Sidewalk poetry

Over at the blog of fellow Montreal poet MEB is the latest in her installment of Cinémotscopes. It's in French and I wouldn't presume to translate it without her permission (if you read this, MEB, let me know if I can, or point me to your own translation for my pretty much unilingual anglophone readership). But even if you don't read French, the sound of her flip-flops as she pans over the poem is very cool and worth a look in and of itself.

The landlords are perverts...

...spying on their tenants, even taking videos of their most intimate moments, such as when they eat the excrement of their children (toward the end of the video). Hey, who said nature is pretty. Hope you didn't just eat. You've been warned

Lodgers... the saga continues

So three of the four eggs hatched last Wednesday and this is what they looked like. Basically little balls of fluff. But it's amazing how fast these little creatures grow. Almost literally before your eyes.

The parents are not very happy with their landlords, I suspect, as we are very nosy and noisy, especially with the warm weather of late. But if you sit quietly on the deck and don't move too much, they will eventually come and feed the young.


As you can see (pic 2), now that the little buggers have grown a bit, they've taken to sporting Mohawks, as the young folk are wont to do. I wonder if the parents don't think it's a little early for such experimentation. Likely they're just relieved they haven't gone in for tattoos and nose rings.


As I mentioned, the parents are not to happy with us and are not above giving us the evil eye (pic 3). Our revenge is to hang our laundry on the line. It's pretty funny to see them trying to keep their balance on the clothesline as we move it out.

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A few poetry links...

I was away last weekend and so was not around to read the article on Internet poetry by Frank Wilson of the Philadelphia Inquirer when it came to press. As Rus Bowden has mentioned on several occasions, Frank is a great friend of on-line poetry, and his blog, Books, Inq. is a good read for bookworms and has recently become an on-line poetry clearinghouse as well.

People who know me, know I'm a big fan of podcasting, so I thought I'd point to a few recent podcasts I have taken in that have dealt with poetry. (BTW, contrary to popular belief, you don't need an iPod--or even an mp3 player for that matter--to listen to a podcast. You can just download the file to your computer and listen to it there if you so desire.)

The excellent CBC program Ideas now has a podcast: The Best of Ideas Podcast. The most recent program features three short interviews with poets Billy Collins, Bruce Meyer and Sheldon Zitner on the uses, the sound, and the meaning of poetry. Worth a listen, especially for the Collins and Zitner interviews. (Download the mp3 file here; subscribe to the RSS feed here; subscribe in iTunes here.)

The Bionic Genius Roundtable. I don't listen to this podcast regularly, but they did an amusing interview with Billy Collins last month (it was BC's first ever appearance on a podcast). (Download the mp3 file here; subscribe to the RSS feed here; subscribe in iTunes here.)

Let me know what you think of these, and if you know of any others, I'd love to hear about them.

Technorati Tags: CBC, Podcasting, Poetry

The poetry of hockey

OK, the title is just to legitimize my posting this in my artsy blog, but since nobody is reading my brilliant piece over on Newsvine, I thought I'd post it here too.

Just so you know what you're getting into when you click (and you will click, won't you?), it's a piece on the real reason fans of the Edmonton Oilers (a hockey team for the uninitiated) are so happy their team is doing well in the playoffs.

Technorati Tags: Hockey, Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, NHL, Stanley Cup

Temporary lodger

Spring appears to be manifesting itself in unusual ways this year. In my friend Rus Bowden's hometown of Lowell, MA, the Merrimack is flooding its banks. Luckily, Rus hasn't had to break out the scuba gear just yet (or else he wouldn't have been able to bring us the latest installment of Poetry & Poets in Rags). On the other hand, they're forecasting 30 Celsius tomorrow in Calgary, where my sister lives.

Here in Montreal, however, we've had typical rainy May weather. Maybe that's why this robin decided to build her nest under our covered patio. I think she'll be in for a shock once the weather warms up, though. It's going to get warm up there. And there'll be a lot more coming and going too, with S. and me parading back and forth to the pool, and barbecuing and whatnot. I hope she will get used to it.

I have a funny feeling she's going to be a messy, noisy tenant once her kids hatch. Maybe I should have insisted on a damage deposit.

Spring is a beautiful thing

magnolia
Originally uploaded by rangerteper.

We planted this magnolia a few years after we bought our house. After 7 or 8 years, it's finally hitting its stride. This is what it looked like in our back yard this afternoon.

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