“Quercus (for Guillaume Apollinaire)” for the Vimy Foundation

April 8, 2016 //

I was approached a few months back to create a poem in response to The Vimy Foundation‘s replanting of oak trees at Vimy Ridge for the 100th anniversary of that First World War battle: “Quercus (for Guillaume Apollinaire)” is the result.

I arranged the names of every type of oak tree that grows in Canada and France in a column designed to evoke classical memorials and the trunks of grand oaks. Embedded within the column, quietly asserting a poetry within the trunks and branches, is a single quotation from Apollinaire’s famous 1st World War poem “Le Petit Auto” [“The Little Car”, 1914]. Apolllinaire’s calligrams were the precursor for the contemporary concrete poem and his work stands testament to the affect of the French avant-garde on contemporary poetics. and “Quercus” evokes his subtle arrangement of letters in tear drops and machinery. “Quercus” embeds Apollinaire’s “Nations hurled together so they / might learn to know one another” setting the line within the very trees and columns which stand testament to the lives lost. Apollinaire himself survived a head wound at the front in 1916, but died from the Spanish Flu two days before the armistice, Nov 9, 1918.

Tags apollinaire, erasure poetry, guillaume apollinaire, vimy foundation, vimy oaks, vimy ridge

Categories concrete / visual poetry, YYCPOET

ACADSA Gracious Gratitude Awards

April 7, 2016 //

I am truly honoured to have received two “Gracious Gratitude Award” from the Alberta College of Art + Design Student Association (ACADSA). These are my fifth and sixth teaching awards in the last five years; my students make it amazing. Thank you.

Tags acad, ACADSA, alberta college of art and design, yycpoet

Categories YYCPOET

new from NO PRESS: “Dishwashing Event PART ONE: TIANJIN, CHINA” by Sacha Archer & more …

April 6, 2016 //

New from NO PRESS:
“Dishwashing Event PART ONE: TIANJIN, CHINA”

by Sacha Archer

Produced in alimited edition of 40 copies, 20 of which are available for sale for $4.50 each

(please email derek@housepress.ca to order)

From the author’s note:

The poems in Dishwashing Event were written by my washing of dishes (by hand). Or, a speech recognition program has written the poems by translating/ transforming the noise of my washing of dishes into words recorded in to a document in Microsoft Word. Each poem records one day’s bout of washing. Post-event, I returned to the texts and cut them into a verse form to add room for breathing and greater coherence in the reading, but otherwise they are exactly how they were first produced by the speech recognition program. At the time, I was living in Tianjin, China, and there was no dishwasher (but the hands of my wife and I) in our apartment. The following poems are experiments of extraction and/or transformation. I set up the procedure. The dishes were cleaned. Poetry in the kitchen (not cooked up, but sparkling).

Sacha Archer was born in Hamilton, Ontario in 1984. He earned his B.A. in English Literature in 2008 from Trent University. In his last year at Trent he won the 2008 P.K. Page Irwin Prize for his poetry. In 2010 he was chosen to participate in the Elise Partridge Mentor Program. His work has appeared in ditch poetry, Eunoia Review, 491 Magazine, filling Station and ACTA Victoriana.

Also now available from NO PRESS:

lopes, damian. en vers un beau lieu: beaulieu inverse. Calgary: No press, March [i.e. April] 2016. 60 copies. $0.50 ea.
Hunt, Ken. Antiverse Palindrome. Calgary: No press, March 2016. 50 copies. $0.50 ea.
Clarke, George Eliott. The University of Timbuctu: Prospectus (1327). Calgary: No press, April 2016. 60 copies. $0.50 ea.

Categories Uncategorized

The horror of being a novelist

March 23, 2016 //

I discuss “The horror of being a novelist” in the nightmarish stairwell of Alberta College of Art + Design (click image for link):

Categories Uncategorized

Poet Laureate Challenge: #writtenrighthere

March 7, 2016 //

To celebrate National Poetry Month and UNESCO World Poetry Day, each year municipalities across Canada are challenged to bring poetry into politics. One mayor leads this annual challenge by inviting a poet to read at a council meeting in March or April, and challenges mayors and councils across the nation to follow suit and join the celebration. Initiated by Regina Mayor Pat Fiacco in 2012, the Mayor’s Poetry City Challenge celebrates poetry, writing, small presses and the contribution of poets and all writers to the rich cultural life in our country. Last year the torch was passed from Regina to Calgary, and Mayor Nenshi’s first challenge was a huge success. With over seventy participants, the 2015 challenge was our largest yet—but we hope for even more in 2016!

As Calgary’s Poet Laureate, I have a challenge for writers and readers across Canada.

I ask that writers and readers across Canada explore how literature has reflected and created their own communities … find spaces of literary importance (homes where writers once lived, areas authors have written about, moments of historic literary import, etc), photograph those spaces and post on twitter with a brief description and the hashtag #writtenrighthere

Check out the writtenrighthere blog!

Help document how Canadian literature reflects and affects how we understand our communities and our place.

It could be an intersection or park named in a book, it could be a mountain range celebrated in a poem, it could be the former home of a beloved poet or the location of a Canadian press; it could be a park named after your favourite literary figure or a surprising connection with how Canadian literature has developed just down the street …

How have the spaces of your community shaped (or been shaped by) literature? Where do you see the spaces that have created Canadian Literature in your community?

#writtenrighthere celebrates literary history … and how writing comes from community.

Tags #natioanl poetry month, #writtenrighthere, #yycarts, #yycpoet, calgary poet laureate, mayors poetry challenge, poetry

Categories YYCPOET

National Poetry Month – Poet Laureate Challenge!

March 7, 2016 //

Calgary’s Poet Laureate derek beaulieu—in partnership with Barrie, Ontario’s Poet Laureate damian lopes have a friendly challenge to Poets Laureate across Canada!

We challenge Canada’s Poets Laureate—the celebrated poets across the nation—to reach out to each other and publish, in a small press edition, a poem by one another that can be distributed in your city’s council chambers.

Lopes and beaulieu challenge Canada’s Poets Laureate to request a poem from one of their fellow Poetry Challenge poets, design and publish a small edition and then graciously distribute that edition to members of their city council during National Poetry month and the Mayor’s Poetry Challenge.

With over 40 years of small press publishing combined, beaulieu and lopes believe that small press publishing is an easy and fun way of distributing poetry—anyone can do it! Any printed and folded page can enclose a poem in a thoughtful, simple means of slowing down the reader with a poetic moment.

These small editions will distribute the nation’s poems to city councilors and put poetry in people’s hands – weaving together the nation’s Poets Laureate into a tapestry of voices celebrated in city chambers across Canada!

Tags damian lopes, league canadian poets, mayors poetry challenge, naheed nenshi, national poetry month, writers guild alberta

Categories Uncategorized

March 5, 2016 – Panel Discussion: “What is the Role of the Public in Public Art?”

February 26, 2016 //

March 5, 2016 – Panel Discussion: “What is the Role of the Public in Public Art?”

There is an increasing demand for the public to have a stronger voice in the selection and design of a public art project, particularly when it is publicly funded. This places an additional demand on the artist, which may or may not integrate well with his/her own artistic practice.

Please join our panel of arts and community experts as we explore the role of public participation in an arts practice. Panelists include:

Councillor Gian-Carlo Carra
Poet Laureate derek beaulieu
Alberta College of Art + Design (ACAD) Instructor, Alana Bartol
Independent arts administrator Ciara McKeown

The panel will be moderated by Sarah Iley, manager of Arts and Culture at The City of Calgary. Each panelist will provide a brief presentation followed by a series of questions posed to the panel.

Date: Saturday, March 5, 2016
Time: 1 – 4 p.m.
Location: Nickle Galleries, Gallery Hall, Taylor Family Library University of Calgary
Register: Email publicart@calgary.ca

Categories Uncategorized

Helmets for Heroes in Germany

February 21, 2016 //

Arianne Jones has just won Gold as part of the Canadian National Luge Relay Team in Germany … while wearing the helmet i designed for her in support of Helmets for Heroes.

Categories Uncategorized

Two collaborations with Christian Bok

February 19, 2016 //

These two pieces were created in collaboration with Christian Bök in 2010 and exhibited as part of Umlaut Machine: Selected Visual Works by Christian Bök (Kelly Writers House, Philadelphia, PA, USA).