Hello Friends on this snowy morning!

This Saturday I’m part of a little improv session at the Array Studio. I’ll be performing a couple of poems I wrote for a collaboration with Rick Sacks. Should be cool!

Time
05 February · 20:00 - 23:00
Location
The Array Studio
60 Atlantic Avenue suite 218
Toronto, ON
Description
An evening of experimental improvised music with special guests poet Jill Battson, vocalist Lara Solnicki, guitarist Nilan Perera. Rick Sacks will leave his DAW up after the afternoon workshop to add electronics and manipulate the live players' sounds.

More info here: http://www.arraymusic.com/

Hope to see you there!

Just completed the first draft of a cycle of poems about the carnival during the depression era for my collaboration with Rick Sacks. It's going to be a performance piece, and you can take a peek on Saturday February 5th at Array New Music Centre when we will perform a snippet - stay tuned for more deets.

Now that my cupboards are bare of all the Christmas goodies, and the food fog is lifting, I am starting to work on my various writing projects again. Today the sun is beaming in the windows and it's time to start thinking about the nature of dreams.....

Happy New Year, dear readers!

I started the year off right when I delivered a poem for the Mayor's Levee in Cobourg on the afternoon of January 1st. The Mayor's Levee is a tradition that dates way back to Louis XIV who would invite gentlemen to his chamber on new year's day so they could hear what his plans were for the coming year. A room full of gentlemen is something many of us can only dream about ;) . The reading set up a kind of resolution for me to buckle down to writing the myriad projects I have simmering on various back burners. I actually need an Aga to accommodate all those pots!

Monday 20th December - please come out to 66 King Street, Cobourg to hear Twelve Days of the Infanta Margarita, Eric Winter's song and poem cycle about Velazquez's famous paintings Las Meninas and Rokeby Venus. I'm one of the narrators and it's $20 - for a good cause - and you get cake coffee and an evening's entertainment!

And don't forget to come out to the Mayor's Levee on January 1st at 2.00 pm to hear me read my newly written poem "Levee du Soeil". All in a day's work, my friends! Happy Holidays!!

My big question of the day is how to entice a depressed dog out of his depression? Ansel is missing his brother and I'm no substitute, I'm afraid.

On the poetry front I am working on a suite of poems that will be a collaborative piece with the percussionist Rick Sacks. Also, PL duties require me to pen a commemorative poem for the Mayor's Levee. First I have to find out what a 'Levee' is! That one will air on January 1st at Mayor Gil's meet and greet in Cobourg.

Finally, on Monday December 20th I have the pleasure of playing one of the narrators in Eric Winter's Twelve Days of the Infanta Margarita at 66 King Street, Cobourg - do come out for a beautiful seasonal celebration!

Last few days have been a whirlwind of activity. A wonderful reading at Trent University for the students in commemoration of World AIDS Day, followed by a reading from Dark Star Requiem at PARN's Tuesday evening do. Thanks to Dr. Mike Allcott for arranging and hosting! Then to cap off the day, a broadcast of Dark Star Requiem, from the June performance at Koerner Hall, on CBC 2's The Signal.

Yesterday XEXE Gallery hosted the official book launch for Dark Star Requiem where proceeds went to benefit the Stephen Lewis Foundation.

Tomorrow, in my official PL capacity, I'll be reading a poem at Mayor Gil Brocanier's inauguration in Cobourg - not one of mine, but I could have written one in the time it took me to research one!

Today's blog brings the sad news of the death of Witkin who went to spirit on Tuesday.

Witkin, champion show dog, beautiful spirit and all around great character, was diagnosed with an abdominal tumour in July. Born July 9th 1998 in Kincardine Ontario, Styrlingsanz Maximum Ice moved to Toronto in September 1998 and took his first city pee on a lawn in Leaside. He yowled so loudly on his first night away from his dog family that a neighbour 2 blocks away came banging on the apartment door. He soon adopted the name Witkin - after the photographer Joel Peter Witkin - rather than having the embarrassment of being named after a beer brand.

Witkin competed in show rings in Ontario and completed his championship as a way to meet females. Through his website and promotional materials he became a model and could be seen in catalogues and fashion shoots with female humans. A life-long hiker and Sierra Club member, Witkin traveled by airplane and car to more places in North America than most humans, traversing the continent several times all the while keeping his amber eyes trained on the landscape in search of possible new and exciting adventures. He has hunted squirrels, run with horses and lounged on couches in homes in Toronto, Kingston, Elora, Guelph, Taos, Sonoma and Santa Fe. Known for his calmness, kindness and beauty, Witkin was a poetry aficionado, attending readings and festivals with rapt attention and sage silence across North America.

Known to his familiars as Witz, he spent his last day strolling in Sunnybrook park and snacking on just about every favourite food including a Rahier pain au chocolate and listening to jazz with his family at home. Witkin will be missed by all who met him and grieved and terribly missed by his brother, Ansel, and his human companion, Jill.
- Witkin: July 09 1998 – November 16 2010.