Today is Earth Day!

                                    Earth Day    by Jane Yolen

                                        I am the Earth

                                        And the Earth is me.

                                        Each blade of grass,

                                        Each honey tree,

                                        Each bit of mud,

                                        And stick and stone    

                                        Is blood and muscle,

                                        Skin and bone.

                                        And just as I

                                        Need every bit

                                        Of me to make

                                        My body fit,

                                        So Earth needs

                                        Grass and stone and tree

                                        And things that grow here

                                        Naturally.

                                        That’s why we

                                        Celebrate this day.

                                        That’s why across

                                        The world we say:

                                        As long as life,

                                        As dear, as free,

                                        I am the Earth

                                        And the Earth is me. 

Poem of the day

The Guest House

Rumi
(Translated by Coleman Barks)

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

Poem of the Day

 I, Too

By Langston Hughes

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the kitchen

When company comes,

But I laugh,

And eat well,

And grow strong.

Tomorrow,

I’ll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody’ll dare

Say to me,

“Eat in the kitchen,”

Then.

Besides,

They’ll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed—

I, too, am America.

From The Selected Works of Langston Hughes, Knopf Doubleday, 2011.

Lucy Maud Montgomery

In Lovers' Lane

I know a place for loitering feet Deep in the valley where the breeze Makes melody in lichened boughs, And murmurs low love-litanies. There slender harebells nod and dream, And pale wild roses offer up The fragrance of their golden hearts, As from some incense-brimméd cup. It holds the sunshine sifted down Softly through many a beechen screen, Save where, by deeper woods embraced, Cool shadows linger, dim and green. And there my love and I may walk And harken to the lapsing fall Of unseen brooks and tender winds, And wooing birds that sweetly call. And every voice to her will say What I repeat in dear refrain, And eyes will meet with seeking eyes, And hands will clasp in Lovers' Lane. Come, sweet-heart, then, and we will stray Adown that valley, lingering long, Until the rose is wet with dew, And robins come to evensong, And woo each other, borrowing speech Of love from winds and brooks and birds, Until our sundered thoughts are one And hearts have no more need of words.

Lucy Maud Montgomery( 1874-1942), is arguably Canada’s most widely read author. Her first novel, Anne of Green Gables, became an instant best-seller, and has remained in print for more than a century.

Montgomery produced more than 500 short stories, 21 novels, two poetry collections, and numerous journal and essay anthologies. 

Montgomery was named an Officer of both the Order of the British Empire and the Literary and Artistic Institute of France. 

She was the first Canadian woman to be made a member of the British Royal Society of Arts and and has also been declared a Person of National Historic Significance in Canada.

Joy Kogawa

July in Coaldale

July in Coaldale
and so hot the scalp steams 
and I am curling my mother's 
fine white hair with her 
new mist curler iron 
I bought for her 
81st birthday and 
she is telling me 
of her early morning dream 
that it was Christmas and 
there was music. "I can't 
remember the song" she says 
but after a few more curls 
he is singing in Japanese 
"Joy to the World" 
somewhat out of tune 
because she is deaf now 
and her throat is dry 
but she was famous for her singing once 
and she says in her dream 
there was an old dry plant 

that started to bloom.

From Woman in the Woods, (Mosaic Press1986) 

Joy Nozomi Kogawa (1935 -) is a writer and poet. Born in Vancouver to Japanese immigrant parents, Kogawa grew up in a predominantly white, middle-class neighbourhood.
Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, she and her family were forced into an internment camp in the British Columbia Interior. Kogawa's childhood experiences in the internment camp form the basis for her most famous book, the courageous Obasan, published in 1981 to widespread critical acclaim.

She won numerous awards for the book, which she adapted for children in 1985 under the title, Naomi's Road. After the war, Kogowa and her family re-settled in Alberta. She launched her writing career with the publication of a book of poetry, The Splintered Moon, in 1967. Kogawa went on to produce seven more books of poetry, three novels, two children's books and a recent work of non-fiction.
Kogawa is a member of the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia.

Funny Friday - Robert W. Service

Robert W. Service (1874-1958)  was born in England, and emigrated to Canada in 1894.

In 1907 he published his first collection of poems, Songs of a Sourdough; an immediate success, it was followed by Ballads of a Cheechako (1909) and Rhymes of a Rolling Stone (1912).

Poems such as "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" assured Service of lasting fame and gave rise to his nicknames: "the Canadian Kipling" and "the Poet of the Yukon."

During WWI he was an ambulance driver, and after the war he travelled throughout Europe but lived mostly in France.
His later works include Ballads of a Bohemian (1921), Rhymes of a Roughneck (1950) and his autobiographical works: Ploughman of the Moon (1945) and Harper of Heaven (1948).

Artist: Ted Harrison

Narrator:  Max Ferguson

Rupi Kaur

Rupi Kaur was born in Hoshiarpur, Punjab in 1992. When she was three, her family emigrated to Canada to escape religious persecution.
She grew up in Brampton, Ontario, and attended the University of Waterloo. It was there that she began performing poetry, in 2009.
Kaur self-published her debut collection, "Milk and Honey," in 2014. The book sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide, and remained on the NYT bestseller list for over a year.
Her second collection, “The Sun and Her Flowers” was published in 2017.
She has a strong social media presence, and has inspired many young poets and writers.

Funny Friday - Dennis Lee

What Will You Be 

They never stop asking me 

"What will you be?--
A doctor, a dancer, 
A diver at sea?" 

They never stop bugging me: 
"What will you be?" 

As if they expect me to 
Stop being me. 

When I grow up I'm going to be a Sneeze, 
And sprinkle Germs on all my Enemies. 

When I grow up I'm going to be a Toad, 
And dump on Silly Questions in the road. 

When I grow up, I'm going to be a Child. 
I'll Play the whole darn day and drive them Wild.

From Garbage Delight, 1977

Dennis Lee was born on August 31, 1939, in Toronto, Ontario.    He is best known for his collections of cleverly-rhymed children's verse.                                                                                   Wiggle to the Laundromat (1970) was written for his daughters, and like much of his writing, drew upon his experiences as a parent.                                                                                       His other books of poems for children include Alligator Pie (1974), one of the best-selling Canadian children's books of all time; Nicholas Knock and Other People (1974); Garbage Delight (1977); and Jelly Belly (1983).                                                In much of his work, he uses Canadian place-names, local cultural idiosyncrasies, and environmental issues to try to communicate a sense of national identity, but his poems have proven popular among English-speaking audiences all over the world.

April is poetry month (no joke)!

My readers may not know that, though I've lived in the U.S. for over 25 years, I'm a dual Canadian-American citizen.

Because of the current political climate, this year, for the month of April, I will be honouring  Canadian poets.

I'll be including well-known poets such as Margaret Atwood and Leonard Cohen, not-so-well-known poets like Joy Kogawa and Phyllis Webb, and writers you might not know as poets, like Charles de Lint and L.M. Montgomery.

Poetry Month posts will begin tomorrow, April 2.

Please read, (hopefully) enjoy, and let me know what you think!

April is Poetry Month

 OH HAVE YOU HEARD

by Shel Silverstein 

 

Oh have you heard it's time for vaccinations?

I think someone put salt in your tea.

They're giving us eleven-month vacations.

And Florida has sunk into the sea.

Oh have you heard the President has measles?

The principal has just burned down the school.

Your hair is full of ants and purple weasels—

APRIL FOOL!

 

Poetry as an oral tradition

 

The first poems we ever hear are usually nursery rhymes, read out loud.  

Yes, some poetry (like concrete poetry) that works better on the page, but so much of it is more effective when spoken.

This month, I'm going to try to exemplify that, by posting here videos of poems read/recited out loud.

Some will be from poetry slams, some will be recordings of performances by professional poets.  And a few of them will be recordings by friends, just because.

Stay tuned, and enjoy!!