John Newlove
John Newlove (1938 – 2003) was born in Regina but lived in places such as Ontario, British Columbia and California. He was a senior editor at Mclelland and Stewart, in addition to working as a teacher, a social worker, and writer-in-residence at various universities. A Long Continual Argument: The Selected Poems of John Newlove is now available from Chaudiere Books.
A CARTOON
“Call it a weakness,” says the witch,
ducking her head coyly, like someone violently in love,
as Bugs Bunny lectures her on the immorality
- the sheer inutility -
of dining on children. She has become
almost a young girl again, so shy,
at being caught in self-indulgence,
seeking forgiveness.
There is no forgiveness.
The Tasmanian Devil knows that.
But he wants justice, or, at least, an answer.
“Whyfor you bury me in the cold, cold ground?”
he asks. And there is no answer.
Not even Bugs Bunny knows the answer to that one.
HOME TOWN
This country is so old that no one can remember
its history. The sky blooms and the rocks flower.
Pacific, Atlantic, Arctic, Prairie. The oceans
surround us, blue, grey, white, green, the land
goes on forever.
Canada is my home town. Trees fill the mind
and people look at me sideways and smile.
THE DEATH OF THE HIRED MAN
He collapsed like a sack of wet shit
which is what we all are, if you think of it,
and lay without a twitch in the deep pit
he had been ordered not to dig in that massive heat,
transformed into, as we all will be, a piece of meat.
Featured Interview
Rob Winger
Interviewed by Alex Boyd
Ten years ago we worked together at Chapters, and here we are in 2007, both of us with first books published this year. Aside from feeling I'm getting on a bit, I remember a poem of yours where you talk about carrying around The Collected Works of Billy the Kid on your back as though "an extra muscle"; did it help inspire this collection about another historical figure?
Yes, I remember that old poem, too. And, yeah, you're right: Ondaatje's early work made a big impression on me back when I was a wide-eyed, and under-read undergraduate student. I'd never heard of an author re-shuffling or re-inventing history, and had never read a contemporary longpoem before. I'd also never seen an author approach historiography or history as...continue reading
Featured Review
Seaway: new and selected poems
By Todd Swift
Gleaned from his four previous collections and garnished with more than a dozen new poems, Todd Swift's 'Seaway' is both a 'greatest hits' collection for those who've already read this verbally athletic Canadian-born poet at length and a comprehensive introduction for those on the European side of the Atlantic who have had, so far, only the occasional chance to get a taste of his work at the jostling, competitive buffet known as English language poetry. As such, it is long overdue. Swift, after all, has been a tireless champion of a distinctively cosmopolitan, open-minded, post-modernist strand of contemporary writing for quite some time and his work as an editor and ferociously scrupulous blogger in Budapest, Paris and, latterly, London has all too frequently occluded his reputation as a poet with a singular ability to be simultaneously learned, playful and profound...continue reading