Break In

Ditch Magazine Online

Blair Trewartha — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 18:47:30 +0000

Hey everyone, 3 poems from my chapbook Break In, as well as one new poem, were published online in Ditch Magazine. Check them out at the link below. Its a great online lit Mag that features fairly experimental poets with their bio and photos. While you are there, check out Sandy Pool and Josh Stewart‘s work, two fantastic poets from Toronto.

http://www.ditchpoetry.com/blairtrewartha.htm

Interview with Kathleen Brown of The Vagabond Trust

Blair Trewartha — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:14:58 +0000

The following link is an interview with a friend of mine, Kathleen Brown, who organizes The Vagabond Trust, a reading series which I co-host and participate in. Its a great interview, and gives an in-depth description of our mandate and what The Vagabond Trust is all about. Check it out!

http://books.torontoist.com/2010/02/my-vagabonds-trust/

Vagabond Trust Reads! February 12th 9pm at This Ain’t

Blair Trewartha — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 06:23:40 +0000

THE VAGABOND TRUST Reading Series presents your chance to get Lucky in Love and Lit this Friday February 12 2010!
9 to 11 pm at This Ain’t the Rosedale Library in Kensington Market.
Join the Vagabonds for a sizzling hot night of literary debauchery with heartthrobs GUY COOLS, LAUREN KIRSHNER, ADRIENNE KRESS, JASON MAGHANOY, SANDY POOL and SARAH TEITEL
with musical rar-rar by DJ BRONSON LEE!
and hosts KATHLEEN BROWN, DARRAH TEITEL and BLAIR TREWARTHA

February’s Featured Artist is YUULA BENIVOLSKI

More info: thevagabondtrusttoronto.wordpress.com

Chapbook Launch Successful

Blair Trewartha — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 06:14:15 +0000

I want to sincerely thank everyone who came to the Misunderstandings Magazine Launch and the launch of my first Chapbook Break In. There was a great line up of readers for MM13, including a few favourites of mine: Nyla Matuk, Matt Leslie, Liz Howard, Michael Lista, and Robin Richardson.

For anyone still wishing to obtain a copy of Break In, we will be doing a second run of printing shortly. Or visit Cactus Press online to order a copy. Thanks again to Jim Johnstone and Shawn McLeod and Edward Nixon of Livewords for hosting the fantastic event.

Procedures for Escape

Blair Trewartha — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:00:38 +0000

The train hovers along the track
somewhere between Oshawa and Belleville
and I sit in seat 14
in the aisle across from the emergency window
with a little red hammer
in a small gray box –
the one which every kid, including me
would give up their seat
just to smash

The attendant explains the procedures of escape
to the family of five sitting ahead of me
She’s a cute brunette with high cheekbones
and low lips and probably close to my age
and she asks me if in the event of an emergency
would I be willing to climb out the window with her first
to help her assist all the women and children off the train

I tell her yes, most definitely, and stare back out the window
at the blurred trees and old telephone wires
listening to the sounds the train wheels make
across the cold, hard rails
which always sound a bit like thunder
and a bit like a steel mill in full work-day swing
and I imagine the two of us, hand in hand
leaping out the shattered window
of the recently de-railed
looking like two children jumping off a small cliff
into blue water on a sun-blind afternoon
using their fear of heights
as a meager excuse to hold hands

I look back at the tiny red hammer
in the little gray box
displayed like a javelin in a courtroom
and repeat her question over again in my head
thinking, yes I would be willing to do that
you’re just the first person
to have asked