An appreciation by Michael Dennis; a chat with Pearl Pirie; Cobourg newspaper stuff; and Aaron Tucker clubbers me in chess

As I wait for all the paperwork to be completed for the Nobel Prize, my new poetry collection, A Sparrow Came Down Resplendent, is beginning to get a bit of pre-Sweden attention.

My very good friend, the unstoppable Ottawa poet Michael Dennis, who has blogged — about a new book of poetry he's enjoyed — every two days for the past several years, has written an appreciation of Sparrow. He writes, among other things: "…Ross has added two new twists to his considerable canon. Access to his massive and generous heart and a concerted effort to tie into a more direct narrative." I hope Michael Dennis is Swedish.

And earlier this week, I had a great chat with intriguing Ottawa poet Pearl Pirie, who hosts CKCU FM's Literary Landscape. It aired last night, but it's available online.

Meanwhile, here in Cobourg, local newsrag Northumberland News ran some generous advance notice of my June 6 Cobourg launch, which will also feature Ashley-Elizabeth Best reading from her debut collection and a musical set by Rhonda Murdoch.

And finally, fine Toronto poet and better-chessplayer-than-me Aaron Tucker posted this on his Facebook wall this morning:

I only read Stuart Ross's A Sparrow Came Down Resplendent because everyone else was and I really like it ironically. I did not sincerely enjoy how beautiful and personal the poems felt, and how the book works together, all its strange imagery, of flying, of childhood, of nature, in an emotionally moving ecosystem. I thought that was the product of an author really trying to sell out and write a popular book. I definitely did not enjoy how generous the book is, how its tendrils of references, to other poets and books, to other places and times, make for a density that pushes the reader to connect and reconnect each line to its partner, each poem to its proximity.

A good start to what I'm sure will be a poetry-franchise, A Sparrow Still Came Down Resplendent, Keepin it Resplendent: The Sparrow Re-Returns, sequels that I'm sure will make Mr. Ross a lot of money.

Over and out.