League of Canadian Poets: P.K. Page Trust Fund and Benefits Readings

The League of Canadian Poets announces the PK Page Trust Fund in support of poets and poetry in Canada. A series of benefit readings will honour her and initiate the fund.

“PK was one of our own and we want to remember her,” says League President Susan McMaster. “She was a great poet and a great mentor. We hope this new fund will grow into a large endowment that allows the League to support the art and craft of poetry in a number of ways that would have pleased her.”

Born in 1916, PK Page’s artistic and poetic career spanned more than five decades, ending only with her death in 2010. She was made a Life Member of the League in 1987.  Past president, DC Reid revealed  “PK meant a great deal to me personally, for her connection across poetic generations and with English poetry, for her patrician ways and her bright, agile mind. Her book of glosas, Hologram, and her encouragement resulted in an outpouring of this Spanish form from Canadian poets, firmly establishing a new stream in Canadian formalist poetry.”

In 2000, PK, as she was known to her friends, was granted a special honour when the United Nations chose her glosa “Planet Earth” for its Dialogue Among Civilizations Through Poetry reading series. The poem — which was the one for which she wanted to be remembered — was read at locations around the globe considered ‘international ground,’ including the United Nations, Mount Everest and Antarctica.

Reading on Gabriola

A benefit reading for the PK Page Trust Fund will be held at Mad Rona’s coffee, (500 North Road, Gabriola) November 6^th, 2 pm until 4pm. Featuring League member poets Sandy Shreve and Heidi Greco, the event will open with a reading of “Planet Earth” read by Gabriola’s Naomi Beth Wakan.  Other local poets will have a chance to read a favourite PK Page poem by contacting Janet Vickers (BC/Yukon Rep for The League of Canadian Poets) at janetvickers@shaw.ca.

 Suggested donation at the door is $5.  All money collected will go to the PK Page Trust Fund.

Sandy Shreve’s most recent poetry collections are Suddenly, So Much (Exile Editions, 2005) and Cedar Cottage Suite (inaugural Gesture series chapbook, Leaf Press, 2010). A new chapbook, Level Crossing, is forthcoming from the Alfred Gustav Press in 2012. Her other books include the anthology In Fine Form – The Canadian Book of Form Poetry (Polestar, 2005), co-edited with Kate Braid. For more information, visit her website at: www.shreve.shawwebspace.ca

Heidi Greco’s poems, reviews and short fiction have been published in books, anthologies, newspapers and magazines in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. Her novella, Shrinking Violets (Quattro Books 2011) won the Ken Klonsky Award. Collections of her poems include Siren Tattoo and Rattlesnake Plantain (Anvil Press), and A: The Amelia Poems (Lipstick Press 2009)  a chapbook about Amelia Earhart. Heidi leads classes, retreats and workshops for adults, students, inmates from Matsqui Penitentiary, and  blogs at outonthebiglimb.blogspot.com.

Heidi Greco does Seven of the Proust

Heidi Greco, author of A: The Amelia Poems (Lipstick 2009), has recently published her new novella  Shrinking Violets (Quattro 2011) .

It's a story about a red-head named Reggie - a single mother who works as a cashier. It sounds ordinary but soon turns out to be a gripping tale of dreams and secrets that turn sour.

Heidi agreed to participate in Lipstick's "Seven of the Proust" questionnaire. It asks us to go deeper than the interview about how long you have been writing, to reveal a little of the writer's soul.

Lipstick wishes Heidi every success in her career as novelist, reviewer and poet.

Note: the acronym PQ in this blog means Proust Questionnaire and has nothing to do with the Parti Quebecois.

PQ: What is your idea of happiness?

Heidi: Sitting outside on a summery evening, sharing a meal with those I love. Or, if the weather isn’t cooperating, doing the same thing inside.

PQ: What is your favourite virtue?

Heidi: Charity, especially charitable acts that are done in secret.

PQ: What is your biggest weakness?

Heidi: In general, sweets. To narrow it down, chocolate.

PQ: Who are your favourite poets?

Heidi: Sharon Olds for her honesty. Mary Oliver for her never-preachy connections to the earth. Rhona McAdam for her ability to express the most complex notions with the simplest of words. I can only hope McAdam has a new book out soon, as I’ve worn quite a path in her last one, "Cartography. "

PQ: Who are your favourite heroes and heroines in history?

Heidi: Amelia Earhart, of course. Also Nikola Tesla whose almost magical Tesla coil is probably the closest thing yet to a perpetual-motion machine, or at least a very sustainable power-channelling device. And for each doing their bit to make the world a better place: Kurt Vonnegut, Elizabeth May and Robert Zimmerman.



PQ: What do you most dislike?

Heidi: I’m with Holden Caulfield on this one – phonies. They’re generally so overblown full of themselves.  On second thought, maybe I have to say pumpkin pie.

PQ: What is your motto?

Heidi: Keep at it. It’s the only way you might get there, wherever ‘there’ might be.

Words for Orange by Antony di Nardo

Yeah, right, the eternal flame

a chalk walk around it marked by
displays of skewed sentiments

a single inflatable all orange
swings from the half wall

bunches of flowers
and hands cupping candles

orange cans of Orange Crush
and these words,

“In lieu of flowers,
fight oppression.”

Hope and Optimism by Janet Vickers

Your hope and optimism

have found us
like two pigeons
on a cedar branch
cooing in the morning's wake.

They flap their slow wings
with the graceful effort
of birds who do not soar
high above the forest
who must submit to gravity
close to earth's prickly shrubs, cliffs
and green meadows.

Hope and optimism are not light and airy
they are creatures of blood and bone
picking through grit and dirt
for anything they can use.

Mortal in pain

immortal in flight.

Silence for Jack by Antony di Nardo

one solemn bagpipe drones
two beats of silence between guns

a child cries alone
a crowd applauds

the bells of the Peace Tower sing
an anthem

Imagine …
an ellipsis of notes of steel rings

for words won’t move
his body forward to its hearse

where the media roll its ready visuals
with a tenor in Hi Def

a distinct nation in self-surround
and for a serious moment

all the rest is silence
for Jack

Dream no little dreams (from an Indigenous prayer, spoken at the funeral) by Ellen S. Jaffe

Bagpipes play their strange sad lament –
TV lets us see everything without being there:
Olivia’s strained face, baby Beatrice,
the silent surging crowd.

This morning I cleaned my kitchen cupboards,
touched up the orange paint (Colorado Dawn) –
death does this, makes us clean, straighten, see, listen, and touch –
loved ones, flowers, household clutter.

Rise Up – Amazing Grace – Hallelujah –
O Canada, how can we lose this man, who gave a voice to the voiceless,
home to the homeless, a song of hope to people in need –
not a saint, but a very human being.

I regret I did not know you, met you
only once – an NDP meeting – shook your hand,
saw your smile. The political is personal,
the personal political – you knew this by heart.

Now you go from the ordinary world – bike paths,
jam sessions, elections – into the mystic...
Into The Mystic, where we can’t yet follow.
All our love goes with you – love is all
we need to keep your dreams alive.


Ellen S. Jaffe

For Jack Layton, d. August 22, 2011 by Penn Kemp

Jack Layton, photo taken from Facebook page

Now it feels significant to let Jack free to dance
or rest in peace, after such a monumental fight.

Somehow I feel he has won the war; I feel him
triumphant. As for the NDP, I have a vision of

not one leader rising to replace him, but a collective
of MPs riding the national swell of love for Jack.

Now Canadians in experiencing such devastating loss
will recognize his value and the values of the NDP. 

At last. This may be his greatest gift to us. The time
has come not for another charismatic leader to see us

through but for the collective tribe to work in unity for
community.

You can hear Penn being interviewed at Sound Therapy Radio and on CBC's Ontario Morning.

September 1, 6-6:30 pm.

The Spirit of a Leader with Penn Kemp in honour of Jack Layton on her show, Gathering Voices, CHRW FM, 94.9 FM. (Repeated September 8, 6:30-7:00 am).

Listen live on www.chrwradio.com/listen. First interviewed by Jay Peachy on http://soundtherapyradio.com/2011/08/23/the-spirit-of-a-leader-with-john-pippus-amanda-rheaume-and-penn-kemp/ .

Yesterday, for Jack Layton (1950-2011) by Waldemar Ens

yesterday
a carved wooden cane called cancer
              came out of nowhere and
                            whacked us in the solar plexus

but when Jack carried it he used it like a
sceptre
magically inspiring the different strands to tie together

reaching out and hooking us in
poking prodding the soft underside of
apathy

pointing out a better way down
a clearer road

helping us walk that road
even with our broken hips

yesterday
a gentle wooden cane
             fell out of nowhere
                            at our feet

waiting for us to pick it up

Among Today’s Dead and Sorely Missed by Penn Kemp

photo by Heidi Greco

So there’s Jack, standing at the gates with Jerry
Leiber, who co-wrote 'Hound Dog,' 'Stand By Me,'
and 'Jailhouse Rock’. Sure hope Jack managed
to smuggle up his guitar. Wonder which song
he’s singing first. A duet I wish we could hear.
By this irreverent ditty, Jack would be chuffed.

You can hear Penn being interviewed at Sound Therapy Radio and on CBC's Ontario Morning.

The Last Line is Yours by Penn Kemp

Penn & Jack reading a poem for peace

I dream Jack Layton is sitting up in bed
joyously celebrating his win, beaming,
radiant: his indomitable optimism seeing
him through cancer and out the other side.

I know the game’s over. He understands
what we won’t till we too join him across
that last finishing line. Wherever you are,

Jack, we love you. Thank you for all you
won for us now that you are one with all.

His last line? “And we’ll change the world.”

You can hear Penn being interviewed at Sound Therapy Radio and on CBC's Ontario Morning.

Up and At 'Em, for Jack by Penn Kemp

Who is always hip!

Hip enough to lean left,
very left of centre and
perfectly well balanced.

Hip enough to call down
injustice when he sees it.

Hip enough to calm down
doubt and call out for all

those whose voices are
silenced. Hip enough to
know when the next
election is called for.

Hip to the latest outrage
fraud too easily lent.

Hip enough to lead
opposition into power:

Our next Prime Minister
surely. In confidence.

When a hip poem is called for,
a hip poem responds,
comes out swinging.

Hip, Hip, Hooray! 

(March 6, 2011)

You can hear Penn being interviewed at Sound Therapy Radio and on CBC's Ontario Morning.