back from tour and a few reviews
Posted by Daniela Elza on Jun 17 2013
The tour to Sandpoint and Bonners Ferry (Idaho), Missoula (Montana) and Nelson (BC) went beautifully. Good conversations, good friends and good feedback. Here are the three of us poets (Christi Kramer, Sean Wiebe, and myself). We did three readings together and a workshop.
[photo credit: Lee Santa, Missoula]
Here some photos from the Pearl Theatre in Bonners Ferry.
[photo credit: Sue Wilson]
The space was beautifully organized with tables around which people sat with candles and food and drinks. You can see here the first row of that.
[photo credit: Sue Wilson]
Our performance was an alternation between us, as the poems called to each other. Here is Sean reading from How Boys Grow Up:
[photo credit: Sue Wilson]
If you want to hear a poem by Sean click here for Wittgenstein on Tap.
and Christi:
[photo credit: Sue Wilson]
and a funny reading face from me:
[photo credit: Sue Wilson]
In Nelson I read with Sam Stevenson, a young man whose work was a delight and the kind that restores my hope for poetry and my faith in the world. This was the window display at the Booksmyth Underground when I arrived.
In the meantime some reviews and thoughts on the new book have been trickling in.
Here is a beautiful comment that showed up on my facebook page one morning from Anatoly whom I met at my reading in Portland in May.
“An outstanding, deeply conceptual poetry collection by Daniela Elza – epistemology written in crows.
Open each word
as if it is a hand-
kerchief wrapped around bread.
and you are hungry.This duality-ridden blueprint, presented in one of the final poems, is exactly the one Elza uses to build this unique book. Highly recommended for all contemporary poetry lovers.”
—Anatoly Molotkov (co-editor of the Inflectionist Review)
And here is an excerpt of a review of milk tooth bane bone from Michael Dennis:
“Elza’s milk tooth bane bone is almost elemental in its purity. You hardly notice, at first, that these apparently fragmentary passages read with a clear narrative, insight and enlightening conclusions.”
and
“A more human crow would be awfully hard to find.”
Read the rest of this review by Michael Dennis here.
A comment I found very touching from Cassie Moore, who I also met in Portland:
“I gave my girlfriend Kimberly Milk Tooth Bane Bone for her birthday earlier this month. She sent me a text last night: “Baby I love this poetry. More than I ever love poetry.” Thank you for sharing your words. It is truly incredible.”
While I was away I also had a poem appear in the Steel Chisel. You can read deja vu (a triptych here.
Thank you all for your attention to my work. These are my gifts and rewards. And thank you Christi for your hospitality, and for the time and effort it took to organize and make this tour possible. Sean, you are a great travel partner. I will gladly drive another ten hours with you. Let’s keep the conversations going.