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Barbara E. Mercer
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Concerto
For Cabbagetown
 Author:
Barbara E. Mercer
Binding: Paperback
(pp: 111 ISBN: 978-8182531659 Availability: In Stock (Ships within 1 to 2
days) Publisher: Cyberwit.net Pub. Date:
2010 Condition: New
Description:
Maybe
I am an Owl – with all knowing eyes and a scowl
Who
could fly at night
Give
people and mice a fright
(Barbara
Mercer)
Wait
for the early owl.
(Thomas
Eliot)
“Will
she be a witch”?
Yes, certainly! And it (the
book) is full of “unlikely
– karmic
surprises”. All black and white cats meeting
her in Millington Street know it. For she
doesn’t write poetic books, but she more likely
learns to read with the fingertips of spherical
music containing sacral ornaments of
poetry. Her art of poetry reminds one more of the
secretly seismic stratigraphy of words, the incomprehensible tomography
of sound, than literature usually does. Storm
music of the Moon-Sun and the conjuration of
magical words: “Through
laughter – tears – hopes –
fears”... Barbara Mercer! –
the
mystical Mercer: the most exquisite “tissue
of the Graceful Word” for the elite. And it
simultaneously means to suggest –
that which quiets the storm of poetry –
and is urged “to
plumb the mystery”:
As
the golden eye
Of
the
Peregrine
Falcon
We
see beyond
Into
the past
Into
the future
Barbara
Merсer never asserts, doesn’t give ready
answers (sign:
!),
but as ancient Pythia,
insinuating and using deep interrogation (sign:
?). Her
poetic work of departure –
“little
red book of poetry” –
under different covers, always thinks: “Secrets”, “Mystic
Wills”. Always: “Ready
to reveal/Deeply held secrets”. And it is
not simply “a
Victorian throwback”, but the evidence of
triumph, laughter and the pursuit of Eternally
Young Blood:
Sharing
the golden elixir
Of
life – immortality
Philosopher’s
stone
The
alchemy
So,
what does her alchemical
“the golden eye” see?
Behind
–
bending
in front of
Mountainous
black clouds
Shocking
everything
Shocking…
everything
is shocking! The sensual luxury of her poetry
is necessary by design –
“frenzied
whirling”!
Furious
Thunder Storm! Probably, it is precisely
therefore – “poets
collide”. A grand battle of Thunder and
Lightning –
there
ever since the early childhood has secretly
bewitched Barbara Mercer: her “a
small red tattooed heart”! Yes, precisely
so: the furious and severe Storm of Spirit is
necessary for the most vulnerable Heart, the most
sensitive Soul. What
for? Because in the unknown Heavenly Garden “deep
red roses” blossomed eternally. Because the
young love of Spring triumphed over the Fury of
Winter –
frightening
even the
Deity of Revenge!
The
challenge of severe winter storm
To
show our hardy heritage
As
it is in our Canadian veins
Text
by Azsacra Zarathustra
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Echoes From Cabbagetown
 Author:
Barbara E. Mercer
Binding: Paperback
(pp: 111 ISBN: 978-81-8253-144-4 Availability: In Stock (Ships within 1 to 2
days) Publisher: Cyberwit.net Pub. Date:
2009 Condition: New
Description: Barbara
Elizabeth Mercer s latest volume of poetry ECHOES
From CABBAGETOWN comes into the world in an era
filled with crisis and hope, an era of both
epiphanies and tragic denouement. What a moment
for the birth of a slim volume of verse, with what
boldness we as poets must take up our pens now and
construct fragile phrases against a seeming
onslaught of adamantly negative winds. But then
too this is where poetry lives, where it best
finds root and thrives - amidst contradiction and
change, in short, within conditions of upheaval.
Poetry is as such an ideal medium for expressing
such a climate. And ECHOES From CABBAGETOWN seeks
to transmit all of the uncertainties,
instabilities, and yearnings of the times, but
more importantly the subtle undercurrents, the
breezes of change, the somehow reassuring
inevitability of the mundane as a counterweight to
the dizzying, upward swing in the heart as it
catches upon a refrain singing promises that have
yet to be realised. As such the very creation of
ECHOES From CABBAGETOWN is a victory in its own
right; Mercer s sparsely phrased constructions
contain vivid images and movement alike, to be
detected in the swift flow of transitions between
the many thematic levels, making the reading
experience a passage where associations abound.
With subject matter spanning from racoons to
global politics, there is above all hope here -
and protest, informed by a touching vulnerability.
All this perhaps best epitomised by the poem The
Crack , the title an allusion to the financial
crisis, which promptly delves into more private
depths: Has anyone dared to look/Into the
fathomless - deep darkness/To see the
life/Struggling for breath/To reach the light.
Mercer has dared, she has looked and she has
written - in a voice as tremulous as it is
determined, a voice ever searching for new
beginnings to alight upon, absorb, and then
refract through the light of a very personal
poetic vision.
-Diane Oatley
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Secrets
 Author:
Barbara E. Mercer
Binding: Paperback
(pp: 108) ISBN: 978-81-8253-119-2 Availability: In Stock (Ships within 1 to 2
days) Publisher: Cyberwit.net Pub. Date:
2008 Condition: New
Description:
SECRETS
is Barbara Elizabeth Mercer's fifth book of
poetry, and this volume represents both a
summarization of earlier themes and a
movement into a bolder expression - most easily
described here as encompassing the three V's of
poetry: vibrant, visual and vital.
Mercer
is a good craftsman. True to Mercer's signature
style, this book has much beautiful, evocative,
unpretentious poetry which is at once lyrical and
romantic - not only on its surface level, but
also within the many hidden chambers which the
reader discovers upon each successive
reading. However, SECRETS does not only
revisit familiar Mercer themes, such as nature and
humanity, with reflection and discretion. Look out
readers! Here Barbara E. Mercer begins to 'bust
loose' and occasionally brings forth a new voice
emboldened by mature reflection which at times
approaches social existentialism. Barbara uses
many everyday situations and reflections to tell
short, short stories ... her own style of
"flash fiction" in poetry. However, here
the seemingly "mundane" quickly takes on
mammoth proportions ... almost baiting the reader
who thinks that poetry and literature is all just
words, and therefore not so dangerous. Think
again! Barbara coaxes the reader to strip away
layers of preconceived thoughts and judgments,
word by word and line for line. Et voilà ... we
are naked before ourselves, and feeling quite
human - right here, and right now.
Read
these poems however you like: in book order,
randomly, to yourself, out loud to others, on the
subway or bus, or in your bed at night. You will
find new dimensions to this 'shapeshifting'
poetry with every new reading.
Barbara
Mercer's poetry speaks best for itself, so I
will just leave you with two simple lines from her
book ... two lines which ... yeah:
The moon slips silently into space
And you assure me
- Adam Donaldson Powell
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Legacy
 Author:
Barbara E. Mercer
Binding: Paperback
(pp: 124) ISBN: 978-81-8253-089-8
Availability: In Stock (Ships within 1 to 2
days) Publisher: Cyberwit.net Pub. Date:
2007 Condition: New
Description: Barbara Elizabeth Mercer as a poet has amazing vitality and power. The sublimity of her thought in several poems included in Legacy takes us beneath the surface of things Nature's commonest objects like storm, spring, heat, snow, corn field, evening star, moon, lily, blossoms, fog, sea, waves, dawn, sunset provide her emotional stimulas, inspire her feelings and imagination. 'The consecration of the commonplace' and discovering the infinite into ordinary things indicates Mercer's poetic genius. She has a rare gift of creating imaginative phrases: 'the will of the day', 'Land of the shimmering lover', 'lover of eternal moon', 'Mystic moon', 'Bathed in wind and tears', 'Pink gold glowing', 'The rock of time', 'The pearly peaks of passion'. Such expressions suggest that one is not made but born a poet. Besides poems of nature, Mercer has handled other subjects with throbbing fullness. The poems in Legacy posses a great variety unfolding the whole gamut of human experience, from the glorious story of Barbaro the Horse, from the Art Exhibition at Toranto, from watching spring from her 'rooftop cell', and the rich experience of her Vienna Affair, up to the terrible tragedy of the Twin Towers turning to rubble on 9/11, the intensity of poetic process creating 'a compelling song', the Poet as Warrior, Lover and Predator overwhelming and mesmerizing the readers with the 'wordplay', pity for 'the poor souls neglected', the alchemist selecting carefully Philosophic mercury, the Engineer giving shape to a Canadian diamond. In the variety and greatness of themes, Mercer's place as a poet is unsurpassable. She is an extraordinary poet of her time. Wordsworth observed, "The clear spring of poetry must flow freely and spontaneously-it cannot be made to flow through artificially laid pipes. Poetry is born, not in the mind, but in the heart overflowing with feeling." This is evident in Mercer's finest poetic work Legacy.
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Self
Portrait
 Author:
Barbara E. Mercer
Binding: Paperback
(pp: 99) ISBN: 81-8253-065-2
Availability: In Stock (Ships within 1 to 2
days) Publisher: Cyberwit.net Pub. Date:
2006 Condition: New
Description: Barbara Mercer's book of poetry may be considered a perfect ensemble of the reflection of her own livable experiences and her aesthetic sensibility, as a painter who at the same time, is a poetess. The book is an artistic self-biography where all the awesome skills of the author conforms an aquarelle of incredible value around her own life remembrances.
The poems flow sweetly, naturally, in front of the reader eyes, exposing her story to several levels of interpretation. Visually, melodiously, conceptually, we roam through the sidewalks and paths of her own personality that is present all the time in her constructions.
We are able to live her memories through this narration, and through that description, since she wants us to enter this journey, deliberately. She recreates the scenes and the sensations that marked her destiny, intending us to understand, to comprehend why she became a painter and a poetess. We can include her magnificent work in postmodern poetry, because it develops all the characteristics of this style.
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Mystic
Wills
 Author:
Barbara E. Mercer
Binding: Paperback
(pp: 96) ISBN: 81-8253-041-5
Availability: In Stock (Ships within 1 to 2
days) Publisher: Cyberwit.net Pub. Date:
2005 Condition: New
Description: This is
Barbara Elizabeth Mercer's first book of Poetry.
Barbara Elizabeth Mercer, CPA, poet/painter. was
born in Galt, Ontario, Canada. Her subsequent
studies took her to New York and San Francisco,
California, then back to Toronto, where she worked
with the educational TV Ontario, The Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation, the Canadian Opera
Company, the National Ballet of Canada, and other
theatre groups. Although her main focus has been
painting, she has been writing poetry for many
years. As a member of The Arts and Letters Club of
Toronto, she made her performing / poetical debut
in 2004., and as member of the Canadian Poetry
Association, was published in the 2005, 20th
Anniversary publication, Poemata. Mercer's
publications include three Cyberwit Anthologies,
The 2004 Taj Mahal Review, plus three US
Anthologies. Mercer's paintings are included in
the permanent collections of The University of
Toronto Art Centre, Imperial Oil, The Robert Mc
Laughlin Gallery, as well as many international
private collections. Currently, she lives, works,
and exhibits in Toronto, Canada. Website: www.barbaraemercer.com
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Finding inspiration from world around her A MOMENT WITH...
JUSTIN SKINNER More from this author
Jul. 29, 2005
Local artist Barbara Mercer has always found the inspiration for her paintings in the world around her. These days, she's using that same inspiration to fuel her poetry writing. Mercer has been painting since 1962 and has earned accolades both in Canada and abroad. Though she has been writing poetry even longer than she has been painting professionally, her written work had remained out of the public eye until recently.
"I was storing my work in notebooks until an old acquaintance contacted me after 43 years and encouraged me to buy a computer," the artist said. "I searched for poetry sites (online) and had some of my work published there. Through having some of my work on a site in Edinburgh, Scotland, a publisher in India found me and wanted to publish my work in print."
That circuitous route to a publication deal came as a surprise to Mercer. It was a pleasant surprise, however, as she had never anticipated becoming a paid, published author.
"I don't even have an agent, so when this came about I was happy to take the offer," she said. "I wasn't going to wait around to get rejected by Canadian publishers, who would have no trouble rejecting a no-name like me."
Her first anthology of poems, Mystic Wills, relies on the same symbolic style that she uses in her paintings. The book, which will be published in September, is a legacy to Mercer's son, artist Andrew Judd, with whom she was reunited in recent years.
"I had to have him adopted at birth and he managed to find me seven years ago," Mercer said. "We're getting to know each other more deeply and this book is a way that he and his wife can know a little better how my brain works."
Though Mystic Walls is dedicated to her son, the north Cabbagetown resident said her inspiration comes from a variety of sources, both when painting and when writing poetry.
"I feel I'm influenced by everything around me and I find a lot of inspiration in nature," she said. "In Cabbagetown, I have a little garden, which is a wild jungle that inspires me. I have a cat who inspires me."
She was also greatly influenced by her husband, photographer Gerald Milne Moses, with whom Mercer lived in Caledon. Mercer moved to Toronto 11 years ago after Moses' death.
"I'm fortunate that I was able to thank him for his inspiration through poetry in a few of the poems in my book," she said. "The book is a cathartic journey through the places that have influenced me from my childhood in Galt, Ont., which is now Cambridge, to Toronto."
Mercer's spontaneous style has long been a hallmark of both her visual and written work. She has relied on that spontaneity since she first moved to Toronto at 17 to pursue her dream of being an artist, even though she had little formal art training.
"I couldn't afford art school, couldn't afford to go to the Ontario College of Art," she said. "I had to work at many types of jobs and was fortunate because I could type and I could run a switchboard."
She managed to find work in places where she could still use her artistic skills, working as a prop builder, set designer and even a makeup artist in theatre and with the CBC, CTV and TV Ontario. Her career also took her briefly to New York, where she worked for an antique reproduction company, painting Roman, Egyptian and Renaissance-style portraits of clients.
LOVE
"I had to earn my way as best I could," Mercer said. "Through my work, I learned to love the history of art and I was constantly learning as well. They say necessity is the mother of invention and these jobs allowed me to pay the rent and eat."
Mercer's work has earned her international acclaim through shows in Sweden, the U.S. and Italy, where she participated in the renowned Biennale Internazionale Dell'Arte Contemporanea. Her series titled My Canadian Icons, which consists of portraits of noted Canadians who have had an impact on the artist's life was well received.
"I painted that series over a year, and when I say that I mean a year non-stop - days, nights, all the time," she said. "It was incredible for me to have these living icons come to sit for me and allow me to paint them."
Mercer said having her work critiqued by a professional art critic in Florence was "another thrill".
"He compared my work to the British painter David Hockney and to (Italian master) Caravaggio, who were both considered to be rebels."
Though Mercer has a modest number of Canadian collectors who actively collect her work, many of those who have enjoyed her work through the years are looking to get a copy of her poetry book.
"My poetry's similar to my visual art because both just flow when I feel connected to something," Mercer said. "I also compose music for the piano, which is just for myself and that's very similar as well. It's just a flowing of emotion."
She said that living as a widow in Cabbagetown has helped her blossom artistically. Because most of the residents in her neighbourhood are quiet and keep to themselves, she has been afforded the privacy she needs to do her work.
"As a widow here, you're treated kind of like a stray dog," she said. "I've had some kind neighbours who invite me to their parties, but I also have lots of time to do what I want to do."
She added she feels her community has a creative feel, which is augmented by her membership in the Arts and Letters Club and the University of Toronto President's Circle. "I've gotten to know more people and do lots of social things these days, which is always more grist for the writing mill," she said.
Barbara Mercer, artist and poet, says, "In Cabbagetown, I have a little garden, which is a wild jungle that inspires me. I have a cat who inspires me."
 
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Cyberwit is for poets who want to publish their poetry. Our published Anthologies and Journal Taj Mahal Review have poems that are sensuous, picturesque and impassioned. The poems reveal a fine combination of
human elements of romance and the mystic & everyday realities. Cyberwit has published a myriad of new poets, and an increasingly large number of collections of verse. The significance of Poetry has not declined, and the 21st century seems to be the Golden Era of English Poetry. The name of Cyberwit is known to readers in several countries.
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