national poetry month

What’s next…

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What a wonderfully big and complex and exciting world we live in. I know this to be true, but I need reminding on a regular basis. Sometimes I need helicoptered out of my normal life to have my heart jump started.

This weekend did that. A road trip to Vancouver… springtime… sun on cherry blossoms… art installations… White Caps season opener… the pecha kucha… time with my son shopping for grad.… time with my husband on a professional and personal movie going level… time for reading and sharing poetry and coffee and urbanity… time to meet new people… time to recalibrate. All that and the big sigh as we drove over the top of the last rise over Peachland and saw Lake Okanagan spread out below us… HOME. I’m absolutely energized and ready for what’s next.

My deep thanks to the organizers of the BCSLA Conference for their invitation to present in the Pecha Kucha… just wonderful. What an inspiring bunch. 

Akebono cherries 3, in Vancouver BC

Akebono cherries 3, in Vancouver BC (Photo credit: wlcutler)

Poet busking is next. I am going to audition with Kelowna Streets Alive Program this week, and then I will take it to the streets. Not that random spontaneity isn’t fun, but this way appeals in its legitimizing of what I do. I’ll have the choice of 15 sites in the downtown area, any time during 12 hours a day, for as long as the duration of my license. And there is still a random pop up aspect. I’m soooo excited! The only rule… no bagpipes!

And, this weekend on May 5th, another unique poetry opportunity afforded me by the gracious Dorte Meyer at Tribehouse Collective. The Grace Experience at Bo.ttega (one of my favourite venues in Kelowna). It’s a free, family friendly event, a convergence of artists/musicians/creatives/ poets on the topic of grace. What does it mean to each of us… how can we share this overwhelmingly beautiful and somewhat difficult to understand concept in a tangible way, a communal way, an artistic way? I can’t wait to find out. I will be the poet for this event, and have been invited to read several collections of my work. I will also be absorbing all else, and will no doubt come home drained and thankful. GET YOUR FREE TICKETS ASAP!

What a trip life is…

Lesley-Anne, SDG

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Wherein pop-up-poetry meets people

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National Poetry Month continues, and PUP is still getting out there. Poetry is placed out and about in Kelowna every couple of days, and people read it (I’ve seen them) Some make contact online or mention it to me in person when they ‘find’ a poem. I get a giddy feeling every time I head out with new poems (in plastic sleeves because it won’t stop raining). I wonder where I will place them, who will find them, who will read them, what might the outcome be? I wonder, is this what it feels like to be eccentric? Nah, can’t be.

I’m reminded of a book I read a few years back, “Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast,” by Wendy Morton. About Wendy’s innate ability to share poetry without apology, and for money, which she did as West Jet’s Poet of the Skies, and Chrysler’s Poet of the Road. Wendy brought poetry to regular folks on a regular basis. Wendy began what has become a national week long celebration of literacy in Canada, “Random Acts of Poetry.”  Wendy and her ideas inspire me.

And as all ‘new things’ have come in some shape or form previously, perhaps PUP is the result of this concept messing about in my mind over the years since I read her book. That and the pop-up-stores I saw in Vancouver. That and the desire of all poets to speak out what we write down, at some point.

Here are some PUP installations for this week;

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April is National Poetry Month

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Yes, indeed it is.:)

Inaugurated in 1996 by the Academy of American poets, National Poetry Month has Canadian content. According to Wikipedia, Canadians have been celebrating National Poetry Month since 1999. A young and growing month long word party where poets and poet lovers offer up books, readings, galas, festivals, and workshops… even postage stamps (USA) have been issued to mark the contributions of poetry to culture. GO POETS!

Pop-Up-Poetry thinks a Kelowna celebration is in order, and is popping up in and around town every other day with randomly spontaneous postings of poems on trees, benches, walls, fences, garbage cans and hoods of cars. People are seen reading said poetry. People are overheard saying thank you. People contacting PUP say this is a good idea.

PUP is excited/affirmed/overjoyed/ less lonely happy to know that people really do like poetry 🙂

Here are a few photos of poems popping up as they should, where the wild things are.

SDG,

Lesley-Anne

Pop up poem 1 pop up poem 1a pop up poem 3