Hold the Note
- Publisher
- Quattro Books
- Initial publish date
- Oct 2010
- Category
- General
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781926802473
- Publish Date
- Oct 2010
- List Price
- $4.99
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781926802084
- Publish Date
- Oct 2010
- List Price
- $16.95
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
Hold the Note is a wide-ranging collection unified by a jazzy, syncopated writing style – dynamic, sometimes experimental, often playful, yet always passionately engaged, sensual and visceral. Themes include the author’s Italo-Canadian heritage, from both broad historical and intimately personal perspectives; music from Leadbelly and Thelonious Monk to Tom Waits, Radiohead and Arcade Fire; love and family.
About the author
Born when rotary telephones came in multiple colours, Domenico Capilongo began writing with pencil and paper, passing poetry notes from the back of the class. He still writes in notebooks, used a typewriter in high school, and his earliest published poems were printed on a dot-matrix printer. His first books of poetry, I thought elvis was italian (2008) and hold the note (2010), as well as his first book of short fiction, Subtitles (Guernica, 2012), came very close to winning awards and were all mailed in the post. A high school creative writing teacher and karate instructor, he lives with his wife and children in Toronto.
Excerpt: Hold the Note (by (author) Domenico Capilongo)
nessun dorma
lullaby
for cole “…sing me a lullaby. Sing me the alphabet. Sing me a story I haven’t heard yet.”—The Weakerthans sing me your day moments spent away from me colours caught in nets the universe of new words exhalations of playgrounds classrooms full up with the vocabulaire of language sing me an afternoon of hugs wrestling I struggle to trap the growth of your body soon you will slip my grip easily sing me a scat-filled lullaby of kisses let me tell you stories of nonsense before you fall into sleep sing me a song that I can hold onto as you out-grow me sing me a song that I can hold onto as you out grow me emil
popping peek-a-boo faces till you’re empty with laughter this hiccup bounce of emotion can melt away any foul smelling mood indigo you have disarmed rooms made grocery store line-ups crumble with your twinkled-eye stare down you say:
I will look into you until you stop and see me see yourself in me I crack a smile and touch you until you’re warm again you are a reincarnation the next lama next mahatma the next groucho marx I will take you into war zones sit you down wobbling at peace negotiation tables let opposing sides hear the magic of your eyes let your laughter fill the ears of broken men crying out from dreams
folds of night flipping falling teething in the half-grip of the crescent moon you cry out your voice cracking down through the monitor into the cave of this basement the rhythm of your breathing changes when you’re being chased run jump fall I will catch you fish you out in hugs till it’s safe again the night smooth and stationary
Editorial Reviews
"There’s a jazzy synergy of form, language and subject matter in Capilongo’s poetry. Reading hold the note left me winded with exhilaration."