Face her in the glass, steamed up.
Eyes alight, left foot forward, arms
up: Raise your prayer wall
against night yet-to-come. One
calamity among countless maybes,
her left hook smashes jaws and levees,
batters the temple, makes way for the flood.
She’ll hurricane you off the ropes.
Lahey will be one of four poets reading their works at “Poetry With A View 2011” at the Main-A-Dieu Coastal Discovery Centre on Friday evening, July 22.
Main-A-Dieu resident (via England) Sean Howard will read along with New Brunswick born Ian Le Tourneau, and Antigonish poet and novelist, Anne Simpson. Songwriter Ken Chisholm will host and sing a couple of tunes.
This is the fourth event in this summer series (after taking a break last summer) which has consistently attracted capacity crowds.
Lahey’s first poetry collection, Out to Dry In Cape Breton, drew inspiration from her father’s home fishing village. Howard, as a relative newcomer, has especially been inspired by the landscape and sea and animal life of Cape Breton’s south west coast.
Both have new collections this year. Howard’s Incitements, using dadaesque cut-up techniques was published to glowing reviews earlier this year by Gaspereau Press. Lahey’s second collection, Spinning Side Kick, will be published in the autumn by Véhicule Press.
Anne Simpson has authored of three books of poetry, Light Falls Through You, Loop (a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Poetry), and, most recently, Quick. Her first novel, Canterbury Beach, was shortlisted for the Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award, and her second novel, Falling, was the winner of the Dartmouth Fiction Award and was long-listed for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
Ian LeTourneau has two works of verse published: Defining Range, a chapbook of poems from Gaspereau Press (2006), and Terminal Moraine, a full length collection of poems from Thistledown Press (2008).
Tickets for Poetry With A View are ten dollars each and that includes light refreshments. Beer and wine will be available for purchase. Tickets are available either at the Big Wave Cafe (located in the Coastal Discovery Centre) or by calling 902-733-2258.
And bring some extra cash to buy a copy of each of the readers books and get them signed by the authors.
