{"id":29137,"date":"2015-05-26T06:30:55","date_gmt":"2015-05-25T18:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=29137"},"modified":"2015-05-23T14:07:19","modified_gmt":"2015-05-23T02:07:19","slug":"the-tuesday-poem-refeaturing-nancy-mattson-maze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2015\/05\/26\/the-tuesday-poem-refeaturing-nancy-mattson-maze\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tuesday Poem: Refeaturing Nancy Mattson \u2014 “Maze”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maze<\/strong><\/h4>\n

What I miss is gravel
\ncrunching under foot or wheel,
\nwide sky above
\nthe road straight into horizon.<\/p>\n

I want to walk the crease
\nof a prairie book, lines of wheat
\nas even type, all one size
\nthe word gold over and over.<\/p>\n

London\u2019s a fused maze
\nof alphabets: wherever you walk,
\neach road, wherever it turns,
\nis utterly paved or cobbled crookedly.<\/p>\n

A crazed typesetter has been at work
\nevery night for centuries, his head
\nswirling with shadows thrown
\non crumbling walls by candle-flame.<\/p>\n

He has set every line diabolical
\nin a different font and size,
\nHot lead in higgledy-piggledy frames
\nand gutters overflowing with errata.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Nancy Mattson<\/p>\n

from Writing with Mercury<\/em> (Flambard Press) 2006<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

About the Poem:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Currently, I am refeaturing poems by ex-patriate Canadian poet, Nancy Mattson. Nancy is now resident in London, and I love the way Maze<\/em> captures the UK\/Canadian experience in poetic form, using the extended metaphor of print — not to mention the play-on-words in the title itself, betweem “maize” and “maze.”<\/p>\n

Nancy herself said, when the poem first featured here<\/a> in 2010:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first moved to London twenty years ago I kept getting lost in the winding streets, the layers of history and the echoing voices of writers. What a contrast after the openness of the Canadian prairies, where I was born and raised. I now claim both places as part of my psychogeographic inheritance.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

About The Poet:<\/h3>\n
\"Nancy<\/a>

Nancy Mattson<\/p><\/div>\n

Nancy Mattson is an ex-patriate Canadian poet, now resident in London. Her third collection of poetry, Finns and Amazons<\/strong><\/em>, of which Compasses: A Triptych forms part, was published by Arrowhead Press<\/a>, in 2012.Nancy began writing poetry in 1977 after completing her MA in English Literature at the University of Alberta. Her poetry, non-fiction and reviews have been published in Canada, the US, the UK, Ireland and Finland in magazines, anthologies, the odd scholarly journal, a printed encyclopaedia and a couple of parish newsletters.<\/p>\n

\n

In 1982 she edited and co-authored a history book which provided the inspiration for her first collection, Maria Breaks Her Silence<\/em><\/strong> (Regina: Coteau, 1989), based on the life of a 19th century Finnish woman who emigrated to Canada. This was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award for best first book of poetry in Canada. Adapted for the stage as Lye Soap and Dancing Cows, it was also broadcast on CBC Radio.<\/p>\n

Nancy\u2019s second full collection was Writing with Mercury<\/em><\/strong> (Hexham: Flambard, 2006), with cover art by Elaine Kowalsky. Nancy is also one of five poets featured in the anthology, Take Five 06<\/em><\/strong>, edited by John Lucas (Nottingham: Shoestring, 2006). The poems in these two volumes are set in contemporary England, Canada, Finland and Italy and use memory, myth, history and family stories to create a rich linguistic and cultural texture.<\/p>\n

Nancy was also pleased to be one of 20 writers selected by Dr. Beth L. Virtanen to appear in Finnish North American Literature in English: A Concise Anthology<\/em><\/strong> (Edwin Mellen Press, 2009) and her work has appeared in many other anthologies.
\n.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2014
\n.<\/span><\/div>\n
\"TuesPoem\"<\/a>To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub<\/strong> and other great poems from fellow Tuesday poets from around the world, click here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maze What I miss is gravel crunching under foot or wheel, wide sky above the road straight into horizon. I want to walk the crease of a prairie book, lines of wheat as even type, all one size the word gold over and over. London\u2019s a fused maze of alphabets: wherever you walk, each road, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other-writers","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29137"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29142,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29137\/revisions\/29142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}