On April 27, 2008, while the Byward Market bustled with tourists, students, musicians, diners and shoppers, Bywords’ Spring event began at 2 pm, at Chapters on Rideau. The afternoon was inaugurated with a sparkling performance by singer and accordion player Marie-Josée Houle. It was the first time (at least that I can remember) that the Bywords’ featured musician was an accordion-playing singer-songwriter . . . and the effect was splendid.

Houle’s first offering, an epithalamion set to music, was written in honour of her cousin’s wedding: “J’ai gout l’aimer la vie / Notre feu que je veux.” The nostalgia evoked by the accordion’s unique reverberation, coupled with Houle’s earthy lyrics, resulted in an enticing blend of earnestness and artistry. Then, for a change of pace, Houle’s second song was sinister and quirky – “The devils are dreamin’ / they’re dreaming of a blue angel” – with a funereal ending. And, when my friend, professor and poet Mike Heenan, whispered “Pass the pernod,” I had to agree.

The first poet of the afternoon was literary arts student Sami Alwani who delivered a palindrome, which, my friends, is difficult to write, let alone master. But, Alwani certainly met the challenge in “My Parents’ Marriage” (Bywords, Spring 2008):

Her science, my mother was a soap maker

And she didn’t like my father interfering . . . .

He didn’t mind my mother interfering with

His science; my father was a carpenter.

Then, with a twinkle in her eye, Bywords host, Amanda Earl, read “Eight Planets Speaking in Tongues,” a longer poem that houses an imaginative fusion of several languages, with a delightful effect:

Opusiaro est tres soft.

The river coule and les petits stones girdondent

All is yellow echo daffodil et fronds

……………………………………

Drumvetschmertz tastes good.

Everything licks schmits betwixt I glicks und sound flicks.

And I thought that franglais was tricky!

Next, In/words editor Peter Gibbons read “Sound Advice” from his chapbook of the same name. After the “multilingualosity” (is that even a word?) of “Eight Planets,” Gibbon’s minimalist poetics perfectly captured the myriad ways in which one can approach the Muse:

feel like bongwater

the stuff left behind mid-april

look like spit

mid-june

“Sound Advice” could easily be a post-modern response to The Wasteland . . . and I am sure that Eliot would appreciate the print layout.

After that, Journalist Marcus McCann followed Gibbons. As McCann explained, in “Consanguine,” from the cleverly title and professional looking chapbook, Heteroskeptical, each stanza features similar sounds: “hot like a secret / Spat at rocks, us.” Next, the title of McCann’s second poem, “You’re Just Like a Robert Bateman Painting (I Mean You’re Not Blurry),” evoked a substantial chuckle from the audience. It is always a treat to hear McCann read, and he is very generous with his work

Then, I was enchanted by the romantic images in Kenneth M. McGrath’s “Self-Satisfied Curvature of the Lips” (Bywords.ca, January 2008), inspired by the work of Canadian poet and editor a. rawlings: “Epic-Natured / Like Echo to Narcissus / Gypsy ravings . . .”

As I mentioned, Mike Heenan accompanied me to Bywords. But, had he not, I would not have learned that “One Degree Day,” by Pearl Pirie, is a marvelous example of phanopoeia: at 1º, “Her fast thighs are red in the wind”; when the temperature is 12º, shirts come off by day while by night “Lines outside clubs have skin again.” Appropriately, when the temperature is a relatively balmy 22º, “[with] spindly calves painted in denim / she glides, sweaty as conception was.”

And, neither would I have identified “Chamber Music” (Bywords.ca, January 2008), written and engagingly delivered by Catriona Wright, as an impressive work of melopoeia:

A whistled melody gushes,

rushes right out of me.

My burnt legs, once flat white

sing read with wild blaze.

After an abundance of excellent presentations, the last poet, Orleans native Janice Tokar, read “Express (OC Transpo)” followed by “vertiginous bloom” (Bywords, Spring 2008). The seeming simplicity of the latter poem belies the complexity and sophistication of the construction:

velvet tunneled calla lily

lips so

smack of aniseed

flavoured breath

Rounding off the afternoon, Houle sang several more original compositions accompanied by her ITANO accordion. And, although it was a beautiful spring day, I could swear that I was sitting in a fado club in Lisbon listening to exotic tunes.

In closing, congratulations are in order for Amanda and Charles Earl, who were recognized for their contributions to arts and culture at a ceremony at Ottawa City Hall on

May 5, 2008. Keep up the excellent work!

Catharine Carroll

May 7, 2008, Feast Day of Blessed Rose Venerini