ANDRE O’GORMURCH

My birthday is coming up (September 3rd, for those of you who want to send me presents), and I wanted to celebrate it in true poet fashion: a poetry event! This event is extra, super-duper, awesomely great because it is also a fundraiser for me to get to the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word, which is being held in Victoria, British Columbia in October. As an added bonus, this event gives me an excuse to show off two of my favourite, favourite, favourite poets in the whole wide world: Andre Prefontaine and Sean O’Gorman. This show is seriously going to be one of the greatest poetry events of all time, and you must find a way to make it here to Kitchener. My heart is so filled with love – birthdays, great friends, poetry, the chance to go to nationals…it’s all so beautiful.

ANDRE O’GORMURCH

The Legend of ANDRE O’GORMURCH:

Much like the origins of Kim Jong Sung, ANDRE O’GORMURCH was birthed as the black sky raged and the clouds separated like the legs of an Olympic gymnast. On top of a mountain click, click, click, down through the chimney of heaven emerged the heroes…

Sean O’Gorman – The panty-dropper
Andre Prefontaine –The panty-wearer
Beth Murch – The no panties at all!

They were all pushed down the tube, all at once, too soon, so they formed:

ANDRE O’GORMURCH

Golden like the sun, radiant as the stars, and smelling like a bathhouse the day after Pride, ANDRE O’GORMURCH descended from the top of holy Mount Anne Murray to bring the people what they wanted: a fuckin’ kick-ass, mother-fucking, father-fucking, seal-clubbing, nipple-pinching, bra-burner of a poetry show. Fuck yeah!

ANDRE O’GORMURCH

It is our pleasure to bring to you, for one night only, a performance that will not only ravish your heart, mess up your head space and rearrange it so it better suits your new life perspective. ANDRE O’GORMURCH will dazzle you, charm you, sell your email to a third party advertiser AND inspire you. It’s a birthday party, a fundraiser, a poetry showcase, a chance to hoop a small dead animal… No. No, that’s just fucked up!

BEHOLD, THE TALENT!

Sean O’Gorman: Is an international performer of spoken word and has competed in national poetry slams multiple times. His work teeters between the brightness of possibility and the shadows of self doubt. His style is extremely personal and this is why he is able to connect with other people, putting to words what is too often never spoken.

Beth Murch: Is a tree-hugging, crunchy-granola freak show and social justice activist who works as a full-spectrum doula and independent placenta service provider. When she is not chanting down Babylon, dancing naked in the rain or calling little Buddhas forth from the womb, this wicked poetess can be found creating and disturbing peace through her literary craft which draws upon themes of sexuality, nature, spirituality, and Feminism.

Andre Prefontaine: Is known as ‘Hurricane Sassy’. Sardonic, hilarious and will make you question your sexuality, in a good way. His poetry comes from the hard, cracked earth of the Prairies, where traditional ideals of masculinity flourish like the wheat that becomes Canada’s bread – and yet, his words are both as lush as a Boreal forest and as lonely as the call of a solitary loon on a glassy lake at twilight.

CAFE PYRUS, DOORS AT 7:30, SHOW 8:00
5-10$ SLIDING SCALE OR PWYC

WARNING: FIRST THREE ROWS MAY GET PREGNANT.

Facebook Event Page: ANDRE O’GORMURCH

This is what happens when you take three normal looking people and smash them into a single image.

A Stillness Like Dust

Some people are afraid of ghosts.
They fear the sudden slamming of kitchen cabinets,
The unexplained hand prints on the bathroom mirror,
And the whispers of souls trapped in a constant state of transition
Sliding through solid objects and defying concepts of permanence.

I’ve never been afraid of ghosts.
I welcome the rattling of chains and moaning of the damned.
I leave out milk for the faeries and hide the garlic so as to not trouble vampires.
What terrifies me is silence:
The heavy smog of loneliness that hangs over me when you leave.
I am haunted by our peals of laughter fading into quiet
And the way our conversations suddenly become a death:
A life cut short, a heart stopped in its prime, an ending that is always too soon even when anticipated.

When you walk out the door,
The sunbeams retract out the window
And retreat back into the sky to hide behind dark clouds.
When the car drives away,
Light refracts differently,
And the rainbows are erased from the corners of my room.
When you cross the city line,
A stillness like dust settles over my home
And my lungs ache to breathe it in.

I hate the word “goodbye”.
It’s too clean, too tidy, too final.
I don’t like my bed to be made with military precision.
I don’t like visiting people who don’t have books scattered across their coffee table or stacked on their toilet tank.
I don’t like eating the last cookie, drinking the last cup of coffee, or using the last squeeze of dish soap.
There is nothing good about “goodbye”.
It feels like a mouthful of rotten food that I can’t quite choke down.
“Goodbye is a word that brings on paralyzing anxiety
And makes joy melt down the walls like wax on a burning candle,
Making something beautiful disappear before your very eyes.

I invite ghosts to gather around me.
The clattering of their disturbed bones would overpower the hollowness
Caught up inside my being.

This work, “A Stillness Like Dust” by Beth Murch,  is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Kitchener-Waterloo Poetry Slam & Open Mic: Featuring C-Command

I’m going to be hosting this awesome, super-cool slam tomorrow! You should totally come, because C-Command is going to rock your socks…you have no idea the treat that you are in for. Plus, you know the good folks at Cafe Pyrus are going to take good care of you, filling you up with all their yummy kombucha and tasty veggie goodies. Come early if you want to score a sweet seat!

KW Poetry Slam + Open Mic ft. C-Command
Sat Aug 9, 2014
Cafe Pyrus, 16 Charles St West Kitchener
$5 or Pay What You Can
Signup at 7pm, Open Mic at 7:30pm, Slam round 1 starts at 8pm. Come early and have dinner at Pyrus!
All Ages. This is a wheelchair accessible venue. Please email us if you have any questions, or any access needs at kwpoetryslam@gmail.com

See the Facebook event page here: August Poetry Slam