Random Acts of Poetry

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October 3rd - 9th: A celebration of poetry and literacy in cities across Canada, the UK, and Ireland.

The second annual Random Acts of Poetry week is a Canadian initiative that promotes poetry, poets and literacy in a fresh way to everyday people in their everyday lives. This year, 27 poets from across Canada will be joined by 10 poets from England, Scotland and Ireland, making the event truly international after only one year. Watch for local poets from your community reading poems to people on the street, at bus stops, schools, libraries, hair salons and in local schools.

Sponsored by Abebooks.com in association with Victoria READ Society.

"What do I like about the notion of random acts of poetry? Its playfulness, its populism, its commitment to the notion that poetry is everywhere, not just in textbooks and English classes."

-- Jannie Edwards

"Poetry is pretty well invisible in the mass media and most people's lives. Random Acts will put poems and poetry books into people's hands - people who would normally not read a poem. Why poetry? Because it's the song of our species and right now, many songbirds are threatened, if not endangered."

-- Elizabeth Zetlin

Lacing Up The Skates

on a winter night instead of language
sails ballooned out of our mouths

our tongues tugged at our breath
until they were rope-burned

our lungs, too, made a canvas escape
launched into the wind
pulling our voices inside out

as we fumbled with the laces of our skates
we began to dread the frozen river:
the dark ice that slid for miles
through the knotted woods

where would our wild rigging
take us?

would we ever be heard from
again?

-- Nancy Holmes

Wendy McGrath "poeming" local business sponsor Cargo & James Tea Shop staffers in Edmonton, Alberta

Random Acts of Poetry

“I love to promote poetry anywhere, will stop strangers to read them poems and otherwise commit random acts of poetry. I thought it would be a good idea for poets across Canada to do the same thing.”

-- Wendy Morton, Founder