Sunday, August 14, 2011
sardines at the american folk festival
Karin Spitfire and Gary Lawless will be reading sardine poems at the American Folk Festival, Bangor, Maine on Sunday, August 28. There will be two readings, at 1230 and 330, on the stage in the Children's Village area. The whole list of events at the festival that day sounds great. Come on out and say hello to our sardine sages!
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Kendall Merriam poem
Kendall Merriam, native of Rockland Maine where he is currently the official poet laureate, sends this poem:
Ode to Polish Sardine Packers
There is a hell of an easterly
rubbing the point across from me
with dedicated whitecaps
last night I snuck downstairs
and ate a can of King Oscar's finest
two layers, smoked, packed in Poland
my darling country
I had the privilege of working
in Holmes Packing just before college
a minor lesson in hell
hot steaming work, the smell of mustard
and fish steamed into my clothing
the herring much larger than the brisling
you deal with all the time
how do you do such fine hand work?
with the olive oil bath
in each can
my friend Woody Post swears by them
and he has known sardines all his life
used thousands over a lifetime
of baiting up lobster traps
within the past year
the last packing plant in Maine closed
where there used to be dozens
I know the Baltic is dead
do yours come from the North Sea
a place of storms and danger
to hold up some former King of Norway
they have a lovely secret, smokey taste
eaten straight from the can
last summer Gary and Karin
hosted a celebration
of this essence of ocean
in Belfast (Maine)
giving the fish its due
considering the millions
that have gone to human bellies
after the invention of weirs
and purse seiners
some of the slave islands
depended on them to
get the sugarcane harvest out
now those passing through Poland
sell for almost $3.00
for 3.75 ounces
and are devoured in three minutes
are truffles more than this?
Poland's economy has recovered
now, in part, due to brislings
isn't that such a lovely word
from the Polish language?
Kendall Merriam
January 10, 2011
Ode to Polish Sardine Packers
There is a hell of an easterly
rubbing the point across from me
with dedicated whitecaps
last night I snuck downstairs
and ate a can of King Oscar's finest
two layers, smoked, packed in Poland
my darling country
I had the privilege of working
in Holmes Packing just before college
a minor lesson in hell
hot steaming work, the smell of mustard
and fish steamed into my clothing
the herring much larger than the brisling
you deal with all the time
how do you do such fine hand work?
with the olive oil bath
in each can
my friend Woody Post swears by them
and he has known sardines all his life
used thousands over a lifetime
of baiting up lobster traps
within the past year
the last packing plant in Maine closed
where there used to be dozens
I know the Baltic is dead
do yours come from the North Sea
a place of storms and danger
to hold up some former King of Norway
they have a lovely secret, smokey taste
eaten straight from the can
last summer Gary and Karin
hosted a celebration
of this essence of ocean
in Belfast (Maine)
giving the fish its due
considering the millions
that have gone to human bellies
after the invention of weirs
and purse seiners
some of the slave islands
depended on them to
get the sugarcane harvest out
now those passing through Poland
sell for almost $3.00
for 3.75 ounces
and are devoured in three minutes
are truffles more than this?
Poland's economy has recovered
now, in part, due to brislings
isn't that such a lovely word
from the Polish language?
Kendall Merriam
January 10, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Belfast Sardine Extravaganza Video
to view a video of the Belfast Sardine Extravaganza, please click here
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
new sardine poem
"I think my age will be against me"
Lubec closed within a few years
followed by Bath in 2005
the reasons are irrelevant now
Anderson said she originally used a pair of scissors
to cut the heads
and tails
off herring in one fluid motion
When the technology changed,
she adapted
One of the problems with sardines, Oliver said,
is that it's an
already oily fish
packed in oil
It also has a strong flavor that doesn't appeal to the
widest audience
the reasons are irrelevant now
It used to be a luxury item
in the mid-to-late- 1800s,
much the same way
lobster is today
Interestingly,
lobster was pauper's food then
They did overfish,
but not to the point
where all those factories had to close
I think it will always be something that people feel bad about
the reasons are irrelevant now.
Clinton Spaulding
Lubec closed within a few years
followed by Bath in 2005
the reasons are irrelevant now
Anderson said she originally used a pair of scissors
to cut the heads
and tails
off herring in one fluid motion
When the technology changed,
she adapted
One of the problems with sardines, Oliver said,
is that it's an
already oily fish
packed in oil
It also has a strong flavor that doesn't appeal to the
widest audience
the reasons are irrelevant now
It used to be a luxury item
in the mid-to-late- 1800s,
much the same way
lobster is today
Interestingly,
lobster was pauper's food then
They did overfish,
but not to the point
where all those factories had to close
I think it will always be something that people feel bad about
the reasons are irrelevant now.
Clinton Spaulding
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
two sardine sites to visit
Friday, August 13, 2010
more poems
Deep Blue Fields
This is about nothing besides
the fish we can't see.
How they swim beneath aqua stars,
glide through deep blue fields
in the webbed, coral rooted density.
The total eclipse of fins
and eyes, a common membrane tugging.
The rocking of beached, silent
creatures. Skeletal sound
left to pulsate in resonance.
Without water, stillness.
Without movement, nothing.
Barbaria Maria
...into a small dark place:
I'm thinking of sardines again
How the world changes
How things get lost from our lexicon
Like Herring in a Barrel
Becomes
Like Sardines in a Can
They stopped using Barrels
Now
They no longer Can Sardines
In my hometown
At the local Methodist Church
Every Sunday night
We've been playing a version
of Hide and Seek called "Sardines"
for as long as they've packed Fish in a Can
This year we had to explain what a Sardine is
Why when you pile into a small darl place
In some dusty hideaway where no one goes
It is like Fish packed tightly in a Can
When the thought occurred to me
What would we call this game
Without a reference point?
Can we find something new
That recovers our loss?
I'm thinking of Sardines again
How the world changes
How things get lost from our lexicon.
obeeduid
and this poem, read this week on NPR by Garrison Keillor:
New Religion
This morning no sound but the loud
breathing of the sea. Suppose that under
all that salt water lived the god
that humans have spent ten thousand years
trawling the heavens for.
We caught the wrong metaphor.
Real space is wet and underneath,
the church of shark and whale and cod.
The noise of those vast lungs
exhaling: the plain chanting of monkfish choirs.
Heaven's not up but down, and hell
is to evaporate in air. Salvation,
to drown and breathe
forever with the sea.
Bill Holm
from: The Chain Letter of the Soul: New & Selected Poems
This is about nothing besides
the fish we can't see.
How they swim beneath aqua stars,
glide through deep blue fields
in the webbed, coral rooted density.
The total eclipse of fins
and eyes, a common membrane tugging.
The rocking of beached, silent
creatures. Skeletal sound
left to pulsate in resonance.
Without water, stillness.
Without movement, nothing.
Barbaria Maria
...into a small dark place:
I'm thinking of sardines again
How the world changes
How things get lost from our lexicon
Like Herring in a Barrel
Becomes
Like Sardines in a Can
They stopped using Barrels
Now
They no longer Can Sardines
In my hometown
At the local Methodist Church
Every Sunday night
We've been playing a version
of Hide and Seek called "Sardines"
for as long as they've packed Fish in a Can
This year we had to explain what a Sardine is
Why when you pile into a small darl place
In some dusty hideaway where no one goes
It is like Fish packed tightly in a Can
When the thought occurred to me
What would we call this game
Without a reference point?
Can we find something new
That recovers our loss?
I'm thinking of Sardines again
How the world changes
How things get lost from our lexicon.
obeeduid
and this poem, read this week on NPR by Garrison Keillor:
New Religion
This morning no sound but the loud
breathing of the sea. Suppose that under
all that salt water lived the god
that humans have spent ten thousand years
trawling the heavens for.
We caught the wrong metaphor.
Real space is wet and underneath,
the church of shark and whale and cod.
The noise of those vast lungs
exhaling: the plain chanting of monkfish choirs.
Heaven's not up but down, and hell
is to evaporate in air. Salvation,
to drown and breathe
forever with the sea.
Bill Holm
from: The Chain Letter of the Soul: New & Selected Poems
Sunday, July 25, 2010
last sardines canned
The last sardines canned at Stinson's. This photo courtesy of the Maine State Museum, where the last three cans will be a part of a new display opening Saturday, July 31.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
new books!
We have available two new poetry chapbooks!
First: Sardine Songs/ Herring Hymns = a 24 page collection of the poems published on this blog, from a wide range of poets, all with a sardine/herring theme.
And: Sardine Shards - 12 pages of sardine related poems By Gary Lawless, published by Benevolent Bird Press
Each book is $5, plus $1 mailing from Blackberry Books, 617 East Neck Road, Nobleboro, Maine 04555
First: Sardine Songs/ Herring Hymns = a 24 page collection of the poems published on this blog, from a wide range of poets, all with a sardine/herring theme.
And: Sardine Shards - 12 pages of sardine related poems By Gary Lawless, published by Benevolent Bird Press
Each book is $5, plus $1 mailing from Blackberry Books, 617 East Neck Road, Nobleboro, Maine 04555
Sunday, July 11, 2010
sardine limerick
Belfast native Douglas Brown has sent this sardine requiem, and more...
Requiem for the Maine Sardine
Maine's herring once swam by the trillion,
But the meek of our race are six billion.
So many, we've eaten,
they're pretty well beaten.
Now it's hard to find half a million.
The herring got little respect.
It was scorned by the social elect.
The Hollywood star
just adored caviar,
but a can of sardines, she'd reject.
Those born to imperial bearing
were seldom consumers of herring.
It seemed kings and queens
rarely noshed on sardines
(at least, when their crowns, they were wearing).
The homely lobster is able
to grace the millionaire's table
but sardines were favored,
(with mustard well savored)
by the man who cleaned his stable.
On his yacht, the great Wall Street banker,
for filet of sole, sure did hanker;
but his cook and skipper
would divvy up kippers
with the sailor who heaved the anchor.
The Beverly Hills plastic surgeon
devoured platters of sturgeon;
while low-ranked clinicians
and health care technicians
downed kippers, without any urgin'.
The lawyer who drove a new Caddy
and dined on poached finnan haddie,
was also unerring
at shunning the herring,
but they were enjoyed by his caddie.
While the Texas oilman grew fat
eating barbecued "channel cat"
the roughnecks were sharing
Blue Ribbon and herring
and feeding sardines to the cat.
Maine sardines, it has come to pass,
though spurned by the very top brass;
were loved without question,
and doomed to digestion,
by humankind's lowlier class.
A Famous Mount Desert Summer Resident's View On Sardines
They say Martha Stewart's unsparing
in her disdain of the herring;
though she ate, in her cell,
canned sardines for that spell,
when prison clothes, she was wearing.
Douglas Brown
Requiem for the Maine Sardine
Maine's herring once swam by the trillion,
But the meek of our race are six billion.
So many, we've eaten,
they're pretty well beaten.
Now it's hard to find half a million.
The herring got little respect.
It was scorned by the social elect.
The Hollywood star
just adored caviar,
but a can of sardines, she'd reject.
Those born to imperial bearing
were seldom consumers of herring.
It seemed kings and queens
rarely noshed on sardines
(at least, when their crowns, they were wearing).
The homely lobster is able
to grace the millionaire's table
but sardines were favored,
(with mustard well savored)
by the man who cleaned his stable.
On his yacht, the great Wall Street banker,
for filet of sole, sure did hanker;
but his cook and skipper
would divvy up kippers
with the sailor who heaved the anchor.
The Beverly Hills plastic surgeon
devoured platters of sturgeon;
while low-ranked clinicians
and health care technicians
downed kippers, without any urgin'.
The lawyer who drove a new Caddy
and dined on poached finnan haddie,
was also unerring
at shunning the herring,
but they were enjoyed by his caddie.
While the Texas oilman grew fat
eating barbecued "channel cat"
the roughnecks were sharing
Blue Ribbon and herring
and feeding sardines to the cat.
Maine sardines, it has come to pass,
though spurned by the very top brass;
were loved without question,
and doomed to digestion,
by humankind's lowlier class.
A Famous Mount Desert Summer Resident's View On Sardines
They say Martha Stewart's unsparing
in her disdain of the herring;
though she ate, in her cell,
canned sardines for that spell,
when prison clothes, she was wearing.
Douglas Brown
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Belfast Sardine Extravaganza
August 21 Belfast Sardine Extravaganza at the Belfast Harbor Fest
Raise a Ruckus for Herring!
1100 Speaker: Joe Upton, herring bait boatman and author of Amaretto, and Alaska Blues - at the Boathouse
and at the Sardine Stage - Belfast Commons:
12 Noon - Invocation... for the love of Herring: Poets and Divas
100 The Gawler Family
200 Anna Dembska & the Schoodic Chorus
300 Morty Hanson
3:30 Gordon Bok with The January Men and Then Some
430 Grand March with Chrissy Fowler, the Flashing Fish Dancers & the Belfast Bay Fiddlers
Anna Dembska, the Sardine Singers, & the Belfast Drum and RabbleParade and Flotilla to the Old Sardine Factory and Walking Bridge for the Grand Finale!!!
To volunteer, add your fishy ideas, or for more information please contact:
kspitfire@gwi.net
For the ongoing, continually upgraded schedule of summer sardine events:
http://sardinesong.blogspot.com
and for the Harbor Fest:
belfastharborfest.com
Raise a Ruckus for Herring!
1100 Speaker: Joe Upton, herring bait boatman and author of Amaretto, and Alaska Blues - at the Boathouse
and at the Sardine Stage - Belfast Commons:
12 Noon - Invocation... for the love of Herring: Poets and Divas
100 The Gawler Family
200 Anna Dembska & the Schoodic Chorus
300 Morty Hanson
3:30 Gordon Bok with The January Men and Then Some
430 Grand March with Chrissy Fowler, the Flashing Fish Dancers & the Belfast Bay Fiddlers
Anna Dembska, the Sardine Singers, & the Belfast Drum and RabbleParade and Flotilla to the Old Sardine Factory and Walking Bridge for the Grand Finale!!!
To volunteer, add your fishy ideas, or for more information please contact:
kspitfire@gwi.net
For the ongoing, continually upgraded schedule of summer sardine events:
http://sardinesong.blogspot.com
and for the Harbor Fest:
belfastharborfest.com
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
summer sardine events
We want to spend the summer celebrating the herring, yes the sardines, the little silver darlings, but we also want to celebrate the human cultures which grew up around the sardine fisheries. We want to spawn and promote a number of events around the state centering on the sardine, and the disappearance of the sardine related industry and culture, another kind of extinction.Please join us, and keep watching here as we will have more events to post.
June 29 - The Fish Belong to the People - film showing at the Belfast Free Library with speaker Glen Libby - sponsored by the library and the co-op- more info click
this!
July 3, Saturday, 130 PM Eastport Arts Center - Herring Hymnal, Herring Dance, Herring Song - A reading by poet Karin Spitfire with local poets and archival film footage of the Eastport sardine industry, Old Eastport, and maritime life, from the Northern Lights Film Society
July 20 - Herring Night at the Bass Harbor Library - as a part of their annual Ruth Moore Days - with readings from Ruth Moore and historic photos of the local sardine cannery by Eleanor Mayo
July 22 - Karin Spitfire reads poetry, Stockton Library, 7 PM
July 25 - 6 PM Poetry and Sax = 9 local women poets read, with jazz sax, at a release party for: Talking Furniture - Selections from Maine Writers, at Bay Wrap, 102 Main Street, Belfast - $10 donation, proceeds go to sponsor the Belfast Sardine Extravaganza
July 26 Belfast Free Library - film maker Karen Saum's film "Working Women of Waldo County" which includes a section on the sardine industry - sponsored by the Belfast Historical Museum and the Belfast Free Library
July 30 - 730 PM - sardine poetry night at the Wayne (Maine) Public Library
July 31, 11-3, Maine State Museum, Augusta - special event for the Stinson Seafood- sardine industry exhibit - with:
1030 & 130 - music by Roll and Go
1100 - sardine poetry with Karin Spitfire and Gary Lawless
1130 - food historian Sandra Oliver on Seafood and Sardines in the New England Diet
and more!
August 1 - 30 images of the sardine industry - a photo/art exhibit at the Kramer Gallery, Belfast - focussing on the Belfast sardine cannery, with images from the Belfast Historical Society, Penobscot Marine Museum, and local artists
August 4, 630-800 PM Herring Gut Learning Center, Port Clyde - sardine taqlk, poetry, and film (including footage of the Port Clyde cannery fire and explosion), with a display of historic photos, aprons, scissors, timecards, trays and other historic artifacts - for more info click
this
August 10, 630 PM, Belfast Free Library - Fish Forever-speaker Aaron Dority of the Penobscot East Resource Center, with a herring/sardine slide show compiled by Kevin Johnson of the Penobscot Marine Museum.
August 21 - Belfast Harbor Fest and Sardine Extravaganza - sponsored by the Belfast Rotary and many local groups and businesses - with boat races and displays, speakers, singers, poets, dancers, art displays, and a choral piece culminating in a parade to the Belfast cannery site for an event there
and yes a published collection of sardine poems called "Sardine Songs/Herring Hymns"
We hope to see you at these events.
Please contact us for more information
chimfarm@gwi.net
kspit@gwi.net
June 29 - The Fish Belong to the People - film showing at the Belfast Free Library with speaker Glen Libby - sponsored by the library and the co-op- more info click
this!
July 3, Saturday, 130 PM Eastport Arts Center - Herring Hymnal, Herring Dance, Herring Song - A reading by poet Karin Spitfire with local poets and archival film footage of the Eastport sardine industry, Old Eastport, and maritime life, from the Northern Lights Film Society
July 20 - Herring Night at the Bass Harbor Library - as a part of their annual Ruth Moore Days - with readings from Ruth Moore and historic photos of the local sardine cannery by Eleanor Mayo
July 22 - Karin Spitfire reads poetry, Stockton Library, 7 PM
July 25 - 6 PM Poetry and Sax = 9 local women poets read, with jazz sax, at a release party for: Talking Furniture - Selections from Maine Writers, at Bay Wrap, 102 Main Street, Belfast - $10 donation, proceeds go to sponsor the Belfast Sardine Extravaganza
July 26 Belfast Free Library - film maker Karen Saum's film "Working Women of Waldo County" which includes a section on the sardine industry - sponsored by the Belfast Historical Museum and the Belfast Free Library
July 30 - 730 PM - sardine poetry night at the Wayne (Maine) Public Library
July 31, 11-3, Maine State Museum, Augusta - special event for the Stinson Seafood- sardine industry exhibit - with:
1030 & 130 - music by Roll and Go
1100 - sardine poetry with Karin Spitfire and Gary Lawless
1130 - food historian Sandra Oliver on Seafood and Sardines in the New England Diet
and more!
August 1 - 30 images of the sardine industry - a photo/art exhibit at the Kramer Gallery, Belfast - focussing on the Belfast sardine cannery, with images from the Belfast Historical Society, Penobscot Marine Museum, and local artists
August 4, 630-800 PM Herring Gut Learning Center, Port Clyde - sardine taqlk, poetry, and film (including footage of the Port Clyde cannery fire and explosion), with a display of historic photos, aprons, scissors, timecards, trays and other historic artifacts - for more info click
this
August 10, 630 PM, Belfast Free Library - Fish Forever-speaker Aaron Dority of the Penobscot East Resource Center, with a herring/sardine slide show compiled by Kevin Johnson of the Penobscot Marine Museum.
August 21 - Belfast Harbor Fest and Sardine Extravaganza - sponsored by the Belfast Rotary and many local groups and businesses - with boat races and displays, speakers, singers, poets, dancers, art displays, and a choral piece culminating in a parade to the Belfast cannery site for an event there
and yes a published collection of sardine poems called "Sardine Songs/Herring Hymns"
We hope to see you at these events.
Please contact us for more information
chimfarm@gwi.net
kspit@gwi.net
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