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Tales of Sound & Fury Special Expose: rob mclennan
"rob mclennan- a Canadian living to the north of us!" (pt.2)
Writer’s note: this interview was conducted over 2 thrilling days in early May, when- inexplicably- rob sent this cryptic statement, instead of answering my good and just questions:
“going to be a few days; i leave town tomorrow early am; back latelatelatemonday. -rob”
At the time of this writing, I can neither confirm or deny suspicions I have that rob (or as they pronounce his name in Canadian, “rob”) may or may not have moved to his secret, opposition force base camp to an impregnable fortress in the Canadian Wilderness.
Furthermore, this writer could hardly be called ethical were I to speculate about the vast army of attack-sonnets, nuclear-ballads and dirty-limericks that rob is all but ready to inflict on an unaware and contented Office of the Blogo-Laureate. Therefore, I won’t. That’s Ethics, my friends.
ryk: So “rob” (if that’s really your name...), let's wrap this up with a few more questions. First of all: what lies in store for rob mclennan in the near future?
rm: In the immediate future? I finish up this writer-in-residence position at the University of Alberta and head back to Ottawa, where I’ll only be paying rent for one apartment in one province. Then I get into the ottawa small press book fair which I organize, happening June 21st; I founded the thing with my friend James Spyker back in spring 1994, and have been doing them by myself twice a year since. Other than that? There are a whole bunch of things. I’m trying to get a book of creative nonfiction finished, I’m working on finishing a manuscript of poetry, editing books for Guernica Editions, NeWest Press, the University of Alberta Press and a bunch more for Chaudiere Books, and planning on starting a writing school this year in Ottawa (since we have no creative writing program in either of our universities). There’s so much still to do!
ryk: Busy, busy. rob, for the benefit of unwashed american readers, can you name three Canadian poets that people probably don't know, but should?
rm: You should definitely know about Stephen Cain, Rachel Zolf and Margaret Christakos, which I think is a pretty good start. Or even Mark Cochrane, Gil McElroy, Colin Browne and Andy Weaver, or even Sharon Harris, Sandra Ridley, Christine Stewart and Meredith Quartermain. But that’s more than three, isn’t it?
ryk: We’ll allow it rob, since you Canadians are on the metric system and may know a different "number 3" than us. But now rob- the hard question: Had you won the "Poet Laureate of the Blogosphere", what would you have done with the position's vast and terrible power?
rob: With the vast and terrible power that would have been “Poet Laureate of the Blogosphere”? I would have used it to increase the length and breadth of my empire, obviously.
ryk: In case you ever do overthrow Tony, can I suck up to you now by asking if you would allow me to reprint a poem of yours, so that my “vast army of gotpoetry fans*” can see some of your work?
* (there’s an impied threat here rob, I’m just too polite to mention it. out loud...)
rob: Of course you can reprint a poem. I will send along a couple of options for you.
ryk: Lastly, can you get Bruce Cockburn to come to my next birthday party?
rob: Bruce Cockburn? Probably not. Even for the piece we got by him for the William Hawkins book we had to go through a third party who wouldn’t give us Cockburn’s contact information. I don’t see him being against the idea, but it would be quite difficult, I think, to get in contact.
ryk: i don't want to abuse my vat and terrible power as a cyber-coumnist, but there'd be TEN dollars in it for you. Shhh... don't say anything. Just let the money tempt you....
rob: I think if I were tempted by money, I never would have gotten into literature.
ryk: A nice wrap-up there, rob- carefully phrased, polite, curteous even during my obvious attempt to bait you. How very Canadian of you. You are truly a worthy foe. Tony? If you want to hold on to your vast power, I say, “Look to the Border! Look to the the wild, liberal, open accessability of the ME/NH/VT/NY/MI/WI/MN/ND/MT/ID/WA border!!!!
***********************************************
And now, for something completely different: Two (that's right: two!) poems by the Blogosphere’s Vice-Laureate rob mclennan...
alexander graham bell
there are laws of thermodynamics
I have invariably broken.
he turned on the light. he invented
the first phone.
he turned on the flicker of what.
for the rest of his life, silence bound him as golden.
I pull leaves off your knees.
will we ever go back to that sandpaper church,
you asked, when your camera caught up
in its digital senses.
I am holding a phone book.
I am holding a phone.
from my office a view
that looks only indoors. I pull & I pull
but the blinds will not close.
you are the architect
of my unmaking, she signs.
so kiss me, he calls,
tens of miles from home.
sex at thirty-eight
I’m calmer now, to learn. love may not save us.
- Barry McKinnon, “Sex at 38”
is less direct;
is not a boundary
or a given room, intact
& pushes, sometimes; strong
has nothing to prove
& has everything
to suggest
is not where you are
or where you have
been
2.
restful, restless
all the same
is memory as much
as most
ten-fold, patience,
the sake of a wound
there is no what
there is no why
a math of sex
at thirty-eight
heart goes out
& song
there is little
else
her simmerd smile,
laugh
rob mclennan lives in Ottawa , Canada ’s glorious capital city, even though he was born there. He is the author of over a dozen trade books, and has published poetry, fiction, interviews and critical reviews in over two hundred publications in fourteen countries and in three languages. His most recent titles include the poetry collection The Ottawa City Project (Chaudiere Books, 2007), the novel white (The Mercury Press, 2007), the travel title Ottawa: The Unknown City (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2008), subverting the lyric: essays (ECW Press, 2008) and Alberta dispatch: interviews and writing from Edmonton (above/ground press, 2008). He has two further poetry collections forthcoming, including a compact of words from Ireland ’s Salmon Publishing, and gifts from Vancouver ’s Talonbooks, and is currently editing collections on and/or by Andrew Suknaski, John Newlove and George Bowering, as well as books on Ottawa , adoption and Glengarry County , Ontario . He is the editor/publisher of above/ground press, Chaudiere Books, Poetics.ca (with Stephen Brockwell, poetics.ca) and ottawater (ottawater.com), and co-founder (in 1994) and current organizer of the ottawa small press book fair and the small press action network – ottawa (since 1996). He recently spent the 2007-8 academic year in Edmonton as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta , and regularly posts reviews, essays and interviews at robmclennan.blogspot.com, a site that turns five years old in June, 2008.
Submitted by rykmcintyre on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 (11:29:03) (1572 reads)
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