Happy to announce that over two hundred poems by 70 poets have come in thus far for possible inclusion in “Parallel: 49 Canadian Poets Speak to Obama.” We are starting to like the title, not least because parallel lines by definition do not meet. If one thing is clear from this stack of fine creativity before me, it is that Canadians are a unique people.
The youngest poet is 22; the eldest 80. (If you can expand that envelope, please do.)
Poems have come from poets in Nova Scotia, each prairie province, Quebec, Ontario–even Hawai’i. There’s only a sprinkle from north of 60, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, and PEI, however; so if you know any poets there, nudge them to choose one of their finest pieces and send it in. They’ll be in good company, GG winners, poets laureate, published poets, unpublished poets–a wild melange, but the quality of poetry is very high.
All forms are welcome. We have haiku, tanka, villanelle, sonnet, couplet, song lyrics, and a ton of free verse.
First-round judging is drawing to a close this week or early next, but you should definitely send yours in to mettalaw[at]gmail[dot]com by this weekend.
We sent nine poems from the collection via email to President Obama a few days before his visit to Canada, as a taste of what is to come.
The cover is being designed by a young Canadian painter. I’ll see if we can put it up here when available.
Thanks for being part of this uplifting project in these difficult times. Remember Yeats claimed poets carry the world on their shoulders?
