LOVE POEM BLITZ!!!!! Takin’ it to the streets!

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Make Love Poems photoTuesday afternoon Kelowna will be blitzed by LOVE POEMS, as Lesley-Anne Evans, Nygel Metcalfe and Emmy Chahal gift the community with #allwedoismakelovepoems Pop-Up-Poetry!!!!

This collaborative installation will be the largest PUP to date, and is an personal invitation to Wednesday, Feb. 25th’s MAKE LOVE POEMS ~ LIVE POETRY EVENT at heART School, Kelowna.

An evening of unconventional celebration. Four local poets take the stage to share snapshots from their journeys, moments captured in the evolution of their insides.

Spend an evening immersing yourself in the vivid stories and poems of Emmy Chahal, Nygel Metcalfe, Lesley-Anne Evans, and Lolu John Oyedele, celebrating the month of love and loss at Heart School. True stories, from every peak and canyon they have found themselves. Only one rule – they have to be LOVE poems.

Highlights of the evening will include a romantic creative environment, a group poem, interactive poetry, love notes for the wishing tree, and sharing space with a lot of lovely folk. Don’t miss it!!!

Tickets to the event are available HERE, through Eventbrite, and at the door.

So, be on the lookout for PUP in Kelowna Tuesday, Feb. 24th, and come out on Wednesday night for some sizzling word heat!!! ❤

We are getting ready for you…

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Location, location, location

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It appears that art installations, like real estate, may be all about location, location, location. After the fiasco of vandalized art earlier last week, I intentionally returned to the same site, but a slightly different location. Rather than the quiet north side parkway, I chose a location directly adjacent to the front door of our Aquatic Centre H2O. While my daughter worked out, I installed lights and poetry and stood back all spy like and watched what happened.

Within 15 minutes all 20 copies of my poem and as many tea lights were taken by an interesting variety of people. I overheard joy, gratitude, questions and comments that affirmed what I was doing. The most energetic and positive being a group of tween girls with their enthusiastic YMCA leader who said “Look, this is a random act of kindness (RAK) which lines up completely with what we are doing tonight! Let’s take a poem back and copy it and share it with everyone.” I hadn’t thought of PUP as RAK before. Yes, I was standing fairly close by to hear all this! I also saw people take selfies with the installation. Yep.

The funniest comment was from a boy who was very excited until he saw “They aren’t real candles!!!” Then I returned to my car and received a sticky under my wiper blade. It said “you are special in many ways 🙂 🙂 “ I think it was placed there by those very same happy tween girls! So undeserved, so personal, so WOW.

I want to thank each one of you who spoke kindly and affirmatively when I was feeling hurt about the vandalism. Thank you for your reminders to rally on and not let the darkness win. You know who you are. You are my light.
LA

Sticks and stones may break my poems…

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So it happened to me…vandalism. Here in my town, on a rather cold November night, in a quiet little park beside our recreation center, someone’s unnecessary outburst. I didn’t expect it, though I probably should have by now. My heart was rather buoyed up after placing a collection of lights and words in an Illumination Installation earlier this evening, then took a little tumble when I returned later to retrieve my art and saw this:

popupmess 2in place of this:

DSC_0752 DSC_0742 DSC_0750Sure, I was sad. I wondered who would do this, and why they would steal 50 messaged tea lights and a ceramic pot… I mean, what are they going to do with those things?

For a few minutes, I took it personally. Yep. And, as always, it’s not about me. Thank goodness for those wise voices speaking into my life who remind me when I forget.

So, my dear vandal(s), you can stomp on my lanterns, bend my battery powered tea lights, and tear up my poems, but I’m not going to stop doing what I do. Not yet. Nope.

Light shines brightest in the dark.

Twinkle, twinkle.

Leaves and pages

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DSC_0113 DSC_0118 DSC_0120 DSC_0122A sunny September weekend and what better activity for a poet left alone to her own devices than to share poetry. So I went over to Mission Sports Fields and clipped some pages to the branches of the amazing collection of trees in the Arboretum. (if you are interested in gardening, this is a wonderful resource of many tree varieties that thrive here in the Okanagan.) And pinned a few more poems to the fence at the soccer pitch.

My heart somewhat light and buoyant, I was heading back to the car when I spied a woman reading my words. So I asked if I might take her photograph and she said,

“Sure. Are these yours? I’ve never seen anything like this before. It’s really neat and it made me smile to find them. They are good.”

I wonder if any soccer players found them?

Happy Autumn,

Lesley-Anne

Resting…

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DSC_0041What a year.

Installing poems @ Los Angeles, Port Townsend, Kelowna, Penticton, and Vancouver.

Performing poetry on the streets, in cafes, libraries, churches, and in homes.

Writing poetry and submitting and having some published in literary mags and elsewhere.

Stretching and growing through all of the above.

Yes, a very good year. I am exponentially blessed.

And now I shall rest until the New Year.  And I shall bask in the good company of family and friends. And I shall be glad.

For words that pop up and expand in 2014,

Lesley-Anne, SDG