Poetry is alive, young, and sexy

Amanda Earl nicely posted about this on her blog here.
Hopefully this is the party favour she's after.

In/Words Magazine and Press is proud to present Ottawa’s best young literary talent at the Avant-Garde Bar on March 29th. We're publishing more works this month than in all of 2006, and we'll be celebrating this milestone with an open mic featuring music, prose and poetry. Join us.

In/Words has gathered an eclectic collective of prolific, young writers, all of whom contribute to the creative community quickly growing at Carleton University. It is being fostered by weekly writer’s circles and events such as the open mic, which normally takes place the last Thursday of every month.

“They all look really sexy on-stage,” says Jeff Blackman, writer and regular at the monthly event.

One such “sexy” writer is Mark Sokolowski, whose poem is featured below. This poem is included in his chapbook entitled Pruning the Catalpa. It is one of the many publications available for free on March 29th.

This also marks the release of the second issue of Blank Page, the magazine’s sister publication. Blank Page exclusively features first year students from Carleton University.

“It feels great to be published by Blank Page,” quotes Caitlin Oleson, “As a first year undergrad, it’s nice to get a word in edgewise once in awhile.”

In/Words has hosted a wide variety of performers including Juno-award winner Buck 65 in November of 2005.

S&M
Mark Sokolowski

Don’t try
and tell me Mother
Nature’s not
into kink –

I’ve seen the red
and purple welts
left from the way
she makes the
sun go down on her.

Blood Transfusions

I read an article in this week's issue of Macleans about Jehovah's Witnesses refusing life saving blood transfusions because they believed it was against what the Bible said. They once published an article in their magazine Awake! citing 24 cases wherein children had died as a result of refusing blood transfusions. The catch is that they labelled them as martyrs. This to me seems problematic and is one of the main reasons institutionalised religions have such a bad rap. The fundamentals aren't so bad; it's the human interpretations and dogmas that lead to child "martyrs." Anyways, here's a found poem from the certificate they sign refusing transfusions:

Found Poem: No Blood Transfusions

“No Blood Transfusion!
As a God-fearing Christian and a believer of Jehovah’s
word, the Bible, I hereby demand that blood, in any
way, shape or form, is NOT to be fed into my body;
however, blood substitutes may be used in case of
extreme loss of blood.
‘YOU MUST NOT EAT THE BLOOD OF ANY SORT OF FLESH’”

Supposing one signed this and promptly died
could we consider that suicide? Paraphrasing,

I hereby wilfully submit my life by refusing treatment.

How does one see hope in this religion?