Tag Archives: Carol A. Stephen

NaPoWriMo 2016 FPR Impromptu #26 To Move as One Oiseau

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Today’s prompt on Found Poetry Review comes from  R.A. Villanueva. Prompt FPR #26 reads as follows:

“As a kind of generative obstruction to mess with, a few constraints follow. Claw at the latches. Take them as a dare.
An Obstruction

  1.  Watch the film twice. First time without sound; second time with. Both times full-screen.
  1.  And now go make something of

FORM

28 lines or more
a language beyond English appears
the final word of the poem rhymes with “joy”

ACTION

ignite
flex
yearn

CONTENT

anatomy (but not the heart, hands, or lips)
an image, phrase, or name taken from this Wikipedia entry on Lazarus taxa. ”

To view the post and the short film, and to see what other poets are doing with this prompt visit Found Poetry Review, Impromptu #26

To Move as One Oiseau 

Flock of birds in flight

Flock of birds in flight (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

Slow awakening, this new corpus
an unfamiliar avarius,
its muscles new, untrained, yet
its gestures reveal their secrets
in a sleekness of line,
these arms and legs flex, testing limits,

mind and spirit caged in this new flesh:
birds without wing, without feathers.
Untested fledglings, born to flock
each yearning for the long journey.
The fluid movements ignite us
and we begin to dance.

Like the Night Parrot, we are
Lazarus birds. We are not yet ready,
but how we yearn to fly!
Each day, each hour, teaches us as
species memory moves through the arms
fills the body, instructs the flock.

English: Night Parrot (Pezoporus occidentalis)...

Night Parrot (Pezoporus occidentalis) – drawing by Martin Thompson. Wikipedia)

We learn again the lessons of flight:
to align these bodies, to move as one oiseau.
We test ourselves for the long flight, each
in turn at point, who will lead, who will follow,
who will lag behind. Free to soar,
we hear the call of sky.

We’re ready to leave this cage,
ready to fly home.
Into the air, we glide, effortless as oiseaux.
Not bird, nor human now.
At journey’s end, welcome us.
We are the Eloi.

 

Carol A. Stephen
April 26, 2016

In this poem, I have used Latin and French words.

NaPoWriMo 2016 Day 25 Stone Sonnet FPR Inchworm

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Today’s prompt is the one from NaPoWriMo.net

And now for our (optional) prompt! Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that begins with a line from a another poem (not necessarily the first one), but then goes elsewhere with it. This will work best if you just start with a line of poetry you remember, but without looking up the whole original poem. (Or, find a poem that you haven’t read before and then use a line that interests you). The idea is for the original to furnish a sort of backdrop for your work, but without influencing you so much that you feel stuck just rewriting the original!. For example, you could begin, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day,” or “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons,” or “I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster,” or “they persevere in swimming where they like.” Really, any poem will do to provide your starter line – just so long as it gives you the scope to explore. Happy writing!

My first line is taken from the poem Rock Me, Mercy, which is from Yusef Komunyakaa’s collection, The Emperor of Water Clocks, his new collection that I am currently reading.

stones pic 2 for blogStone Sonnet

The river stones are listening
to gossiping willows swaying low
to whisper in the river’s ear.
The river doesn’t hear them,
its own chatter over the stones
drowns the softer sound of rustled leaf.

 

 

The river stones hear it all, the whispers,  IMG_0219
the sharp warning calls as crows
announce the coming of each
brush wolf and every hungry cat.
Even the shotgun blast,
the single croak, the death rattle.

 

 

The stones, stoic, voices caught fast in granite hearts—
forever silent, forever listening.

 

 

Carol A. Stephen
April 25, 2016

 

But I did try the FPR Impromptu 25 prompt to do a homophonic translation. This prompt came from Nancy Chen Long.  I’ve done this exercise before and liked this result. This time, I think too late in the day, as I could not quite find something that worked well. But… see for yourself!   To read the orginal poem in both Corsican and English, by Patrizia Gattaceca  Poems in Corsican  http://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/

The poem is called Inchjostru translated as Ink. I have not included it here. My poem attempt appears below the prompt description.

Prompt

from Found Poetry Review: This prompt is the homophonic-interpretation one that I mentioned in my introduction. It involves reading a poem in another language that you do not speak. The language of the poem you select must be one in which you don’t know what’s being said, so that your imagination has greater room to play. If you know what is being said, then that knowledge might constrict your imagination too much.

Find a poem in its original language. You can use Google for this. For example, entering the phrase “poems in french” into Google brings up the two links below, each of which show poems in their original French. (One of them also shows poems in Vietnamese as well). However, both links also show a translation into English—don’t read the translations!

http://www.poetrytranslation.org/poems/in/french

http://thehuuvandan.org/lit.html

If this is your first homophonic interpretation, then a selecting a shorter poem is probably better.

Sound out the poem and “translate” it based on what you hear. A couple of methods you can use to sound out the poem are:

To sound out the poem aloud by yourself. This might be doable if the alphabet being used is something you can sort-of recognize.

And/or use Google Translate (https://translate.google.com/ ): Paste in a line or phrase or word of the poem in its original language. Select the language to be translated if Google doesn’t recognize it. Once the language has been detected, a little speaker icon should appear below the text you pasted in. Click the speaker icon and Google voice will read what you entered back to you.

Of course, your translation won’t be exact—getting words anywhere near the ballpark of what you think you hear is good.

 

Inchworm 

Chenille sur une branche

Chenille sur une branche (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

The inchworm gyrates in its blood,
strange visitor inside
the goats you dream. Pursue
water, your earthly body,
dead from the sea.
Salt revives you.

The Old Mother
at first night
chanting in tongues,
offers forth a pear
to release you from the worm’s spell.

Its silence means farewell;
you inhale the evening air.

The inchworm departs
chanting in tongues.

CAS

CAA-NCR What’s Up in Lit in Ottawa, April 25 to May 8, 2016

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NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION BRANCH (OTTAWA)

BIWEEKLY NOTICES FOR TWO WEEKS:  April 25 TO May 8, 2016

 Need more information on CAA-NCR?  Visit us at http://canadianauthors.org/nationalcapitalregion/

 TO ALL READERS: Please send all submissions & event notices in the body of an email; (the text needs to permit copy and paste. Exceptions: Accompanying images such as photos and book cover) to Carol Stephen at cstephen0@gmail.com

 

MEETINGS AND EVENTS

 CAA-NCR MAY MEETING: NATIONAL CAPITAL WRITING CONTEST (NCWC) AWARDS NIGHT

 DATE: Monday, May 9, 2016  (NOTE DAY CHANGE FOR THIS MEETING ONLY)
TIME: 7:00 – 9:00 pm
LOCATION:  Ottawa Public Library, Main Branch, 120 Metcalfe at Laurier, in the auditorium (downstairs)

CAA-NCR will present awards to the winning entries in the 2016 National Capital Writing Contest.

The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners in the Poetry and Short Story categories will read their winning entries, selected from among some of the finest writers in Ontario and Quebec.

We encourage everyone to attend, meet and mix with welcoming, friendly, compassionate, understanding writers of all genres and styles, and enjoy the refreshments.

Come and spend a fun two hours with us.


CANADIAN AUTHORS ASSOCIATION NEWS FROM NATIONAL

 Canadian Authors Emerging Writer Award  DEADLINE: April 30, 2016

Reminder: This award is for a Canadian writer under 30 deemed to show exceptional promise in the field of literary creation.  For guidelines and entry form, go to Submit for an Award

, where you’ll see info about all our literary awards. (Remember to scroll down to access the Emerging Writer Award details, guidelines and entry form.)

 

CANADIAN WRITERS’ SUMMIT 2016 June 15–19, 2016

 REGISTER NOW!

 What’s better than a writers’ conference organized by a writing organization? How about a writers’ superconference organized by over a dozen writing industry groups?

The Canadian Writers’ Summit will be a four-day event encompassing professional development seminars, panels, keynote presentations, policy discussions, public lectures, networking opportunities and social gatherings – in short, something for everyone. It will also include a day of programming from the annual Book Summit, which focuses on the publishing side of our sector.

 Key Facts about CWS 2016

Location

The Summit will take place at Harbourfront Centre, right on Toronto’s beautiful waterfront, with events being held both indoors and in tents outdoors.

Conference Rates

Member* Pricing:
Full Conference (3 full days of programming including Book Summit): $300 +HST
Friday & Saturday only (2-Day package): $200 +HST
Single Day: $125 +HST
Just the Book Summit (Thursday, June 16): $150 +HST
Ticketed Keynotes: $20 +HST

For more information and a list of member organizations visit here: http://canadianauthors.org/national/canadian-writers-summit-2016/

 

WORKSHOPS

 

WRITESCAPE AT THE ONTARIO WRITERS CONFERENCE UPCOMING:  MAY 1, 2016

Watch Your Language AND From Inspiration to Publication

May 1. Gwynn Scheltema and Ruth E. Walker are at the Ontario Writers’ Conference.

Gwynn is offering an advanced class: Watch Your Language. Dialect, foreign languages, accents and other linguistic touches provide diversity and authenticity to dialogue. Gwynn will help participants avoid character stereotypes so that what is being said is not overshadowed by how it’s being said. Gwynn’s popular workshops at the OWC are consistently highly rated and fully booked.

Ruth’s beginner workshop From Inspiration to Publication invites new writers to play with words through hands-on exercises and fun activities. Participants will risk a little and try on different forms of creative writing. Useful handouts offer tips on submitting material to the right market. Ruth will also serve as a Blue Pencil Mentor, offering helpful feedback in one-on-one discussions with writers about their manuscripts.  Gwynn and Ruth have been at the OWC since it launched, facilitating workshops, mentoring writers and enjoying the many speakers and learning opportunities that a comprehensive conference like this has to offer. To register, visit the Ontario Writers’ Conference.

 Upcoming 2016 Workshops

 

  • Write to Win: Techniques & Tips for First Place May 28, 2016. Learn how to make your entry stand out from the crowd. Whether you’re entering writing contests or submitting to agents and publishers, it’s all a contest. And many entries never make it past the first reader. Write to Win is all contest, all day, with exercises, surprises and prizes. Saturday, May 28, 2016, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Trent University Oshawa campus, 55 Thornton Road S., Oshawa REGISTER ONLINE. Registration includes all taxes, handouts/resource materials and light refreshments. Lunch is not included.
  • Offered On Demand Scrivener for Writers: The Basics Two evenings in an intimate class setting to get started in the ultimate writers’ toolkit. Scrivener’s all-in-one writing software has a learning curve that, once mastered, can fire up your manuscripts, organize your research, and reveal cool tricks for creative minds. Heather O’Connor (a.k.a. Dr. Scrivener) will show you how. Location: Private residence in Whitby area.

 

For more information on Writescape and to register for a retreat or workshop, visit: http://writescape.ca/site/

 

OTTAWA SUBMISSION CALLS AND OPPORTUNITIES

 

CITY OF OTTAWA YOUTH IN CULTURE PILOT PROGRAM

 The Youth in Culture Pilot Program provides direct funding to eligible individuals to support their development in becoming arts, culture and heritage professionals.

 

Youth in Culture Pilot Program

Program Objectives To support cultural development of youth aged 18-30 towards professional careers in arts, culture, and heritage. To empower youth to identify needs and gaps in their career development, and to support initiatives that lead to or benefit the applicant’s career in culture. To support activities that address the priorities identified in the Renewed Action Plan for Arts, Heritage, and Culture in Ottawa (2013 – 2018).

This program is intended to help cover living expenses and/or project expenses relating to:

Arts, culture, and heritage creation, production, and presentation projects. Arts, culture, and heritage festival and agricultural fair administration and/or management training opportunities

Training and mentorship opportunities for youth to work with established cultural workers and professionals within the arts, heritage, festivals and fairs sectors

 2016 Deadline Dates: Monday, May 2, 2016 at 4pm, Monday, August 8, 2016 at 4pm, Monday, September 26, 2016 at 4pm  MORE INFORMATION & APPLICATION AT: http://ottawa.ca/en/liveculture/youth-in-culture


BYWORDS.CA SUBMISSION CALL

             

DEADLINE:  The 15th of every month for the following month’s issue

Bywords.ca considers previously unpublished poetry from emerging and established poets for our online monthly magazine. We consider work by current and former residents, students and workers of Ottawa. We also publish poems by contributors to our predecessor, the Bywords Monthly Magazine.  FOR SUBMISSION INFORMATION VISIT www.bywords.ca  and click on Guidelines.  Amanda Earl, Managing Editor.  Bywords.ca’s literary events calendar here: http://www.bywords.ca/calendar/index.php with up-to-date info on NCR readings, book signings, writers’ circles, literary festivals, spoken word showcases & slams. Event submissions can be sent to events@bywords.ca

 

SUBMISSION OPPORTUNITIES 

 

 

  • CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS! ACCEPTING: POETRY, REVIEWS, ESSAYS, AND INTERVIEWS for Vallum’s forthcoming issue, 13:2 “THE WILD” ! The wild is both outside us and inside us. The wild can take many forms. It is the unknown, the feared. It can be a landscape, or even the wild of the mind. It can be celebrated, or thought of in terms of a taboo, or a trap. How do you interpret “The Wild,” what does it bring out in you? What forms are still wild? Send us your “wildest” poems! DEADLINE: May 15, 2016 (postmarked) Please visit our website for submission guidelines: http://www.vallummag.com/submission.html

 

  • Ink Bottle Press & The Ontario Poetry Society Present: Memory and Loss ~ a Canadian Anthology of Poetry, Dedicated to the victims of Alzheimer’s. Editor & Compiler I.B. Iskov. Open to all poets living in Canada. Poems wanted on the themes of Dementia and Alzheimer’s.  This is not blind judging and this is not a contest. Submission fee $15. to help cover the cost of printing & postage. All profits from this project will be donated to The Alzheimer Society of Canada. Deadline June 15, 2016, postmark date. Send your submission, complete with cheque or money order payable to Mark Clement,  & mail to Attn: I.B. Iskov, Anthology Editor, #710 – 65 Spring Garden Ave., Toronto, Ont. M2N 6H9. Full details:  http://www.theontariopoetrysociety.ca/Anthology_Memory%20&%20Loss.htm

 

  • Antigonish Review Announces Two Writing Contests! GREAT BLUE HERON POETRY CONTEST & SHELDON CURRIE FICTION PRIZE $2,400 in Prizes! Deadlines: Fiction entries must be postmarked by June 1, 2016, Poetry must be postmarked by June 30, 2016 Guidelines: Previously published works, works accepted for publication or simultaneous submissions are ineligible. No electronic submissions, please. Fiction entries must be typed, double-spaced, one side of page only – poetry must be single-spaced. Please include a separate cover sheet containing your identifying information as well as the titles of all entries. Past winners may not enter. INFO: http://www.antigonishreview.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=59&Itemid=62

 

  • The Aesthetica Creative Writing Award 2016 is now open for entries, presenting an opportunity for emerging and established writers and poets to showcase their work and further their involvement in the literary world. Now in its ninth year, the award is an internationally renowned prize presented by Aesthetica Magazine and judged by literary experts. Prizes include: £500 each (Poetry Winner and Short Fiction Winner)/Publication in the Aesthetica Creative Writing/Annual One year subscription to Granta/Selection of books courtesy of Bloodaxe and Vintage/Consultation with Redhammer Management (Short Fiction Winner)/Full Membership to The Poetry Society (Poetry Winner). Short Fiction entries should be no more than 2,000 words. Poetry entries should be no more than 40 lines. Deadline 31 August 2016. To enter, visit aestheticamagazine.com/creativewriting

 

OUT AND ABOUT IN TOWN

 

MEETINGS, BOOK LAUNCHES AND POETRY READINGS ABOUT TOWN

 

COMING EVENTS:

 JUNE 4 PROSE IN THE PARK:  prose in park

Ottawa’s favourite open-air literary festival and book fair, Prose in the Park, will take place on June 4, 2016, 11 am – 6 pm in the Parkdale Park. And it is absolutely free. Everyone is welcome!  Prose in the Park (Prose des vents en français) is a blingual festival devoted to bringing together both established and emerging authors from across Canada. We are pleased to have some of the best authors of Montreal joining the upcoming festival. For more information on the event and featured authors, check out the 2016 program on our website at www.proseinthepark.com 

SMALL PRESS BOOK FAIR JUNE 18, 2016

 span-o (the small press action network – ottawa) presents: the Ottawa small press book fair

spring 2016 edition on Saturday, June 18, 2016 in room 203 of the Jack Purcell Community Centre (on Elgin, at 320 Jack Purcell Lane).

 General info:

noon to 5pm (opens at 11:00 for exhibitors)  admission free to the public.

$20 for exhibitors, full tables $10 for half-tables (payable to rob mclennan, c/o 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9; paypal options also available

To be included in the exhibitor catalog: please include name of press, address, email, web address, contact person, type of publications, list of publications (with price), if submissions are being considered and any other pertinent info, including upcoming ottawa-area events (if any). Be sure to send by June 10th if you would like to appear in the exhibitor catalogue. FOR MORE INFORMATION: http://smallpressbookfair.blogspot.ca/2016/01/the-ottawa-small-press-fair-spring-2016.html

NaPoWriMo 2016 FPR Impromptu #24 For the Ones at Shady Valley Residence

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Today’s FPR prompt Day 24 comes from Craig Dworki, quoted here:

I am most often interested in seeing what language can do that it didn’t know it could do — in finding the imaginary solutions to questions we never thought to ask. Rather than seek le mot juste — the right word to convey some meaning — I am usually more inclined to see what meanings might arise from materially structured language (“where once one sought a vocabulary for ideas, now one seeks ideas for vocabularies,” as Lyn Hejinian put it). What, I try to ask, does language itself want to convey when given the chance? The hardest part of the task is being quiet enough to listening closely.

Take an erasure poem (FPR is full of them) and then add words to fill in the empty spaces in order to create a new text that flows naturally and coherently. Words should fit exactly — to the letter — so that the result appears to be perfectly justified prose. Don’t cheat by kerning.

You can see the full post and other poems here: http://www.foundpoetryreview.com/blog/impromptu-24-craig-dworkin/

For my source document I chose an erasure poem that I created during PoMoSco, last April’s FPR challenge (well, while not strictly erased, it was cut out, which to me is effectively the same. It was done last April, and I did not go back to the original source document to make sure I was not simply filling in what was there before. It actually reads like a poem still, so I decided to leave in the line breaks rather than create a “perfectly justified prose” text as specified.  The added text is in bold italics. Below today’s piece is the poem I used for this prompt.

Heliotrope flowers

Heliotrope flowers (Wikipedia)

 

For the ones at Shady Valley Residence

 

Look first at the lonely people who line the corridors every morning
silent    through choice or the effects of illness

the frail ones whose cares are internal and entrap them
in lives that are small and gray
they just bide their time in the slow slide downhill

Methuselahs the nurses wash
and dress, no longer able to care for themselves
this one has drunk her medicine derived from  the poppy
She      drowses in the common room. Her clothing    
carries the scent of Heliotrope, an old woman smell.  

On a table vases hold masses of flowers – wrap
the urine-and-antiseptic air in a mask of roses and carnations.

The clock proves        it is morning;
in the garden   the bees dance.
but inside not one old woman is listening
from her shell of silence.

The last hour has been filled with rounds, doctors
and nurses, pills and therapy for stiff limbs
and rusty voices.

Visitors sit with family outside, one man blows ash
from his trousers, then coughs           through a haze of smoke.
Not all the residents have guests today. You can tell who,
because they sit surrounded in
So much silence.

Carol A. Stephen
April 24, 2016

 

My original cut-up poem shown below is titled Time Methuselahs

EPSON MFP image

EPSON MFP image