Listen Up, Poem Fairy!
Last year, in April, someone gave me a poem. It was left on my desk, front and centre, where I'd be sure to see it. No one confessed. It could have been anyone in the building — North York Central Library has six floors, so my suspect list is long. Will the poem fairy (as I've been calling my anonymous benefactor) strike again this April, which is National Poetry Month? If they read this, will they feel pressured into giving me another poem? Will they feel trapped in an annual poetry giving loop that must continue until one or the other of us dies? Dear poem fairy, don't feel obligated to give me a poem this April. Don't worry, I won't be like Linus, shivering in the pumpkin patch all night, waiting for the Great Pumpkin who never comes.
What if the poem fairy isn't one of my co-workers? What if it's a supernatural being, like the Great Pumpkin, and what if it has the power to grant poetry wishes during National Poetry Month? Oh Great Poem Fairy, grant my wish! GIVE ME POETRY INSTEAD OF MUSIC WHEN I'M ON HOLD! I wish it every time I'm forced to endure a sharp harpoon of ear stabbing music while waiting with the phone to my ear.
Imagine, instead, a voice speaking softly into your ear: I want to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees. Wouldn't you hug the phone close? Wouldn't you hang on every word? If the poem fairy doesn't grant my wish, then I look to you business owners, civil servants, anyone in charge of a phone line — hear this cry from my soul! Replace hold music with poetry, not just in April, but ALWAYS. It could work something like this:
Press 1 for Beat poetry
Press 2 for Haiku
Press 3 for Free verse
Press 4 for Sonnets
Press 5 for Nonsense verse
Press 6 for Limericks
Press 7 for Canadian poetry
Press 8 for Narrative poetry
Press 9 for Surprise me
You could change it up all kinds of ways. During tax season, Revenue Canada could offer epic poetry (because you could be on hold for a long time). On Valentine's Day you could fire up the love poetry. Entrepreneurs, I offer you this poetry-while-you-wait business idea, free. Take it to the Dragon's Den! Just make the tiny terrible music stop!
If you want to begin exploring poetry, but aren't sure where to start, borrow a poetry anthology and sample a range of poets, genres and periods.
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| Global poetry anthology |
Please excuse this poem |
365 poems for every occasion |
The Oxford book of comic verse |
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| Poems that make grown men cry |
Poems that make grown women cry |
The Penguin anthology of 20th century American poetry |
The best Canadian poetry 2015 |
The Griffin Poetry Prize, founded in 2000 by Canadian philanthropist Scott Griffin, is one of the most generous poetry prizes in the world — the winners receive $65,000. There is an international prize, awarded to a living poet from any country in the world, and a Canadian prize, for a poet living in Canada. Here are the last eight years of Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize winners:
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| 2015 Blue Sonoma | 2014 Red doc> | 2013 What's the score? | 2012 Methodist hatchet |
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| 2011 Ossuaries | 2010 Pigeon : poems | 2009 The sentinel : poems | 2008 The holy forest |
Winners for 2016 will be announced on June 2. To sample the work of the 2016 contenders, reserve the 2016 Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology, which the library has on order.
Did you know you can get poetry in eBook format from the Toronto Public Library website? Go to OverDrive and use the Advanced Search function to narrow your search to poetry. Here's a small sample of what's available:
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| Handwriting | The Essential Rumi |
The Essential Ginsberg |
Sylvia Plath Collected Poems |
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| Seamus Heaney |
100 selected poems |
Love poems | The waste land |
April 21 is poem in your pocket day. The League of Canadian Poets and the Academy of American Poets invite you to celebrate poetry on April 21 by carrying a poem with you throughout the day, and sharing it with others. Toronto Public Library is getting in on the fun! We've created a list of poetry eBooks you can borrow to put on your mobile device. Don't forget to share! Recite a poem to your co-workers during your coffee break, or, if you dare, to the sleepy eyed commuters riding the rocket.
Here's a short poem I'd like to share with everyone. I found it very moving. Turn up the volume on your device — Ayo Akinfenwa, who recites the poem, speaks very softly at first. She's reciting at the Poetry In Voice contest, a recitation contest for Canadian high school students. (If I ever wondered whether poetry had kicked the bucket, this event showed me it's alive and kicking.)
Fear of snakes can be found in Canadian poet Lorna Crozier's Angels of flesh, Angels of silence: poems.
14 thoughts on “Listen Up, Poem Fairy!”
What an amazing post and fantastic celebration of poetry–something that is often over-looked but that oft should be celebrated!
Poetry engages the senses, the feelings. The poem and reader in the video demonstrate the power of poetry. The title is tricky because the poet is not actually afraid of snakes but identifies with the one in the poem. She IS the snake. It’s mind bending. Poetry should bend the mind as well as engaging the senses. It’s a trip!
Thanks for your insightful and humorous blog. You reminded me of how much I love poetry and offered new trips for me to take. I really am looking forward to a trip with Rumi!
Thanks Katherine. Yes, poetry should be celebrated – it should be read, recited, memorized, shared, savoured, collected, quoted, analyzed, played on the radio, read to children of all ages and grades, and injected right into the brain to see what sparks come shooting off it. It can be amazing.
I like your observation that poetry can be mind-bending. Yes, the narrator, who was once afraid of snakes, loses her fear in the moment that she identifies with the snake, who is also being tormented by the bully. She feels such compassion for it that she comes to love it. It is a powerful poem. Poets work a kind of magic sometimes – I can be more affected by a short poem like Lorna Crozier’s than a 400 page novel. (But I’m not knocking novels – I love them too!) Enjoy your Rumi!
Enjoyed your blog! We must never underestimate the importance of great literature and poetry.
I love the idea of poetry instead of ‘on hold music’ or at least, better music than ‘on hold music’. Now good music with good lyrics is poetry with music together. I wouldn’t mind a little Leonard Cohen, Patti Smith, of Bob Dylan on hold, but nay we have crappy ‘on hold music’. Whose making these decisions anyway? I have never heard of just poetry spoken while on hold, just imagine hearing ‘fat black bucks in a wine barrel room, boom-a-lay, boom-a-lay, boom-a-lay, boom’, it kind of is like its own music. Poetry with rhythm. Thanks for reminding us of what we can aspire to, and what is already there to enjoy.
Maureen, your blog posts are by far the best ones on the website! Your enthusiasm is almost palpable. I’ve never been a student of poetry, nor a seeker of poetry, but there are a few, recited by the members of button poetry (on youtube), that move me to tears every time I hear them. Highly recommended!
Thanks for your comment, Lulu. I love all three of those artists, and they write great, poetic lyrics, but I wouldn’t want to hear their songs through the phone, because even great music sounds awful through a phone speaker. Imagine the brilliance of Patti Smith’s poetic “Birdland” confined to a phone speaker. (I’d agree with you if my phone was hooked up to a good sound system, though.) But poetry through a phone speaker could work – it would be so intimate, as though the poet was speaking directly to you.
Thanks for telling me about Button Poetry, Elaine – I’d never heard of it. I’m sure the performance aspect adds so much. (For those who don’t know, Button Poetry is a Minnesota-based organization dedicated to performance poetry). I’m definitely going to follow up on your recommendation. And thanks so much for your very kind comment. I’m really glad that you enjoy my posts. I will keep on giving in to my enthusiasm!
Thank you for such an amazingly original blog, Maureen! I have always enjoyed poetry, but your wonderful insights and suggestions about poetry make me want to read it a lot more!
Maureen,
I love your blog posts. This really was laugh out loud funny and very informative.
If I’ve inspired someone to sit down and read a poem or two, I will have done what I set out to do. (To be honest, I’m hoping it’s more than one. I’m hoping to turn someone out there into a poetry addict! And if I do, come to North York Central Library, and I will show you the biggest circulating collection of poetry in the city!) Thanks for your encouraging comments.
Was this the poem left on your desk last year?
The Centaur by Mary Swenson
The summer that I was ten—
Can it be there was only one
summer that I was ten? It must
have been a long one then—
each day I’d go out to choose
a fresh horse from my stable…
If it was, that was me. Someone else reminded me what a beautiful poem this is, so I had to pass it along.
Yes! That was the poem that was left on my desk — I loved it. The mystery is solved! Thanks for being my poem fairy. Hmmm…I guess this means there’s no supernatural being who grants poetry wishes in April? I guess it’s up to you, then, humans.