Neil Aitken reads "Traveling Through the Prairies, I Think of My Father's Voice" 

After an 8 month  battle with ALS, my father passed away on April 21, 2007.  That summer my mother and I drove from BC across the Canadian prairies on a road trip back to Regina, Saskatchewan where many of our friends and family still lived.  It was a long, beautiful, and haunting journey -- one punctuated by the loss of familiar landmarks in a space I'd not returned to in years.

The poem is from "The Lost Country of Sight" by Neil Aitken, which won the 2007 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry and was published by Anhinga Press in 2008.  

The book can be purchased from Anhinga Press:
http://anhinga.org/books/book_info.cfm?title=Lost%20Country%20of%20Sight

Or from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Country-Sight-Neil-Aitken/dp/1934695068

For more information about Neil Aitken, visit his website:  http://www.neil-aitken.com

For more information about ALS and to donate to research efforts, please visit http://www.alsa.org/


Traveling Through The Prairies, I Think of My Father's Voice (poem) by Neil Aitken

Neil Aitken reads "Memory," a poem from his current manuscript "Babbage's Dream" which revolves around the themes of loss and beauty in the context of computers, programming, and 19th century technology.

"Memory" is a lyric reinvention of the title word, bringing together the technological, cultural, and personal definitions

Neil Aitken is the author of "The Lost Country of Sight", winner of the 2007 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry, and the founding editor of Boxcar Poetry Review. For more information and samples of his work, visit his website: www.neil-aitken.com

Memory (poem) from Babbage's Dream by Neil Aitken

Neil Aitken reads "Babbage Sending Messages to Ada, Now Gone, 1852," a poem from his current manuscript "Babbage's Dream" which revolves around the themes of loss and beauty in the context of computers, programming, and 19th century technology.

"Babbage Sending Messages to Ada, Now Gone, 1852" imagines Charles Babbage contemplating the recent death of his dear friend, skilled mathematician, and calculating-machine collaborator, Ada Augusta Lovelace (Lord Byron's daughter).  The previous year Babbage had invented occulting lights, a signalling language using steady and flashing lights of different colors and orientations to convey information about complex situations (it was quickly adopted by light houses and navies as an effective means of long distance communication).

Neil Aitken is the author of "The Lost Country of Sight", winner of the 2007 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry, and the founding editor of Boxcar Poetry Review. For more information and samples of his work, visit his website: www.neil-aitken.com

Babbage Sending Messages to Ada, Now Gone, 1852 (poem) by Neil Aitken

Neil Aitken reads "Forgetting to Fill Up in Saskatoon"

This poem is from "The Lost Country of Sight" by Neil Aitken, which won the 2007 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry and was published by Anhinga Press in 2008.

The book can be purchased from Anhinga Press:
anhinga.org/books/book_info.cfm…ountry%20of%20Sight

Or from Amazon:
www.amazon.com/Lost-Country-Sigh…ken/dp/1934695068

For more information about Neil Aitken, visit his website: www.neil-aitken.com


Forgetting To Fill Up In Saskatoon (poem) by Neil Aitken

Neil Aitken gives a reading of the Christmas classic "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"

How The Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr Seuss - Read by Neil Aitken

Neil Aitken reads "Break," a poem from his current manuscript "Babbage's Dream" which revolves around the themes of loss and beauty in the context of computers, programming, and 19th century technology.

"Break" is a lyric reinvention of the title word, bringing together the technological, cultural, and personal definitions

Neil Aitken is the author of "The Lost Country of Sight", winner of the 2007 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry, and the founding editor of Boxcar Poetry Review. For more information and samples of his work, visit his website: www.neil-aitken.com

Break (poem) from Babbage's Dream by Neil Aitken

Neil Aitken reads "First Poem"

This poem is from "The Lost Country of Sight" by Neil Aitken, which won the 2007 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry and was published by Anhinga Press in 2008.

The book can be purchased from Anhinga Press:
anhinga.org/books/book_info.cfm…ountry%20of%20Sight

First Poem (poem) by Neil Aitken

Neil Aitken reads "Planting Tulips".   

Composer Brandon Scott Rumsey has set this text to music as part of his piece, In the Primal Garden -- you can listen to it here: https://soundcloud.com/brandonrumsey/sets/in-the-primal-garden-2014

"Planting Tulips" appears in Neil Aitken's first book, "The Lost Country of Sight," which won the 2007 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry and was published by Anhinga Press in 2008.

The book can be purchased from Anhinga Press:
anhinga.org/books/book_info.cfm…ountry%20of%20Sight

Planting Tulips (poem) by Neil Aitken

"Alpha 60 Speaks of Fear" is a poem from Neil Aitken's forthcoming second book of poetry "Babbage's Dream" (Sundress 2016) which explores the place of beauty in the world of computers and computer programming.  

The poem takes its inspiration from one of the closing scenes in Jean-Luc Godard's 1965 French New Wave cinema sci-fi dystopia, "Alphaville" in which the main character, Lemmy Caution, accuses the the computer of being incapable of comprehending human existence because it cannot understand death or love.


This poem first appeared in The Collagist (Sept 2011).  You can read the text here:
http://thecollagist.com/the-collagist/2011/9/14/alpha-60-speaks-of-fear.html

Alpha 60 Speaks Of Fear (poem) by Neil Aitken

"Frankenstein's Creature Bids Farewell to its Maker" is a poem from Neil Aitken's forthcoming second book of poetry "Babbage's Dream" (Sundress 2016) which explores the place of beauty in the world of computers and computer programming, and gives voice to artificial intelligences and created others from film and literature.

This poem imagines Frankenstein's creature offering a soliloquy after the death of Victor Frankenstein and before setting fire to his funeral pyre.  

Frankenstein's Creature Bids Farewell to its Maker (poem) by Neil Aitken

Neil Aitken is the author of two books of poetry, The Lost Country of Sight (Anhinga 2008), which won the Philip Levine Prize, and Babbage's Dream (Sundress 2017), as well as a chapbook of poetry, Leviathan (Hyacinth Girl Press 2015).  He is the founding editor of Boxcar Poetry Review and his own poems have appeared in The Collagist, Crab Orchard Review, Iron Horse Literary Review, RHINO, and many other literary journals. A former computer games programmer, he holds a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California.  He has collaborated with a number of talented composers and is always interested in new projects. He works as a creative writing coach and freelance editor.