Charles Mountford has written two full-length books of poetry, published by Pendas Productions, London, and two chapbooks. He has also written the librettos for two operas on Canadian themes. His poems have appeared in Quarry, Prism International, The New Quarterly and Lamia Ink, New York. He has won First Prize, in the short poem category, at The Alberta Poetry Contest and a workshop prize from Carolyn Kizer at the Indiana International Writers’ Conference at the University of Indiana, Bloomington. He has received an Ontario Arts Council Grant for work on the manuscript of his third book. Currently, he and his wife, Ruth, divide their time between Stratford, Ontario and Quebec City.
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Susan Stenson
Susan Stenson's work has appeared in many Canadian literary magazines, most recently, Fiddlehead, Geist, CV2 and sub Terrain and in the anthology Threshold: six women six poets. She won first prize in the ARC Poem of the Year Contest, 2004, and the Rona Murray Prize for Literature, 2004. She also won first prize in the Great Canadian Literary Hunt, This Magazine’s poetry contest 2000, the League of Canadian Poets National Contest in 1999 and the Hawthorne Poetry Award in 1997.
Her work is also featured on buses throughout British Columbia in the Poetry in Transit program and she participated in the first annual Random Acts of Poetry Week, 2004. Sono Nis Press published her first book of poems, Could Love a Man, spring 2001 and her newest book, My Mother Agrees With the Dead, is forthcoming from Wolsak and Wyn. She lives ecstatically in Victoria with her family where she co-publishes The Claremont Review, a literary magazine for writers aged 13 to 19 which was Write Magazine’s choice for magazine of the year, 2001. Susan teaches English and creative writing.
Her work is also featured on buses throughout British Columbia in the Poetry in Transit program and she participated in the first annual Random Acts of Poetry Week, 2004. Sono Nis Press published her first book of poems, Could Love a Man, spring 2001 and her newest book, My Mother Agrees With the Dead, is forthcoming from Wolsak and Wyn. She lives ecstatically in Victoria with her family where she co-publishes The Claremont Review, a literary magazine for writers aged 13 to 19 which was Write Magazine’s choice for magazine of the year, 2001. Susan teaches English and creative writing.
sheri-d wilson
sheri-d wilson
www.sheridwilson.com
The Mama of Dada – sheri-d wilson (poet, playwright, performer, film-maker, essayist, and educator) is Internationally renowned for her jazz infused performance style laced with a dangerous wit.
In 2005, she was invited to present her work in Ottawa as part of the Alberta Scene celebration to commemorate Alberta’s 100 year centennial, and in 2006 she was honoured with Global TV’s Woman of Vision award, and the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry.
Her live performance/readings highlights include: Westcoast Poetry Festival (2005, Vancouver), 2nd Festival Voix D’Ameriques (2005, Montreal), The Bumbershoot Bout 2003 – Winner of Heavyweight title (2003, Seattle), The Superbowl of Poetry – Winner of title (2003, Seattle), The World Poetry Bout 2002 (Taos, New Mexico), Poetry Africa 2001 (2001: Durban & Jo’burg, South Africa), Shakespeare and Co. (2001: Paris), PanCanadian Wordfest (2000, 1995: Calgary/Banff), Vancouver International Writers Festival (2002, 2000, 1995, 1993, 1990: Vancouver), Bumbershoot (1999, 1991, 1989: Seattle), Small Press Festival (1990: New York), Harbourfront Reading Series (1993: Toronto), Spoken Word Festival (1996: Montreal), Brainwash Reading Series (1995: San Francisco).
sheri-d wilson has six collections of published poetry: Bulls Whip & Lambs Wool (1989, Petarade Press), Swerve (1993, Arsenal Pulp Press), Girl’s Guide to Giving Head (1996, Arsenal Pulp Press), The Sweet Taste of Lightning (1999, Arsenal Pulp Press), Between Lovers (2002, Arsenal Pulp Press), Re:Zoom (2005, Frontenac House).
Her poetry CD, arranged by Russell Broom, is entitled sweet taste of lightning (2000, swerve sound). Her VideoPoems produced for BRAVO! TV have been wildly successful. Airplane Paula, 2001, was #1 on BRAVO for many weeks, and was nominated for five AMPIA awards. Spinsters Hanging in Trees, launched in Nov. 2002 (just after Sex In The City), won Gold at the Houston Film Festival; three ACE awards; was nominated for two Rosie (AMPIA) awards, and won a Rosie (AMPIA) for best short or vignette.
She participated in the Word Up project, which included a spoken word anthology, a CD with Virgin Records, and a video with MuchMusic (Toronto). Sheri-D’s work is also featured in Poetry Nation (1998, Véhicule Press), Addicted: Notes From The Belly Of The Beast (2001, personal essay, Greystone Books), Ribsauce (2001, Véhicule Press, Short Fuse: A Global Anthology of New Fusion Poetry (2001, Norton Anthology E-Book), and side/lines (2002, Insomniac Press).
She participated in the Action Poetry symposium at The Banff Centre, and participated in the 2000 Woman’s Project at The Playwright’s Workshop of Montreal. In 2000, she participated in Out Loud Alive (PanCanadian Wordfest/Banff Centre Co-pro) now seen on web site www.outloudalive.org.
In 1991 her Spoken Word play Confessions: A Jazz Play, directed by Teri Snelgrove, was performed at Tamahnous Theatre (Van.), published in Theatrum (T.O.), and nominated for four Jessie Awards (Van.). She co-created/performed Boy Wonder with Ballet B.C., and Classic Jam with Decidedly Jazz Dance, in Clagary. Her jazz-play Between Lovers: Poetry As For Play premiered at One Yellow Rabbit’s High Performance Rodeo 2003, and was also presented in March at The Belfry Theatre in Victoria. Her newest Spoken Word play Adventures of the Trick-Riders: During the Apocalypse while Thinking of Jesus premiered at the 2006 High Performance Rodeo in Calgary.
Of the beat tradition, in 1989 sheri-d studied at Naropa, The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics in Boulder. sheri-d’s unique poetry shatters all conventions. In 2003 she won the Heavyweight of Poetry, USA in a Bumbershoot Bout against Andrei Codrescu. sheri-d wilson’s work has been featured on CBC’s Word Beat, Sounds like Canada, Canada Reads and ZED TV and she has written many articles for the Globe and Mail.
sheri-d is a leader; as a poet, innovator and activist; in the revival of Spoken Word Poetry which has grown from a grassroots movement into the literary world. She is the founder and Artistic Director of the Calgary International Spoken Word Festival, and a founding member of SWAN (Spoken Word Arts Network).
www.calgaryspokenwordfestival.com
Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen . . . genetically tinker with these Canadians and add a chromosome of Patti Smith and a double-helix strand from Jim Carroll. . . you have sheri-d wilson.–San Francisco Examiner
Fasten your seatbelts, ladies and gentlemen: here’s action poet sheri-d wilson dancing her way onto the page with rawness and rage. This book is a live performance.
–Anne Waldman
A beautiful work devoted to some of the things that are precious to me. This work understands the importance of giving honour to the anima, the feminine spirit, in fact the Goddess. When in doubt Swerve.
–Marianne Faithfull
sheri-d's poems give the tone-deaf world tone; they take the clumsy world and make it dance; hey use language like a starved puma uses a woodcock, feathers everywhere, meat yum; her work remakes Paris, tropicalizes Canada, and eroticizes the proletariat. Apollinaire loves her, Cocteau illustrates her, the Surrealists fight over her, I endorse her. sheri-d's poetry has women in every port, songs in every cafe, spies in every congrave. she is a courage teacher, Whitman's pal.
-Andrea Codrescu
In the expansive, generous, bloody heart of poetry, in the dark messy places, in the sobs and ROTFL, in the luminous meditative gardens watered with anger and truth, sheri-d wilson lives, writes and stomps. For her a poem is always between lovers, Poet and Reader, e.g. In Leticia Knight she has created one of poetry’s great characters: the Emily Dickinson Frankenstein, a Gaia for the Digital Age. This is Penelope’s Odyssey. O! What fun and pain!
-Bob Holman
www.sheridwilson.com
The Mama of Dada – sheri-d wilson (poet, playwright, performer, film-maker, essayist, and educator) is Internationally renowned for her jazz infused performance style laced with a dangerous wit.
In 2005, she was invited to present her work in Ottawa as part of the Alberta Scene celebration to commemorate Alberta’s 100 year centennial, and in 2006 she was honoured with Global TV’s Woman of Vision award, and the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry.
Her live performance/readings highlights include: Westcoast Poetry Festival (2005, Vancouver), 2nd Festival Voix D’Ameriques (2005, Montreal), The Bumbershoot Bout 2003 – Winner of Heavyweight title (2003, Seattle), The Superbowl of Poetry – Winner of title (2003, Seattle), The World Poetry Bout 2002 (Taos, New Mexico), Poetry Africa 2001 (2001: Durban & Jo’burg, South Africa), Shakespeare and Co. (2001: Paris), PanCanadian Wordfest (2000, 1995: Calgary/Banff), Vancouver International Writers Festival (2002, 2000, 1995, 1993, 1990: Vancouver), Bumbershoot (1999, 1991, 1989: Seattle), Small Press Festival (1990: New York), Harbourfront Reading Series (1993: Toronto), Spoken Word Festival (1996: Montreal), Brainwash Reading Series (1995: San Francisco).
sheri-d wilson has six collections of published poetry: Bulls Whip & Lambs Wool (1989, Petarade Press), Swerve (1993, Arsenal Pulp Press), Girl’s Guide to Giving Head (1996, Arsenal Pulp Press), The Sweet Taste of Lightning (1999, Arsenal Pulp Press), Between Lovers (2002, Arsenal Pulp Press), Re:Zoom (2005, Frontenac House).
Her poetry CD, arranged by Russell Broom, is entitled sweet taste of lightning (2000, swerve sound). Her VideoPoems produced for BRAVO! TV have been wildly successful. Airplane Paula, 2001, was #1 on BRAVO for many weeks, and was nominated for five AMPIA awards. Spinsters Hanging in Trees, launched in Nov. 2002 (just after Sex In The City), won Gold at the Houston Film Festival; three ACE awards; was nominated for two Rosie (AMPIA) awards, and won a Rosie (AMPIA) for best short or vignette.
She participated in the Word Up project, which included a spoken word anthology, a CD with Virgin Records, and a video with MuchMusic (Toronto). Sheri-D’s work is also featured in Poetry Nation (1998, Véhicule Press), Addicted: Notes From The Belly Of The Beast (2001, personal essay, Greystone Books), Ribsauce (2001, Véhicule Press, Short Fuse: A Global Anthology of New Fusion Poetry (2001, Norton Anthology E-Book), and side/lines (2002, Insomniac Press).
She participated in the Action Poetry symposium at The Banff Centre, and participated in the 2000 Woman’s Project at The Playwright’s Workshop of Montreal. In 2000, she participated in Out Loud Alive (PanCanadian Wordfest/Banff Centre Co-pro) now seen on web site www.outloudalive.org.
In 1991 her Spoken Word play Confessions: A Jazz Play, directed by Teri Snelgrove, was performed at Tamahnous Theatre (Van.), published in Theatrum (T.O.), and nominated for four Jessie Awards (Van.). She co-created/performed Boy Wonder with Ballet B.C., and Classic Jam with Decidedly Jazz Dance, in Clagary. Her jazz-play Between Lovers: Poetry As For Play premiered at One Yellow Rabbit’s High Performance Rodeo 2003, and was also presented in March at The Belfry Theatre in Victoria. Her newest Spoken Word play Adventures of the Trick-Riders: During the Apocalypse while Thinking of Jesus premiered at the 2006 High Performance Rodeo in Calgary.
Of the beat tradition, in 1989 sheri-d studied at Naropa, The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics in Boulder. sheri-d’s unique poetry shatters all conventions. In 2003 she won the Heavyweight of Poetry, USA in a Bumbershoot Bout against Andrei Codrescu. sheri-d wilson’s work has been featured on CBC’s Word Beat, Sounds like Canada, Canada Reads and ZED TV and she has written many articles for the Globe and Mail.
sheri-d is a leader; as a poet, innovator and activist; in the revival of Spoken Word Poetry which has grown from a grassroots movement into the literary world. She is the founder and Artistic Director of the Calgary International Spoken Word Festival, and a founding member of SWAN (Spoken Word Arts Network).
www.calgaryspokenwordfestival.com
Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen . . . genetically tinker with these Canadians and add a chromosome of Patti Smith and a double-helix strand from Jim Carroll. . . you have sheri-d wilson.–San Francisco Examiner
Fasten your seatbelts, ladies and gentlemen: here’s action poet sheri-d wilson dancing her way onto the page with rawness and rage. This book is a live performance.
–Anne Waldman
A beautiful work devoted to some of the things that are precious to me. This work understands the importance of giving honour to the anima, the feminine spirit, in fact the Goddess. When in doubt Swerve.
–Marianne Faithfull
sheri-d's poems give the tone-deaf world tone; they take the clumsy world and make it dance; hey use language like a starved puma uses a woodcock, feathers everywhere, meat yum; her work remakes Paris, tropicalizes Canada, and eroticizes the proletariat. Apollinaire loves her, Cocteau illustrates her, the Surrealists fight over her, I endorse her. sheri-d's poetry has women in every port, songs in every cafe, spies in every congrave. she is a courage teacher, Whitman's pal.
-Andrea Codrescu
In the expansive, generous, bloody heart of poetry, in the dark messy places, in the sobs and ROTFL, in the luminous meditative gardens watered with anger and truth, sheri-d wilson lives, writes and stomps. For her a poem is always between lovers, Poet and Reader, e.g. In Leticia Knight she has created one of poetry’s great characters: the Emily Dickinson Frankenstein, a Gaia for the Digital Age. This is Penelope’s Odyssey. O! What fun and pain!
-Bob Holman
Alisa Gordaneer
Alisa Gordaneer is an award-winning poet and journalist who lives and writes on an urban homestead in Victoria, B.C., Canada. She is the editor of Monday Magazine, Victoria¹s alternative newsweekly, and is currently working on a novel, a poetry collection, and a collection of essays.
Elizabeth Bachinsky
Elizabeth Bachinsky was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, and grew up in northern British Columbia, the Yukon, and BC's Fraser Valley. She is the author of two books of poetry Home of Sudden Service (Nightwood Editions, 2006) and Curio: Grotesques and Satires From the Electronic Age (BookThug, 2005). Her poetry has appeared most recently in Drunken Boat, The Globe and Mail, The Malahat Review, Matrix, and In Fine Form: The Book Of Canadian Form Poetry (Polestar, 2005) and is forthcoming in Gulf Coast (US) and in translation at Siècle 21(France). She lives in Vancouver where she is poetry editor for Event magazine.
Mary Ann Mulhern
Mary Ann Mulhern is a Windsor teacher and poet. The Red Dress and Touch the Dead were published by Black Moss Press. Mulhern has read at Shakespeare and Company in Paris, France, July, 2005 and May 2006.
Carolyn Marie Souaid
Carolyn Marie Souaid is a freelance book reviewer and
the author of four collections of poetry. She has
appeared at many literary festivals across Canada, and
was part of a Canadian delegation of poets invited to
Paris last December to participate in a four-day forum
on the inhumane treatment of prisoners of conscience
in Turkey.
Since 2004, she has become involved in projects aimed
at moving poetry off the page and into public spaces.
She co-produced two major Montreal events: POÉSIE EN
MOUVEMENT (the poetry-on-the-buses project) and CIRQUE
DES MOTS / CIRCUS OF WORDS a multilingual cabaret of
performance poetry.
Her most recent book is SATIE'S SAD PIANO, nominated
earlier this year for the Pat Lowther Award and the
Mary Scorer Award. A French translation of SNOW
FORMATIONS was published by Les Éditions Triptyque in
2006.
Photo by Michel Gagnon.
the author of four collections of poetry. She has
appeared at many literary festivals across Canada, and
was part of a Canadian delegation of poets invited to
Paris last December to participate in a four-day forum
on the inhumane treatment of prisoners of conscience
in Turkey.
Since 2004, she has become involved in projects aimed
at moving poetry off the page and into public spaces.
She co-produced two major Montreal events: POÉSIE EN
MOUVEMENT (the poetry-on-the-buses project) and CIRQUE
DES MOTS / CIRCUS OF WORDS a multilingual cabaret of
performance poetry.
Her most recent book is SATIE'S SAD PIANO, nominated
earlier this year for the Pat Lowther Award and the
Mary Scorer Award. A French translation of SNOW
FORMATIONS was published by Les Éditions Triptyque in
2006.
Photo by Michel Gagnon.
T. Anders Carson
T. Anders Carson is a people's poet. He writes about family, odd slices of life and the nagging place of where we can be as a people. His work has appeared in 34 countries including translations into Greek, Japanese and Swedish. His poems and reviews have been in The Comstock Review, The Ottawa Citizen, The Montreal Gazette, Prairie Journal Trust, Fire, Poetry New Zealand, Fish Drum, slipstream, Poetry Motel and Dream Catcher. He has performed his poetry in Oslo, Paris, NYC, Atlanta, Nashville, New Orleans, Ottawa, Toronto, Stockholm Trois Rivieres and Vancouver, Toronto. He's had the obligatory poet jobs; cleaning up after fires, carrying the mail, working with the homeless mentally ill on the streets of Ottawa, and taking care of his two ailing grandparents. He was orphaned young and opted to write from that dark place. His work seethes in hope, despite severe challenges. He takes his enthusiasm to the classroom and has taught poetry at St. Lawrence College in Kingston, ON and numerous other classrooms from Scarborough to Cairo. He's published two books and 4 chapbooks. He put a backpack on in his early twenties and visited the far reaches of Greece, India and Nepal. He edits a magazine out of Detroit, MI entitled freefall. He is the youngest ever to attend The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico. They gave him three months to write up in the mountains of Taos, NM. He wrote most of Folding the Crane when he was there. He won the 2000 Canadian Poetry Association contest and has placed as a finalist in the Scottish Open Poetry Competition for the last 4 years. In his spare time he is a soccer coach for the Portland FC U16 team.He lives with his wife and two kids outside of Portland, ON.
Here are some reviews of his work.
In a Different Shred of Skin T. Anders Carson roots out the genuine, casting aside of artificial distractions. His poetry bores at the heart of that which defines us; the travails of human interaction, the search for meaning and experience in a world increasingly insular and similar. Suicide, mental illness, abuse, but also fleeting tenderness and compassion, mark these poems like faded signposts on a rough gravel road. -Matt Firth, Front & Centre Magazine
This book is stunning -both because of the excellent photos by Michael B. (of Switzerland) but also the raw strength of Carson's powerful revelations about the death of his parents, the nature of loneliness and the ways we struggle to cope with deep trauma. By opening up in the his way, Carson allows others to do the same. - Emily Pohl-Weary, broken pencil
It is his openess and honesty that has gained him a world-wide audience.
Here are some reviews of his work.
In a Different Shred of Skin T. Anders Carson roots out the genuine, casting aside of artificial distractions. His poetry bores at the heart of that which defines us; the travails of human interaction, the search for meaning and experience in a world increasingly insular and similar. Suicide, mental illness, abuse, but also fleeting tenderness and compassion, mark these poems like faded signposts on a rough gravel road. -Matt Firth, Front & Centre Magazine
This book is stunning -both because of the excellent photos by Michael B. (of Switzerland) but also the raw strength of Carson's powerful revelations about the death of his parents, the nature of loneliness and the ways we struggle to cope with deep trauma. By opening up in the his way, Carson allows others to do the same. - Emily Pohl-Weary, broken pencil
It is his openess and honesty that has gained him a world-wide audience.
Jeanette Lynes
Jeanette Lynes is the author of three collections of poetry. Her most recent, Left Fields was shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award. Her fourth collection will be published by Wolsak and Wynn in 2008. Jeanette was the 2005-2006 Writer in Residence at Saskatoon Public Library. She lives in Antigonoish, Nova Scotia.
Terry Ann Carter
Terry Ann Carter is a teacher and poet working in Ottawa. Her books of poetry are: Waiting for Julia (Third Eye Press, London) and Transplanted (Borealis Press, Ottawa). An accomplished haikuist, Carter has won several international awards and participated in the Basho Festival, in Ueno, Japan. Her haiku collection such green, celebrating the rainforests of British Columbia and the life of Emily Carr, was published by Pendas Poets. Carter will be participating in a poetry festival at the Centre Zen de la Main (Montreal) in the spring of 07.
Mary Dalton
Mary Dalton teaches in the Department of English Literature and Language at Memorial University in St. John’s. Her poems, reviews , essays and interviews have been published in journals and anthologies in Canada, Ireland and the United States, most recently in Open Field: Contemporary Canadian Poets, published by Persea Books in 2005. She is a former editor of TickleAce and of the interdisciplinary journal Newfoundland Studies.
She has published three volumes of poetry, The Time of Icicles ( Breakwater, 1989 and 1991) , Allowing the Light (Breakwater, 1993) and Merrybegot ( Véhicule Press , Signal Editions, 2003. A fourth volume, Red Ledger, is being released by Véhicule Press in September 2006.
She has won various awards for her poetry, among them the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Competition for Poetry in 1997, 2002 and 2006; and the inaugural TickleAce/Cabot Award for Poetry in 1998. Merrybegot won the 2005 E.J. Pratt Poetry Award. It was also shortlisted for the 2004 all-genre Winterset Award, the 2004 Pat Lowther Memorial Poetry Award (a national award given annually to the best book by a Canadian woman), and the 2006 Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Award. Merrybegot was released as a CD by Rattling Books in November 2005, with performances by singer Anita Best and trumpeter Patrick Boyle.
She has published three volumes of poetry, The Time of Icicles ( Breakwater, 1989 and 1991) , Allowing the Light (Breakwater, 1993) and Merrybegot ( Véhicule Press , Signal Editions, 2003. A fourth volume, Red Ledger, is being released by Véhicule Press in September 2006.
She has won various awards for her poetry, among them the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Competition for Poetry in 1997, 2002 and 2006; and the inaugural TickleAce/Cabot Award for Poetry in 1998. Merrybegot won the 2005 E.J. Pratt Poetry Award. It was also shortlisted for the 2004 all-genre Winterset Award, the 2004 Pat Lowther Memorial Poetry Award (a national award given annually to the best book by a Canadian woman), and the 2006 Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Award. Merrybegot was released as a CD by Rattling Books in November 2005, with performances by singer Anita Best and trumpeter Patrick Boyle.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
39 POETS TO COMMIT ‘RANDOM ACTS OF POETRY’ ACROSS CANADA
Random Acts of Poetry, a celebration of poetry and literacy, begins its third year during the week of October 2nd to 8th, 2006. Random Acts of Poetry is a project of the Victoria READ Society, a non-profit literacy organization, established in 1976. Random Acts of Poetry is funded by The Canada Council for the Arts.
During the week, 39 acclaimed poets across Canada, from Victoria to Newfoundland, including five of Canada’s Poets Laureate, will commit Random Acts of Poetry in their cities. On buses and subways, in donut shops and cafes, police stations, grocery stores, curling rinks, on city streets and country lanes, poets will read poems to strangers and giving them their books. Poets will also read their poems in ESL and Adult Literacy classes across the country.
Patrick Lane, considered the greatest poet of his generation, says of Random Acts of Poetry, “There are no accidents. Nothing is random. A poem sits in a poet’s pocket and jumps out when you least expect it. It can nestle in a mechanic’s ear, a politician’s hand, a waitress’s bright eye, somewhere, anywhere. You look up from work and there’s a poem. It reads itself to you. It asks you to take a break. It says: Right here. Right now.”
“Poetry”, says Wendy Morton, founder of Random Acts of Poetry, “is the shortest distance between two hearts. I have read poems to hundreds of people, many of whom hadn’t heard a poem in thirty years, and watched their eyes fill up with tears. Some burst into laughter or laid a hand on my shoulder, hugged me, took my hand. Poetry can connect us with each other as humans as no other art form I know. Poetry is a gift that we can create from whatever life has in store for us.”
Across Canada poets will commit random acts in: Victoria, Vancouver, Mission, Kelowna, Calgary, Moose Jaw, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Stratford, Markdale, London, Brantford, Toronto, Ottawa, Kingston, Windsor, Hamilton, Montreal, Fredericton, Charlottetown, Halifax, Antigonish, St. John’s.
During the week, 39 acclaimed poets across Canada, from Victoria to Newfoundland, including five of Canada’s Poets Laureate, will commit Random Acts of Poetry in their cities. On buses and subways, in donut shops and cafes, police stations, grocery stores, curling rinks, on city streets and country lanes, poets will read poems to strangers and giving them their books. Poets will also read their poems in ESL and Adult Literacy classes across the country.
Patrick Lane, considered the greatest poet of his generation, says of Random Acts of Poetry, “There are no accidents. Nothing is random. A poem sits in a poet’s pocket and jumps out when you least expect it. It can nestle in a mechanic’s ear, a politician’s hand, a waitress’s bright eye, somewhere, anywhere. You look up from work and there’s a poem. It reads itself to you. It asks you to take a break. It says: Right here. Right now.”
“Poetry”, says Wendy Morton, founder of Random Acts of Poetry, “is the shortest distance between two hearts. I have read poems to hundreds of people, many of whom hadn’t heard a poem in thirty years, and watched their eyes fill up with tears. Some burst into laughter or laid a hand on my shoulder, hugged me, took my hand. Poetry can connect us with each other as humans as no other art form I know. Poetry is a gift that we can create from whatever life has in store for us.”
Across Canada poets will commit random acts in: Victoria, Vancouver, Mission, Kelowna, Calgary, Moose Jaw, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Stratford, Markdale, London, Brantford, Toronto, Ottawa, Kingston, Windsor, Hamilton, Montreal, Fredericton, Charlottetown, Halifax, Antigonish, St. John’s.
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