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' wrmmoo Climlcu'Wednelday, March 19,201. at «WE-WM Source material 0 C U C Poet Erma Hams coming home to launch her collection The Stag Head Spoke [3vame escapes through language. or ., V__~$W“al ‘0 the Chlvrlit‘le ‘through the wound in the rhyme.” Harris considers her work an ( :anadian poet lirina Harris examination of how language has been writing since enables US to build our worlds. btit childhood. can also leave us at a distance front “During one of my most recent them. moves from one province to anoth- “i think I was trying to capture er, I found my handwritten will. the way grief and trauma remain composed at the age of I I, and ' unassimilable to language,” she written in short rhyming poems," said, “One never makes sense of said Harris, who attended Keatsway radical losses but you can try to Public School in Waterloo. ~ make peace with them through “I began writing poetry with .\ language. But in doing so. this often greater (are in my early 20s v or ;7. _» a " ' ' gives rise to a language that is perhaps what I mean is with t_' ' estranged, or outside of conven greater stakes," she said. "This ’ ' tlonal experience or expression included beginning to study the l ’ While this eiegy's form is non-liti- forms and history ofpoetry, incitid- ti‘flf A . ear, the poems still rely on recog mg, increasingly. more experimenâ€" “' ”t, nimble traditions of lyric poetry as taI forms of language and asking if songs of the human voice." poetry can do anything iii the . A graduate of the University oi world." ‘ ‘._ ~. Waterloo. Harris credits a number Harris has devoted the past “ of writing mentors including for decade to writing her first book. met UW professors ludith Miller The Stag Head Spoke. to be (English) and Bob thier (Architet' launched on April IT at Words lure). Worth Books. I‘he tollet‘titiii conr Currently pursuing a Phi) iii tains two serial poems or "books." Creative Writing and Poetics at the she explained : University of Calgary, Harris said “Fach section comprises a series "1““ her theSts will one day become .i of shorter poems that make up a WaterloonltiveErinaHarrlsmtoniooMiril i7tol0imchbernewbooltoipootrym5ugflead5poke. second book of poetry. though whole. and each book has its own mm" much different from The Stag Head style.” said Hams. "Ihe first book is love for writing, more and more concerned for the “Also. Don McKay, one of my men Spoke. taIIt-d Bestiary Iht- Iznfantasques. "I remember all the kids having privnq of the deoeay ' c said. tors in poetry. presented me with a The writing life is a reclusive but inspired by the book of children's to make handmade puppets and very compelling spiritual question. rewarding one. she said. nonsense rhymes anti surreal (ole then having to do a puppet Show” asking if our deceased. iii general. ”My apartment is carpeted Wllh logos by the I-rent'h poet Claude she recalled. 'l did my puppetfliow might wish to escape from Ian books and with notes of rhyme." Rot alone, instead of with other kids. guage, or, as I later ptit it. 'to return said Harris 'l'or a long time, I did "'I-.nfantasques‘ means ‘chiid- and with a Crooked little white rubâ€" totheirunnames" not understand the shape of the like forms.’ and this first book uses bit talking to God in the play. both The end result was somewhat of hook. or know if it was even intend a number of forms common to the rabbit and (10d debated an experimental and rather eccen- ed for a wider public. It was. for .4 children's literature . the fairytale. whether God existed or not. the poem~play. Hams explained long time, a conversation siniph song fonns, nonsense verse _. as a “So even then. I must have been ”Unlike a lot of traditional ele between myseliand poetry way to use the idea of childhood het‘nminga writer' files or mouming poems. I did not 'it will be beautiful to share this and nonsense to disrupt sense. ”it The second book in The Stag want to talk abotit myself. anti 1 in Waterloo. where I lived for so in other words, to consider ques Head Spoke, titled The l'igures. wanted to leave the deceased Wllh many years and where I had so Hons about the adult world from beam” a meditation on gridior 8 her privaty anti her story.‘ she said many llirnldllit‘ t'xpl‘rit‘nt 1's and the nostalgit and "‘0li plate of beloved friend who took her own ”While all the (harm leis. or fig intariiatiotis our unit-at hablet‘htldl'ioods~ life a number of years ago. said iirr-s' iii the play are Fittional. in it a “No plate I have Inmi \HH 0 has It was at Keatsway Pithlit School Harris toriiniiitiin oi mourners watt hes ielt as iiitit h Iilit- home is ' tit! where Harris first discovered her "As I worked on this. I bet atne the stir-tin- of a Iosi below-ti as she llH‘II ‘- tttittW’Qtth‘Qlé fli- Waterloo Chronic]: can In picked up at the following may,” “"' ' ‘ :~ ‘ .fir-~..,._‘ .._.. ’ i locations in Rambo _ . . â€": , .. ' ’ '1'“ a ' ‘ g-_- Chapters Bookstore 428 King §i N Waterloo Adult Centre We it no as My - ’ -:~"~ ‘,___‘__~;-- Wordsworth Books 100 King St C. 80" "amw “we _‘___ . _- W. 2-“ â€" Unique Shoppe". at King St N WIN. "" A. . {fit-,9, s . s» a” The 7-11 256 King St N o . .4.‘ I I t. . , > r' r “ . .- 3 :fl“ F7 / -t a. Quick Tm, “My 3‘7 Em St West Vincenzoo 180 Karolina st » __ LII-u... ‘ ' * "" ' Jl ' -_-’- s:~.-:~:r.~ea~::-:2