Poetry London Online Presents
Randy Lundy & Ali Blythe with local opener Sydney Warner Brooman
Wednesday October 21st 2020
On Weds Oct 21, we launch our next video event featuring Randy Lundy and Ali Blythe with local opener Sydney Warner Brooman.
- YouTube Readings 7:00pm EDT on YouTube
- Zoom Workshop 6:00pm (Londoners only, email registration)
Join us for fantastic online poetry!
Reminder: our fall events this year are video readings launched on our YouTube channel; we hope that public health conditions will allow us to return to live events in 2021.
Poetry London Online Presents
Roxanna Bennett & Greg Santos with local opener Courtney Ward-Zbeetnoff
Wednesday September 23rd 2020
Roxanna Bennett will read poetry from her Trillium Award-winning collection Unmeaningable from Gordon Hill Press. Greg Santos will read from his DC Books collections Rabbit Punch! and Ghost Face. Local writer poet Courtney Ward-Zbeetnoff will open. Courtney is Western’s Student Writer-in-Residence & has a special interest in writing about mental health.
The event launches at 7:00pm on YouTube. Don’t miss it!
NEW: Poetry London’s 2020-2021 Season
Poetry London is delighted to announce the readers for its upcoming 17th season!
Our three fall events will be video readings launched on our YouTube page; we hope that public health conditions will allow us to return to live events in 2021.
Regardless, we can’t wait to host these outstanding poets:
- September 23rd, 2020: Roxanna Bennett / Greg Santos
- October 21st, 2020: Ali Blythe / Randy Lundy
- November 18th, 2020: Madeline Bassnett / El Jones
- January 20th, 2021: Irfan Ali / Shane Rhodes
- February 24th, 2021: Catherine Graham / Sachiko Murakami
- March 25th, 2021: Melanie Janisse-Barlow / Cassidy McFadzean
- April 21st, 2021: Phil Hall
Questions? Email us at poetrylondon[dot]ca[at]gmail[dot]com
Poetry London is Talking with the Presses – Episode 13
Poetry London is Talking with the Presses – Episodes 5 – 12
Wednesday July 22nd Digital Event
Poetry London Presents D.A. Lockhart & Lucas Crawford along with local opener Dave Monture
YouTube Readings 7:00pm EDT
Zoom Workshop 6:00pm (London residents only, email registration)
Join us for fantastic online poetry!
Poetry London is Talking with the Presses – Episodes 1 – 4
Poetry London Online: Spring Mini Reading Series
During social distancing, please join us for some great poetry! Announcing our spring project: a multi-week online mini reading series featuring poets from across Canada! Video posts will happen on Wednesdays at 7:00pm. First episode took place on May 20th. If you miss the initial posting time, don’t worry: all videos will remain on our Poetry London YouTube page.
Check our Facebook and YouTube for updates.
Reading Episodes
Episode 5 – June 24th 2020 – Kaie Kellough, Adam Pottle, Tom Prime & Gary Barwin
Episode 4 – June 17th 2020 – Lindsay Bird, Raoul Fernandes, and Rebecca Păpucaru
Episode 3 – June 3rd 2020 – Dominique Bernier-Cormier, Ayesha Chatterjee & Smokii Sumac
Episode 2 – May 27th 2020 – Kayla Czaga, Annick MacAskill & Tyler Pennock
Episode 1 – May 20th 2020 – Joanna Lilley, Robin Richardson, and Gillian Sze.
An Evening with Shelly Harder, Paola Ferrante, & Shannon Bramer
Poetry London Blog (Feb. 26th, 2020) by Amelia Eqbal
Originally, Poetry London was prepared to welcome Gillian Sze and Paola Ferrante as our feature poets for February’s reading. When weather conditions prevented Sze’s flight from leaving Montreal the morning of the reading, however, the day was saved by Toronto poet Shannon Bramer, who was available to carpool into the city with Ferrante and gracious enough to fill in for Sze on short notice.
It was lovely to see the outpouring of support between these poets both online and in person. Sze, Ferrante, and Bramer cheered each other on via Twitter all afternoon, and regarded each other highly in their opening remarks that evening.
https://twitter.com/gilliansze/status/1232734716291420160
While the circumstances leading up to the evening’s events weren’t ideal, once the night’s activities began, they unfolded without a further hitch.
The reading room itself is modest. There are five rows of black plastic chairs, with an aisle down the middle leading to a wooden podium poised atop a small patterned carpet at the front of the room. Not far off stands a table with a water jug, already coated in condensation, waiting to quench the thirst of the night’s readers. In behind is a tall leafy plant that helps to frame the room. In the opposite corner rests a piano that remains untouched, atop of which are three incandescent lamps of various heights, flicked on for ambiance. The space feels intimate and cozy, and encourages you to really focus on the reader.
The patrons file in all aflutter, whether they’re coming from the (free!) poetry workshop in the neighboring room that precedes the reading or coming in from the cold. The audience is an eclectic mix of ages and walks of life; regular visitors are mingling with each other and newcomers alike, trying to determine the best seat to nab for tonight’s reading. Some stand near the book table before the event begins, stealing glances at the chapbooks and collections for sale at the back of the room.
After a land acknowledgement and a “thank you” to all of our event sponsors and granting agencies, there are a few announcements about other upcoming poetry events in the community. The night begins with our local opener, Shelly Harder. Her work has a clear sense of movement to it that allows the raw emotion embedded in her words to run its course unencumbered. Themes from her poems such as identity and personhood resonate throughout the evening as the other poets tackle these topics in their own ways.
While it may have been fate that paired them together this night, Ferrante and Bramer prove to be a captivating pair of readers, as they each talk about different sides of womanhood, family, and love in their poetry.
Ferrante conveys a gripping ferocity in each line of her poetry from her collection, What to Wear When Surviving a Lion Attack. Her pace waxes and wanes with exacting precision; her intonation and emphasis are calculated yet made personal by tinges of humour and wit. She leans on the podium throughout her reading, interjecting anecdotes of relatives and other inspirations behind her works between poems, bringing a refreshingly casual air that balances out the intensity in her performance.
Bramer has a softer delivery and an introspective tone in her works. While she may have had little chance to prepare, this doesn’t show once she begins her reading. Sharing sweet stories of her days as a kindergarten lunchroom supervisor and reading poems inspired by her students from her children’s book, Climbing Shadows: Poems for Children, Bramer demonstrates an enduring sense of love in her work. As she moves into her other collection, Precious Energy, Bramer reflects on the emotional labor women undertake from day to day in a way that is enthralling in its authenticity.
This night was one unlike any other I’ve seen at Poetry London; the chaos that led to this epic conclusion could hardly be duplicated. To know for certain, you’ll just have to join us when we resume our reading series!
Announcing Poetry London’s 2020 Poetry Contest Winners
We’re pleased to announce the winners of our 2020 Open Theme Poetry Contest judged by Lucas Crawford. Thanks to Lucas for being the judge and to all contestants for submitting a poem.
• 1st Prize: “The oldest photograph of” by Brian Baker
The oldest photograph of
nature (not some experiment in a dank, darkened room) was by
Niépce and his camera obscura, unroofed high above Le Gras.
Thickly stippled and angled rooftops, shimmering blue on the
bitumen-coated plate.
a person, on the Boulevard du Temple, his image on daugerrotype,
phantoms all around. None of them stopped, though, long enough
to get their boots cleaned, or lean up against a Parisian lamppost.
But he did, and was then so perfect in time and space that
he became a foundling, risen up through fumes of heated mercury.
a hoax, bombastic as it was, perpetuated by Bayard and his “Self Portrait As A
Drowned Man”. Tricked by Daugerre, his Academie honours stolen, he
shows his enemies that he has surely drowned himself because of it,
can you not see the state of decay?
people drinking, around the table. Hill, Ballantine and Bell. Three men, lost in
their Edinburgh ale, a drink so “potent” that Ballantine has made Hill laugh. They
are scoundrels.
the sun and the moon, unassisted, posing in the sky, no need for the head brace,
no need for them to keep their eyes open (so there would be
no flutter). The only concerns were errant light, beams which strayed
from exposure. That and clouds, relentlessly shadowing.
me, as a young boy, grinning out from the top bunk, in a cabin on the Bow. The
tobacco-stained hands of my Grandpa at the table. The battered straw hat his
friend wore. Before all that, I was just a baby. They were fading then (and are
even more faded now) but there are scars on my head, from an operation I survived,
so that I could be in a cabin on the Bow with my Grandpa and his friend and still
look at that photograph today.
the separation of binary stars is what we saw for the first time but always knew
was there. Stars so closely aligned that they appeared as one. Getting us there, though, a
Burgundy skyline begets Parisian shoeshine begets an un-drowned man begets the sun and
moon begetting a young boy, smiling, which begets stars with a shared barycenter and
stellar winds. Yes, the stars have winds!
• 2nd Prize: “Susan Gilbert” by Gabrielle Drolet
Susan Gilbert
possible, but not yet realized —
love like a myth, elliptical.
the letters
revealed little, as did the poems.
when Dickinson said
I have one prayer only;
dear Susie,
that is for you,
who knows what she meant. next-door
neighbors, friends, companions,
sisters-in-law. sharp-sighted observers who imagined
their escapes. to make the abstract tangible
is a double-edged sword. there is such a thing
as too much
freedom. to make
the abstract tangible is to touch
without thinking;
to run a hand
through her hair, to run
a hand across her neck, to kiss
the place
under her chin.
• 3rd Prize: “O” by Megan Silva
O
I draw circles around your name.
I draw circles. I draw circles around
your name and my name. I draw lines
through our circles and your name and
my name - but there are still circles around
your name and my name. Still circles, circling
round, circling around your name. Circling
around, till there are no names, only circles.
Circling around, and around, and around, where
there were once two names in a circle.
Congratulations!
UPDATE: March 25th Poetry London Event POSTPONED Indefinitely
Our March event featuring Mary di Michele and Susan Gillis has been postponed indefinitely due to ongoing concerns about the Coronavirus. Safety of readers and audience is the priority.
Poetry London 2020 Open Theme Contest
***DEADLINE EXTENDED!*** March 15th, 2020
Submit your best work to Poetry London’s 2020 Open Theme poetry contest, judged by acclaimed Canadian poet Lucas Crawford! Contest entries must be one poem of no more than 40 lines, on any topic, in any style; only submit original work that has not been previously published in print or online.
Send poems in PDF format by email only to poetrylondon.contest@gmail.com. Please include your name, your complete contact information (including mailing address) and the title of your poem in the body of the email. Judging will be anonymous. Do not include your name in the PDF file with your poem. You must be a resident of (or attending school in) London and surrounding area to enter. Winners will be announced in early April 2020 (only winners will be contacted).
- First Prize is $100
- Second Prize is $75
- Third Prize is $50
The winning poets will have their work published on Poetry London’s website and will be invited to read their poems at our April 22nd event, ahead of the feature readers.
UPDATE: Poetry London Presents Paula Ferrante, Shannon Bramer, & Shelly Harder
Wednesday February 26th
The show will go on! We’re excited to have Paola Ferrante and Shannon Bramer read with us this week, along with local opener Shelly Harder.
- At Fred Landon Branch Library (167 Wortley Road)
- Readings: 7:00pm
- Workshop: 6:00pm
Come warm up with some fantastic poetry!
Humbled to be filling in for one of my favourite poets, @gilliansze ❤️Dang snowstorm!I’m not worthy!!! See you soon, London. https://t.co/T93ZZi6LmD
— Shannon Bramer (@brokencloudco) February 26, 2020
Poetry London Presents
Paula Ferrante, Gillian Sze & Shelly Harder
Wednesday February 26th
We’re excited to have Paola Ferrante and Gillian Sze read with us this week, along with local opener Shelly Harder
- At Fred Landon Branch Library
- Readings: 7:00pm
- Workshop: 6:00pm
Come warm up with some fantastic poetry!
Wednesday January 22: Dale Smith & Kirby!
On Weds Jan 22, we kick off 2020 with wonderful feature readers Dale Smith and Kirby.
- Come join us at the Landon branch library.
- Readings start at 7:00pm; pre-reading workshop at 6:00pm.
More info: twitter.com/poetrylondon_ca • twitter.com/londonlibrary • twitter.com/dalemartinsmith • twitter.com/itsakirby
In two weeks, I have the grand good fortune to read with fellow poet @DaleMartinSmith @poetrylondon_ca
Hell, I’d travel for this! https://t.co/TAe5xPm3ll
DALE MARTIN SMITH
KIRBY22 JANUARY
POETRY LONDON
Downstairs at Landon Branch Library
167 Wortley Rd. London, Ontario pic.twitter.com/lx2mO0Txpt— KIRBY (@itsakirby) January 6, 2020
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Questions? Email us at poetrylondon[dot]ca[at]gmail[dot]com