it’s 2012 national arts council meets here to know the land they serve i am invited to a reception no poem commission, just to be face of our mayor’s personal commitment laureate memo: always carry poems are easy to conceal mind you, the law of theatre applies here; if you see a poet it…
Category: Poet Laureate 2011-13
2011: Uses of Poetry
it’s 2011 i’m the City’s Poet chosen to laud us to declaim us, to name us exhort us, inflame us actually, people often ask me what does a laureate do? it is not, i assure you a position designed to discover just how bitchy, back-stabbing and vain poets can really be, for how…
Haunted by I Love You
I will never forget finding the page where somebody wrote, ‘I LOVE YOU! That’s WHAT MATTERS!’ with a small broken heart drawn beside it. It hurt, physically, to see that, because i could feel how that writer felt, and the hopelessness of that being the only way that writer felt safe to declare his/her feelings….
A Poetry Map of Canada, the Video
It’s here! Last April, Edmonton Poetry Festival invited Poets Laureate from across Canada, and the Makar of Scotland, to Edmonton for a symposium and chance to play together. Check out the video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARGkHjHpmug&feature=share It was my privilege, as the then-Laureate of Edmonton, to arrange, direct, and co-produce a Gala performance evening. Over the winter, the…
Back in the Saddle
Well, hello. Here i am, fresh off two years as Edmonton’s Poet Laureate. What a many-splendoured wing-ding that was. Now that i’ve handed in my sceptre and the reins of the royal steed, i’m back in the saddle as a free-range blogger. I hope i’ll make of this site something that will be worth reading….
Prairiepomes 