My poem is part of a manuscript tentatively called Six, that explores a somewhat metrical line and sestina, ghazal, and glosa forms, none of them in their distinctly Canadian variants.

Sadly this product is not available in Canada! If Keebler makes FlipSides available in the frozen north, this poet is willing to endorse the product in exchange for a free supply and perhaps some T-shirts.

Below is a photo of the FlipSides box so Canadians can easily identify it on cross-border shopping trips.

The packaging shows the two sides of this fine product. And make no mistake, ORIGINAL is what you want. There is such a thing as too many chemicals, as the Garlic Herb and Cheddar varieties of this product demonstrate. Please don’t bring these to Canada! I won’t endorse them….

Then there is the case of the classic dessert, the Nutter Butter cookie. Again, for the convenience of the Canadian consumer, I’ve included a picture of the box below. These exquisite cookies melt in the mouth, overwhelming you with highly processed PB flavour. Why does free trade not work better? Please get to work on this Mr. Harper….

Sifting through Berryman’s manuscripts and correspondence was humbling and fascinating. I still haven’t digested it all. Since writing the essay:

I’ve thought more about the structural origins of The Dream Songs. Now I think Byron’s Don Juan may be as significant as Pound’s Cantos as a model for the Songs. Berryman had read (and remembered) everything, so perhaps it’s too easy to construct an argument for almost any source as significant. But I do think the anti-romantic, confessional dandy of Don Juan is a voice that recurs in The Dream Songs. The verse form bears interesting similarities to Byron’s Don Juan too.

I also regret not spending any time looking at the manuscripts of Berryman’s sonnets. Although he did not initially write these for publication, that fact alone makes them less inhibited than his other early work. They are remarkable not only for anticipating the Songs, but for how they reinvigorate the sonnet itself. You can really hear Hopkins in this work.

“…. by putting flesh on the bones of the biblical passage, Mierau forces us to feel a tinge of resistance that makes the biblical passage at once more meaningful and more troubling. These kinds of pleasures are common in Fear Not, and give the book its consistent energy.”

The review also makes the point that I’m self-indulgently clever at times, although a different review in the same issue skewers the entertaining Alessandro Porco for a level of puerility more extreme than what I’m charged with. I admit it’s all true. And it’s the kind of thoughtful review that every writer hopes for.

Elise has published widely in lit mags that are very hard to get into–Poetry (Chicago), the New Yorker, Slate, and many other places in Canada and the UK. With her wide experience, and recent work as a (virtual) resident poet for Arc magazine, I thought it would be fun to have a public talk about poetry and publishing. We did that on April 13 at the Manitoba Writers’ Guild classroom. We had a public conversation about poetry at the Winnipeg Public Library on April 14, at which Elise again read her work. A few dozen people attended both events, Elise sold and signed books, we had drinks at the King’s Head, and you should have been there if you weren’t.

Note that I’ve crudely altered the sign in the photo below to reflect the MB Writers Guild’s new address. Thanks to John Toone for the photo.