Reading Catullus
With the extra time to read on my hands these days, I’ve been dipping again into the poems of Gaius Valerius Catullus, Roman poet around the time of Julius Caesar.…
poetry
Plague Update: Trump Keeps It Clean
We all know what a stable genius the President is, you really have to admire him coming up with quality solutions on the fly during a press conference. Medical doctors…
FOR ALL WHO HELP WITHOUT BEING ASKED
What we need in these strange days of fear and anxiety is poetry. Poems reassure us we are doing the right thing. That the decisions we make are the right…
Now is the time to – Reach Out Your Heart
Recently, my friend who is also a caregiver sent me this poem and it soothed my soul. I hope it soothes yours, too. Pandemic What if you thought of it…
A Song For Jack
Poet Jack J Locke passed away last week. We got to know each very well during the past year as we co founded The Charter Poets along with Blossom Thom.…
The Sounds of Winter
To the tune of Sounds of Silence, with apologies to Paul Simon… Hello, winter, my old friend I have a bone to pick, again Because a snowplow softly creeping Passed…
A Charter Poem
A Charter Poem A charter poem slipped onto the shore where I sat daydreaming about you it came from a flooded place back up the river and seemed happy to…
When You’re Hungry
When You’re Hungry Our antennae signal jammed low flow other channels may exist Power Outage on our Do you see what I see? In the blur we hang under water…
On Milton Acorn, on his birthday, Canada’s People’s Poet
Today was the birthday of Milton Acorn, the People’s Poet, who lived rough, and died before he was eligible for the Old Age Security, even under the old rules. For…
Relevant poetry
I was standing in a bookstore in downtown Toronto a couple of weeks back, and opened The Essential Ginsberg, a collection of poems, songs and other writing by the late…
Found in translation
Language translation fascinates me. It’s a mix of language skill, art, interpretation, science and, apparently, divination. Maybe even magic. Going from one language into another is far from a simple…
2 Quotes, 1 Motto and a Photograph
I think that the act of reading poetry nowadays is already an archaic, cultural activity. When we read a poem, it is tantamount to going to pioneer village in order…
Does poetry make things happen in 2018?
I was thinking about how little poets seem to matter to modern political administrations. Maybe to modern society as a whole. Their light has, it seems, been waning for several…
Escaping the Prism – Fade into Black, by Jalil Muntaqim: Book Review by Phyllis Taub Greenleaf
This book is a powerful tapestry of Scholarship, Activism and Poetry. The Personal with the Political gives this book balance and magnetism! During the time when key leaders of the…
Via by Caroline Bergvall
An inventory of translations of the opening lines of Dante’s Inferno. VIA By Caroline Bergvall 48 Dante Variations Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita mi ritrovai per una selva…
Walk A Lot, Read A Lot
Taking a break in La Fontaine Park.
Albert and the Lion
There’s a famous seaside place called Blackpool, That’s noted for fresh-air and fun, And Mr and Mrs Ramsbottom Went there with young Albert, their son. A grand little lad was…
Auden, Trump and poetry
There’s a poem by W. H. Auden (1907-73) going the internet rounds these days with suggestions of Auden’s prescience towards the latest American president and contemporary politics. It’s a powerful…
The vulgar crowd
Profanum vulgus. The vulgar crowd. Not, however, as you might suspect, an apt description of the remaining few supporters of The Block that rules Collingwood Council. While perhaps appropriately described,…
Eheu fugaces, Postume…
Alas, Postumus, the swift years slip away. Those words are one translation of the opening line of the 14th Ode in the second book of Horace’s carminas, or songs: Eheu…