Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697646084638.pdf (Canada)
Parliamentary Poet Laureate POETRY CONNECTION: LINK UP WITH CANADIAN POETRY Jay MillAr (1971 – ), along with Hazel MillAr, is the publisher of Bookthug Press (www.bookthug.ca) and the author of numerous collections of poetry including The Ghosts of Jay MillAr (Coach House 2000), Mycological Studies (Coach House 2002), and False Maps for Other Creatures (Nightwood 2005).

Double Helix (Mercury Press 2006), is a collaborative fiction collection with Stephen Cain.
Poem for discussion: 4 poems From Esp: Accumulation Sonnets BookThug, 2009 avant gardes hold up banks for performance art any poseur will do whatever they're just people in topography's grapple with how weird will it be to be finished treading on thin water yeah - that ice melted six poems ago used up these lonely results of art with the sun's cocaine like falling world sounds a herd of field mice eats shoots and leaves a dream resistance imagines poly poly propylene the rawest scene i ever been my jet engine modulation my underdog wisdom of youth a question of how close to come to my own shadow I'm right here idiot kid logic of phastic cells how to preserve the worry of impressions other writers linger on - insider practicality and the temperament of confusion these feathers half wings perchance the flight mockery sings what the the song special collections of the desire to be anywhere else hammer drops desperate and needy snips of haircut offs to fliers you mail that thing - work on your right to work work on the left too work on the biggest sandbox fits and start some image revolution spins of dj cocktails for an intellectual to be self-destructive or a kind of improvement on humanity when a poem you were working on comes to an end by drowning i'm going to walk into that door the way kids go through paper towel salon de 1845 inside the Baudelaire road on road checklist followed to a company map my time is a limitation drives up on an orange tractor to despair what does it feel i should be 'doing' something aleatory cabbage town houses stand for pestering sunshine screams of the child we have no computer books and i am afraid clemency of abject neurology better work always under stress Jay MillAr 2 Jay MillAr For discussion: In a recent interview, Jay MillAr revealed the following: “The four poems in this package are part of a longer work that was composed in a way that is somewhat different than how one might usually think about writing.
Rather than having something to say and saying it (i.e.

being an "author" in the regular sense of the word: an authority), try to imagine yourself as a receiver of language.

The best metaphor I can think of is an antenna or radio, or maybe in more contemporary terms, a wireless internet receiver -- technology that picks up "messages" and "information" from the surrounding environment that are being transmitted, presumably by someone or something.

You might be listening to the universe as you know it.
There can be much interaction between the mind and the senses if you pay attention to such transmissions -- language overheard and recorded as well as the mind's subconscious thread that constantly engages and "talks" with the self as it interacts with the world.
Beyond this vague sense of "accumulation," the composition of these 15-line sonnets are dictated by formal constraint, the small notebook that I used to gather the lines, and the process of entering them into the manuscript -- the typing that became a form of editing after the fact.” 1.

How can a writer become an antenna or radio, receiving language?

2.

If you are paying attention to these receptions, how do the mind and the senses interact?

3.

Where are places you might go to “overhear” language?

4.
4.

What are the formal constraints of the sonnet and how has Jay MillAr used them in these four poems?

5.

How does typing become a form of editing?

Writing prompts: 1.

Become a radio antenna for fifteen minutes.

Jot down everything you hear in the form of random notes.

Turn these notes into a poem.

2.

Think of yourself interacting with the world.

What are your compass points?

Compose a poem based on these geographical, metaphorical places.

3 Jay MillAr 3.

Make a list of accumulated ideas.


Stretch your topics over a wide range of interests including literary titles, movies, favourite foods, places to visit.

Create a poem with these lists.

4.

Create a dialogue or interaction between yourself and the small space you live in.

Note all sensory details.

Create a poem based on this conversation.

5.

Jot down phrases and examples of interesting text from the internet.

Discover a pattern in this language.

Is there a message?
Is there a message?

Turn the phrases, ideas, textual information into a poem.

(Notes prepared by Terry Ann Carter) 4