Last month, I hosted a poetry workshop with participants of the New Horizons program in Ottawa, funded by the government of Canada. After an overview of basic poetry structure and an introduction of a few Jewish Canadian poets, the group hunkered down to compose a poem of its own.
Inspired by the recent massive storm that hit the city, the new poets brainstormed a word cloud (fully in the theme’s spirit), then assembled their poem, which you can read below.
Mazel Tov to Marcia, Jenny, Marcella, Shirli and Merle for their contribution to Canadian Jewish poetry!
Victoria’s Fury
Storm
thunderous heaven opens up
winds blow horizontal,
rattling rain
trees destroyed
loss of environment
power of nature
blows me away
like election signs in the wind
roots disconnected
lines disconnected
isolation
we are powerless
left at the mercy of nature
loss of voice
telephones down cannot carry it
not in charge
how to recharge?
cooking it up
before freezers thaw
sharing laundry, sharing showers, sharing shelter
sustenance, resilience, gratitude
renewal of friendships,
showering love on neighbours
to bring new growth
poem
Poetry Matters
April is national poetry month and, this year, I am fortunate enough to have a poem featured in a new poetry anthology called Love Poems Deconstructed. It features about 20 poets from the Writers Unite online community.
The project, led by Jim Woods and Gabriel Gadfly, is described thusly:
« Writers Unite is an online writer’s group that conducts a weekly Twitter chat using the hashtag #writestuff. Recently, we decided that we wanted to release a small publication, and this free collection of poetry is the result.
Love Poems Deconstructed is a collection of poems about the variety of relationships our lives are filled with. It contains about romantic love, of course, but it also explores other kinds of love — the love of a tired mother conducting the day-to-day tasks necessary to care for her children, the love of a frightened grandmother trying to protect her grandkids from a threatening world, the admiration of a young person for the skilled artisan hands of an elder. It addresses love that is blissful and love that hurts. »
My poem « His Hands » features the young person and the artisan mentioned above.
You can download and read the free poetry ebook here.