particle & wave

I went to a book launch at Bar Italia in little Italy yesterday evening. Went to see two poets from the old days of ink magazine -- Alexandra Leggat and Jason Heroux. Heroux was a no show, but the beautiful Alexandra was her old self, and as soon as she started reading from the stage she sent me back a decade. Same voice, same assured delivery, same hands. Alexandra moved from Toronto to Niagara Falls years ago, and we see each other too rarely now, which is a shame.


I photographed Alexandra's hands back in the mid-nineties for the back cover of a chapbook I was putting together. They were cradling a beer bottle on the countertop of the old Victory Cafe on Bathurst Street. The book was called up and down bloor street, and was a selection of work by three excellent Toronto poets. I may still have some copies lying around for sale if Chris Chambers didn't talk me out of them years ago (Chris appears in the book as well, with some of his early brilliant poetry). The third poet was Peter McCallum, with whom I am going to Buffalo this weekend. Small poetic world.

I'm pretty sure last night I was the only person in the room watching Alexandra's hands while she read. Fools. Best hands in Canadian poetry. She could be a goalie.

Go read Alexandra's blog as well. She's focused on soccer right now, but that's just because she has her priorities straight.