National Poetry Month
It’s National Poetry Month and spring is a fabulous time to celebrate everything poetic!
I live in a city full of poets, Nanaimo, B.C, and we have our own Poet Laureate, Kamal Pamar. We’ve had two previous poets laureate: Naomi Beth Wakan and Tina Biello.
This blog (since 2014 or so) is called “A Poet’s Nanaimo” as I’ve appreciated, as a poet and writer, being part of a vibrant writing community in my home city and further afield on Vancouver Island. Last April, I was pleased to publish my chapbook of poetry, Mending, along with MJ Burrows and Marlene Dean who also had new chapbooks. We were published by house of appleton, my partner Sarah’s publishing venture. She has published other poetry books since those first by the three Ms. Have a look here.
New books of poetry I’ve been reading recently are Crushed Wild Mint by Jess Housty (Nightwood Editions) (I wrote an earlier blog about it and am pleased to learn Crushed Wild Mint, poems about “land love and ancestral wisdom,” has been nominated for a BC book prize along with some other poetry prizes);
The Weight of Survival by Tina Biello (Caitlin), a poignant collection of poems about her Italian family with some queer erotica;
Midway by Kayla Czaga (House of Anansi) which is a wonderfully quirky and poignant collection (review forthcoming in the British Columbia Review); and
Hazard, Home by Christine Lowther (Caitlin). Here’s a link to my review.
Reading poetry intrigues and inspires me to write my own poetry going back to the nineties when I was enjoying Pablo Neruda’s odes to ordinary things. I’ll be going to a poetry retreat with Lorna Crozier later in the month in Honeymooon Bay on Lake Cowichan, Vancouver Island. […]