Nellie McClung's visual art

Some poets are also visual artists, bill bissett comes to mind and he is the foremost Canadian poet who is also a visual artist. Ken Norris's Vishyun (Ekstasis Editions, 2023) featured cover art by bill bissett. Nellie McClung was a poet and also a visual artist. Despite mental illness Nellie embraced life with imagination and love, she had a sophisticated sense of humour, was both highly intelligent and really funny in conversation, and her satirical poems are more humour than satire. I first met Nellie in 1991 and later visited her home, which she named Casa Contenta, in the late 1990s; she stored her paintings in a room by the front door and my wife and I both bought paintings from her. Nellie's grandmother was the famous Nellie McClung, feminist and author; her brother was Judge John McClung. Nellie died in 2009.

Come Dance With me in Ireland (Ekstasis Editions, 2011), Nellie McClung's
selected poems edited and published by Richard Olafson. Introduction
by Carolyn Zonailo

"Sailboats in  Kitsilano", by Nellie McClung. This is the painting (on left) that I bought 

from Nellie and that I used on the cover of my selected poems, she gave us the smaller 

painting on the right and I hung them together, as pictured. 

Here is Nellie McClung's painting on the cover of my recent book,

Farewell, Darkness, Selected Poems (Ekstasis Editions), 2023.

"Red Cat and Dandelions" by Nellie McClung, from a series of cat paintings. Undated, probably 1980s.

"Aspen's Quiver" by Nellie McClung, around 1994. A different title
is on the back, but it is difficult to read. Aspen refers to Aspen, Colorado, 
"home of the Pawnees". 

Reverse of previous painting. 

                                                       

Two portraits by Nellie McClung. 

                 

A typical phone call from Nellie, her message left on the answering machine: "Carolyn, answer the phone, answer the phone, answer the god damn phone; I have plans and I want you and Stephen involved with them. We'll fly to New York and see David Letterman, be on his show, discuss Marilyn Monroe, then we'll fly to London and visit the prime minister at his home, we'll discuss anti-vivisection and get him onboard for working towards a better world. Carolyn, Carolyn, answer the god damn phone." We weren't the saints that Richard Olafson was regarding Nellie McClung's phone calls, he talked with her everyday. 

Farewell, Darkness, Selected Poems

 

I am very happy to announce the publication of my new book, Farewell, Darkness, Selected Poems, published by Ekstasis Editions, Victoria, BC. Thank you to all who helped bring this book to publication, including Richard Olafson, the publisher of Ekstasis Editions, my wife Carolyn Zonailo, and thank you, Nellie McClung, whose painting "Sailboats off Kitsilano" is the cover image. The poems in this book were published between 1971 and 2021, and best represent what I have tried to do in poetry.

The Green Archetypal Field of Poetry

Here is the front and back cover of my new book, The Green Archetypal Field of Poetry, on poetry, poets, and psyche, published by Ekstasis Editions a few months ago. The book was published at the same time as Ekstasis Editions published books by Ken Norris and Endre Farkas, both of whom I've known since the mid-1970s. I thought I had reached the end of writing, now it seems I have a few more years left in me. 

Books can be ordered from Ekstasis Editions.

The Green Archetypal Field of Poetry: on poetry, poets, and psyche gathers a selection of essays and short statements on poetry by Stephen Morrissey. While best known as a poet, Morrissey’s critical writing is an important part of his literary work. In this book he writes on the legacy of Canadian poets who helped bring modernism to Canadian poetry. Morrissey’s approach to poetics reminds us of the enduring importance of Beat, Romantic, and shamanic poetics. Morrissey suggests that poems originate in what he calls the green archetypal field of poetry. This is Stephen Morrissey’s second volume on poetry and poetics, after The Poet’s Journey: on poetry and what it means to be a poet (2019).

 

A Poet's Journey, on poetry and what it means to be a poet

I am very happy to announce the publication of my new book, A Poet's Journey: on poetry and what it means to be a poet, just published by Ekstasis Editions in Victoria, BC. This is a compilation of essays and reviews written since 1975. Thank you, Richard Olafson, for creating such a beautiful book, this means more to me than anyone knows. Here is the cover and the table of contents.