2020: Poetry in the time of Pandemic
It took a while to be able to write ... at the beginning I tried to write around covid, tippy-toeing, hoping if I were quiet enough I could circumvent it and it wouldn't notice me
Then the army trucks hauling the dead in Italy, where so much of my family lives ... body bags, police tape on sidewalks ... and the poetry came. My first covic-based poem, 'Six Feet', was published in Ireland by Pendemic poetry.
One of the unexpected benefits of Covid is the ability to stay connected not only with familiar poetry communities, and also to branch out. And I am taking advantage of this opportunity to Zoom write, share, read, and collaborate.
The following pages highlight poetic endeavours undertaken in covid, and the list contains these as well (pages coming soon)
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Featured in Joshua Pantellersco's podcast, thirty minutes of poetry and backstory
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Featured in Calgary Arts Development "Living a Creative Life" video
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'Mother's Hands' to be published in the 2020 Parkland Poetry Anthology
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A second radio feature by Blaine Greenwood for his CKXU's Not Your Mother's Poetry
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Participated in Missing You Mondays, a Loft 112 Initiative
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Creation of a hand-crafted haiku-photo concertina book for the Loft 112 project
2020 Publications (features and other information will be added subsequently)
- Publication of tanka in Moonbathing Tanka Journal, USA
- Publication of haiku in Ion Codrescu’s A Haiga Journey/The Wanderer Brush
- Publication of No-One in My Family Has Died a Simple Death in the League of Canadian Poets’ Fresh Voices #21 and Poetry Pause
- Publication of Solstice Song in the WordCity Literary Journal
- Translation of my poem The Finches from The Cowichan Series in a Poetic Nowruz, Persian Radio, Ottawa
- Publication of Minus the Killing in the Pandemic Poems Anthology, editor Kevin Solez
- Publication of Waiting in the We Are One covid anthology, edited by George Melnyk
- Publcation of haiku in French in the collection Ecrire, Lire in Paris, France
- Feature of This Gossamer World and an artistic rendition for Calgary’s People’s Poetry Festival
- Publication of Autumn Moon Haiku by the Japanese Consulate in Toronto
- Publication of Straightening Nails in the WordCity Literary Journal
- Publication of Morning Waxwing in the Parkland Poetry Series Pathway to Poetry project
- Publication of tanka in GUSTS journal
- Publication of And The Wind Rustles Empty Through Spaces as part of the Parkland Poetry Photo-Poetry Pairings
- Publication of Silent Lady in the Calgary Laureate Project anthology, YYC Portraits of People
- Publication of two poems in both English and French in the Parole-Creation project, Quebec
- Publication of Mother’s Hands in the Parkland Poetry Anthology
- Publication of The Winds in the Calgary Short Story Short-Edition
- Publication of A Moment in Pandemic in the Writers’ Guild of Alberta Pandemic Postcards project
- Publication of Forget Me Not, in FreeFall Literary Magazine
- Publication of a number of poems in Ireland’s Pendemic Poetry: Six Feet, April Fools, a haiku suite, Palms, The Days Stretch Long, The Birds, Space Oddity, a tanka series, and an essay entitled In Praise of Pandemic or How I Learned to Love Covid
- Publication of La Quarantaine / Forty Days accompanied to music by the Indie YYC
- Feature in Ireland’s Blue Door Studio Nenagh of my poem Saturday Afternoon Jam, from The Cowichan Series
- Publication of my short story The Recipe in Loft 112’s TapPressRead 1-3-5
- Publication of haiku by the Lougheed Historical House
- Publication of No Trail to the Fragments of Your Hair in the League of Canadian Poets’ Fresh Voices and Poetry Pause
- Publication of haiku in Haiku Page #10, USA
- Publication of haiku in the Wales Haiku Journal
- Publication of tanka in Japan’s Mount Fuji Tanka Grand Prix
- Publication of poem Residue in India’s Verse of Silence
The final pre-covid feature at the Airdrie Public Library Poetry Series on Saturday March 14th, just before the lockdown.
How 2020 began ...
A Poetry Workshop with Lorna Crozier
I returned to the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island for a poetry workshop ... so inspiring ... time to think, time to write
Who could have known what the year would bring ....
