing poetry and writers in general. I think poetry is probably featured precisely because it is, as you say, “soundbite friendly”.

Some examples:

1. When my book was published last year, I was interviewed by Allan Boss of CBC’s Alberta Anthology, for National Poetry Month coverage, not AA. This was his own initiative, not something either my publisher or I lobbied for. He worked with me for over three hours to beautifully produce five of my poems which were made available for broadcast on morning and afternoon (regional) drive shows as well as the weekend morning shows (provincial). Additionally, the poems were then made available for any of the national CBC shows to use and while it is apparently difficult to track exactly WHERE they get used I did hear from friends and relatives across the country that they’d heard me on the radio.

2. when our little publishing company, House of Blue Skies, published our Writing the Land – Alberta through its poets, last fall we once again were interviewed by various shows and featured on the provincial weekend morning show. CBC was at the launch in Calgary in November and asked at that time if we’d be interested in having our poets recorded for NPM. I confess I didn’t completely believe they would follow through on this idea… but happily, they did. 21 of our poets were recorded. Each poet got an archival cd of the recordings which we have permission to use on our websites. Not only did the recordings get aired for all of NPM, they were so well received that the weekend show continues to use them. By my calculation we still have six weeks left before the run is done. Granted, this may be a fluke, the luck of being in the right place at the right time with the right product. But it has been absolutely wonderful for all of us. Our poets are thrilled. And, for the record, not only the “big’ names were picked. A few first-time poets were among those chosen to be recorded. And again, the poems are available for use across Canada.

I’d be happy to send a letter to CBC from Alberta citing these examples are a very positive way to expand or enhance national coverage of poetry.

Perhaps poets who are interviewed could also be proactive and ASK to have a poem included in the program when they are interviewed?

I wonder if anyone else across Canada has examples like mine?

Regards,

D.

My response:

Hi Dymphny and all, That's good news ... and it comes to me as a very welcome surprise. Unfortunately, I don't listen to CBC Alberta. If it seems I painted the CBC with one brush, it's because of repeated experiences of a rather negative sort both with the national and the Quebec regional services. Some examples:

1. As I've said, the Poet of the Month feature on the CBC website never actually quotes a poem by the featured poet, as far as I can see (and I've seen a few).

2. There is this lengthy interview by Michael Enright of Don Domansky on the Sunday Edition where I listened in vain to hear Domansky read a poem;

3. Nina Bruck, a poet whose chapbook my little chapbook press published, was interviewed for CBC TV Arts Scene that on the Montreal regional news. A wonderful coup! Now the draw of this story is that Nina is 84 years old, and this is her first book. (Her daughter, Julie Bruck, you might be familiar with). In this exercise, Nina and I were separately interviewed; the arts reporter also had her record four poems (several repeated to get them right), of which less than a line made it on air. Instead the story focussed on her life, childhood, etc. and how wonderful it was to publish this book at this advanced age. Of course, it was great general publicity, and maybe I couldn't expect better from a TV arts report at the end of the news. But again, it seems symptomatic of a peculiar attitude endemic at the CBC...

4. The CBC, again to its credit, does have the CBC Literary Award, founded by Robert Weaver to whom they paid homage on this year's award program. However, the award programs themselves are always a strange affairs: here they fly the winners down at taxpayer's expense to the Montreal to be interviewed in person by Eleanor Wachtel, who pops a bottle of champagne with them (you can actually hear the bottle go *pop* on air), quotes the judges' praise and quizzes them along the lines of how it feels to have won this major award, what inspires them to write, etc... without actually having the authors read a line of their work. In the plus column (hmm) they do hire actresses at the going rate (i.e. hundreds of dollars) who do a rather histrionic job of reading 8-10 minute excerpts a couple of weeks later, but it seems to me it would be a lot simpler and more genuine to have the authors read at least some of their own work ... especially if they fly them down to their studios to begin with.

The assumption seems to be that most authors are incompetent readers of their own work, a questionable one given the success of Toronto's Harbourfront reading series and others like it ...

What I find annoying -- actually, infuriating -- about these examples is a focus on the trappings of literary success rather than the work itself. The subtext behind an example like the Domanski interview seems to be: "Poetry is too touchy-feely/hard to understand, so we won't look at his actual writing, but because he won this award, he obviously must be be important, so we'll talk to him..." In other words, we're really into culture, but let's not look at it. Poetry is inaccessible, so let it remain so. Let's reinforce the common mythology that poetry is incomprehensible, too much of a challenge for our poor listeners, etc.

Maybe those folks at the CBC are well-meaning, but they just don't get it.

Anyway, Dymphny, your positive experience does indeed suggest a more targeted approach. And I have one. Since it's the Domanski interview I'm concerned about -- and since that's already buried in the archives -- you can write the CBC about that interview at http://www.cbc.ca/thesundayedition/contactus.html The interview took place on April 20, at 10 am. For comments about the Poet of the Month on the Words at Large website, you can write http://www.cbc.ca/contact/ Best, Brian

Dymphny's reply:

Thanks again, Brian. Interesting points all. It is too bad they can’t balance the human interest story equally with the work those humans have created. I always find it intriguing to hear poets read their own works, but I also know a far amount of poetry lovers who do NOT like to hear poetry. For the few poets who are too shy or not adept at elocution perhaps a professional reader would be the answer for the radio.

D.

And me, always having to get the last word:

Hi Dymphny,

Hmmm...Poetry "lovers" who do NOT like to hear poetry are like parents who claim to love their children but insist that they be seen and not heard.

;)

Brian

A friend of mine pointed out that the same Eleanor Wachtel above has had novelists read a good page or two of their work during an interview, and somehow that rings a bell with me. That makes me also recall that Jian Gomeshi on Q. had David McGimpsey read a poem from his latest book, SITCOM. Light entertainment, perhaps, but there you are. So I concede, I think I was painting our CBC with a rather broad brush. Nevertheless, I can only suggest: look at the BBC.

Ego of course likes to get the last word. Having an ego can be fun, but rather burdensome to carry around. Dymphny wrote back in response to my rejoinder above. I think this time I'll let her have the last word.

C’est vrai! But it everyone has a unique absorption level, same as our learning styles (auditory, kinesthetic, etc). And then there is the delivery. Some writers are absolutely brilliant performers and make a mediocre poem dance in our ears… but the opposite also happens… where brilliant words are choked by a perfunctory delivery. There is no “should” in all of this. One size never fits all. It’s just each to his/her own.

But I could imagine a radio producer who has had some bad experiences with interviewees who mutter and mumble or drone out their words like some sort of black funeral dirge cringing at the thought of how that makes “good radio”. An engaging radio interview is as much about the chemistry between both voices as it is about the subject matter. Good radio is a real art, IMHO.

D.

"Let's talk to the poet, not look at the work itself..."

Here's a letter of protest I wrote to the CBC, in response to their interviews with Don Domanski on the Sunday edition and on their web site's Poet of the Month. I hope it gets posted (well, it did). And for any of you out there who care enough, I encourage you to send letters too. They need waking up at the CBC, and I'm sure it will require more than one voice to do that!

I suppose I should begin by thanking you for giving some media exposure to poets. This, however, is to be expected of a public broadcaster. What I take you to task for is the lack of exposure given to poetry itself. Here, Don Domanski was interviewed for 20 minutes on the Sunday Edition, and not one poem of his was read! And again, on your “Poet of the Month” feature, several inches of space are given to a similar interview, and again, not one poem. This, unfortunately, is not atypical of the CBC nowadays. Do you remember the days when Robert Weaver paid the likes of Al Purdy or Irving Layton to read poems on the radio? That era is long gone. Unfortunately, a poet’s work is not always readily available “at a bookstore near you”.

I have written a missive like this before, and expect I will have to again. The solution is simple: poetry is sound-bite friendly, and a few extra inches on a web page cost nothing to get a sense of a poet’s actual writing, rather than just chatter about the importance of awards and sources of inspiration. But as long as the CBC is more dedicated to the culture of celebrity than culture per se, I’m afraid this simple criticism will fall on deaf ears.

Democracy Now

For a long time now my sole broadcast news sources have been the CBC National and, for a laugh and an alternative take, Jon Stewart's Daily Show. Now I heartily welcome into the fold Democracy Now!, an internet newscast featuring (and largely created by) tireless journalist/anchor Amy Goodman. This is news that probes in depth what so many of the other American (and yes, Canadian) networks choose to slough over and ignore. Consider Amy Goodman's latest documentary video, Independent Media in a Time of War. In it she exposes with particular insight the blatant one-sidedness of American broadcasting vis-a-vis the Iraq war. Of course, Democracy Now! cannot afford to package the news as pretty entertainment. Stock footage is rough, we have few correspondents, and no "human interest" stories to lighten the mix. But Amy Goodman's show is an important corrective. For those seeking incisive reportage from a liberal-left perspective, programming like this is water to a parched throat.

CEE BEE CEED

I never realized until recently how big the CBC looms in my life. Sometimes I feel like I'm on their payroll. This week I was busy getting a submission together for the CBC literary competition (last year I was a finalist.) This weekend I'll be doing a lengthy translation (French to English) for, let's say, a party closely connected to the CBC. It'll pay most of my rent, so in a way I am on their payroll. Last month I did an interview about Communauto car-sharing service that appeared on CBC 6:00 news; this coming Monday, my friend Raphael Bendahan and I will be interviewed by a Montreal Arts reporter in connection with Nina Bruck's book. (Nina will also be interviewed; details about the broadcast, etc. to come.) I drive to work listening to Home Run (or Radio Canada, the French CBC), drive home listening to Ideas. I watch the CBC National news almost every night. I record choice broadcasts that repeat on CBC Newsworld, transcribe parts of them and play them every so often for an advanced class of ESL students. I have a friend who teaches ESL at the CBC, who every so often calls me up with questions. I once taught ESL at the CBC. Because I donated to the Council of Canadians once, I even get junk mail from an organization called Friends of the CBC. So do I love the CBC? Not exactly -- but far more than our Federal Government does.