VERSeFEST 17
By Lukasz Lukaszek
copenhagen, spain and les trumps unies
have forgiven this city's mother,
her nature too skeptical,
moods so shifty
like a bad relationship,
and welcomed vancouverites and edinburghians
dressed in Hawaiian tease who thought of vacation,
saw none of it,
then altered their plans for verse's sake
because church going and truth reading
have one thing in common:
some of it is about faith
and the other about listening.
the unfortunately hidden aspect
of our local literary scene faired well
in the hands of folk who reached them out
to birds stuck to oil in a state of red,
where the demand for orange is great.
some filled minds with danish pastries
as well as first Ulrikke moments, her
bopping, grooving, making this a capital reading, indeed.
there were others among les fous du ville,
bards mistakenly princing Kerouac
all loud and angry, hoola hoop curls
with a better view than vision, and Canada's
most dangerous poet proclaiming,
“poetry will save us
for it brings us
back to the sensuous body of language.”
unless it’s translated, then we're just
stuck with a ton of cliches.
and if Vanier could talk, it would talk about
Sir Dennis’ “monkey shit stained brown Buick”, property
of the uncle sitting in the clean laneway, while he
stones butterflies to talk in CapCity's two
official languages: political and poet.
activists! poetry needs you | no time for guilties or the weak:
it’s about recital of the fittest,
digging must be “forbidden like storming
banks or parliament,”
notes from the detained must be composed and gentle,
but strike! when necessary like the defence missions of
united nations that sound good on paper, but are not poems
themselves and distract populations with deadly blossoms.
Jordan was Abel to get it right - turn off the lights with
creativity aflicker and voice loops meaning to say that
no matter how much the indigenous speak, nobody hears it.
while the activists fought, the lovers fucked generously,
poets peed first when Madhur had to go,
Kayla licked wounds caused by toxic masculinity
and a Cannon fired x2 into the humble air of Alabama,
where dollar Bill ate all the crocodiles, had nothing
to do and lived in a polluted well.
some frolicked onstage, others said club soda
was the drink of alcoholics, so we drank beer instead
and the Czar of Britain’s Columbia spoke of the real struggle
and blockbuster closure as well as double tapped hearts.
if we've learned something, it is to not sit quietly,
perched like birds, words can wipe existence, launch wars
and to write is to make them protectors of common folk.
Ask Mehico - racism is still alive,
but where is it really from?
no mansplaining needed for it hits home when a woman
slams it down with,
“sexual assault is the only thing men alone can solve.”
you'd think she's a Lounatic, but tell me she's wrong.
The Truth Is that “God’s busy with seven billion other crazy folk,”
and “night falls as night will, out of nowhere,” in Ireland.
In Ottawa, “there’s not a cloud in the sky”... and it’s snowing.
Photo by Andrew Macartney, 2017
If I could tell you why I am compelled to take pictures I don’t think there’d be any point in me doing it. Sometimes there is no rational or thought for me to articulate only a need to shoot. Between steps I look and listen to everything going on around me subtly analyzing the world on a day to day basis. I read the big stories at home and step outside the door to experience their trickle down in the bubble of my own existence.
Maybe photography for me then is as much about making art as it is about reaching out and finding ways to make connections with the world; to understand the goings-on outside my own periphery.
Andrew Macartney is a student of photographic arts based in Ottawa, Canada. He brings to his practice an assortment of film cameras of various formats from full frame to large format giving him an ability to slow down and make an honest attempt to consciously choose worthwhile places and moments. Andrew covers a range of subjects for reasons he is only beginning to understand outside a mere ‘love of photography.’ Andrew has shown at SPAO’s Exhibition No.11, Contact Photography Festival and the Ottawa Art Gallery.
