September 23, 2010

In Their Cups Week: John Lyly, Oh For a Bowl of Fat Canary

Continuing on with our week of poems from In Their Cups (in honor of the upcoming release reading which you already know lots about, and have told your friends about, and that hottie you see at the bus station) comes the poem with maybe my favorite title in the book: “Oh, For a Bowl of Fat Canary.” It’s by John Lyly, a writer in the late 1500s who had a way with words and drinks, and seems like someone you (and me) would want to spend a rowdy evening with, drinking and becoming jolly. “Canary” does not mean he was boozy enough to eat birds though. “Canary” was actually a type of sack from the Canary islands (with sack being an old term for a fortified white wine). Now, that makes it all a bit less unfriendly to our feathered friends.

 

Oh, For a Bowl of Fat Canary

 

Oh, for a bowl of fat Canary,

Rich Palermo, sparkling Sherry,

Some nectar else, from Juno’s dairy;

Oh, these draughts would make us merry!

 

Oh, for a wench (I deal in faces,

And in other daintier things);

Tickled am I with her embraces,

Fine dancing in such fairy rings.

 

Oh, for a plump fat leg of mutton,

Veal, lamb, capon, pig, and coney;

None is happy but a glutton,

None an ass but who want money.

 

Wines indeed and girls are good,

But brave victuals feast the blood;

For wenches, wine, and lusty cheer,

Jove would leap down to surfeit here.

 

Oh, For a Bowl of Fat Canary, John Lyly

September 8, 2010

In Their Cups Release Reading, Open Books, 9-26, 3 PM

Calling all drinkers, drink-makers, poets, poetry-readers, and anyone who is friends with anyone who fits in the above categories–which means, calling everyone. I was lucky enough to spend a chunk of the last year or so editing up a collection of poems about drinking places, drinks, and drinkers, and you’re lucky because said collection is coming out this month, and we’re having a big reading/party to celebrate. It’s going to be September 26th, at 3 pm, at Open Books here in Seattle (Open Books is at 2414 N. 45th St. Seattle, and the full reading listing is here).

 

Wait, though, jump back–I haven’t even told you the name yet. The anthology is called In Their Cups, and it features poets from hither and yon, poets who wrote in ancient times all the way up to poets who wrote a line yesterday. The whole idea behind the book (in a way) was to populate one giant bar with poets from throughout history, give them all some cocktails, and let them start spouting poems that would encompass the experiences of all drinkers. Did it work? You can find out by coming to the reading (or picking up the book, if you can’t make it). The reading will feature four of Seattle’s finest poets (and me) reading the poem they have in the book, plus a couple others from poets who couldn’t make it because they don’t live nearby, or don’t live at all anymore. The line-up includes:

  • Effervescent Emily Bedard
  • Action-packed Allen Braden
  • Jumpin’ jolly James Gurley
  • Awfully excited to be in such company A.J. Rathbun
  • One giant mystery guest

If you still aren’t sold, the full-on listing of poets who have poems on the pages of In  Their Cups is: A.J. Rathbun, Henry Aldrich, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Guillaume Apollinaire, Emily Bedard, Bridget Bell, Allen Braden, Henry Carey, Richard Carr, Catullus, John Clare, Jaime Curl, Emily Dickinson, Philip Dow, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Stephen Dunn, Amy Fleury, Philip Freneau, Du Fu, Thomas Godfrey, Jeff Greer, James Gurley, Mark Halliday, Robert Herrick, Charles Fenno Hoffman, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elizabeth Hughey, Richard Hugo, Christopher Janke, Jonathan Jonson, John Keats, J. Robert Lennon, John Lyly, William Maginn, Tod Marshall, Robert Hinkley Messinger, Dan Morris, Joseph O’Leary, William Olsen, Cesare Pavese, Li Po, Francesco Redi, Arthur Rimbaud, Ed Skoog, Gerald Stern, George Walter Thornbury, Chase Twichell, and Royall Tyler.

 

See you on the 26th friends and neighbors and local poetic drunkards.

Rathbun on Film