creative forces

Blog # 47…July 2015

We often take things for granted…rights and freedoms that people are dying for in other parts of the world. Who knew that as recently as 1962 it was illegal (and the law was enforced rigorously too) to read poetry in public right here in Toronto. They might still be hauling poets off to the slammer if not for the courage and determination of Milton Acorn who defied the ban in front of the statue of Robbie Burns on Sherbourne Street, resulting in the law being changed.

Honey Novick tells the story and  honours and thanks Milton in a piece she created that's currently being performed in locations in Quebec and Ontario – she’s also a poet and musician who recently acknowledged. another Toronto icon...these lines are from  Raccoon on Spadina Road.

..."the raccoon never forgets this was his land and

it was his territory, his land encroached upon 

he is called “thief” for his masked face

“robber” for taking food where he finds it

“the clean one” for washing his paws 

“clever” for deciphering ways to open locked garbage cans."...

Street art of various kinds is proliferating, surrounding us with reminders that our environment is much more than the clamour and fumes of traffic. Artists are encouraging us to notice our cities in a different way, refreshing our spirits as we go about the daily grind.

photo by Sara Shettleworth

Walking down a lane between Huron and St George Streets, south of Bloor  (outside Coach House Press), if you watch carefully, you'll see bpNichols' words in the pavement.  He and Milton Acorn both died much too young - we're lucky that both of them gave us so much pleasure while they were with us.


Nearby, on St George Street, across from the subway entrance is a plaque with a poem called Essentialist by Ken Babstock
"...snug underground in the civic worm burrowing west...surfacing at St George, I cupped my hands and blew bodies scattering among museums, bank towers, campus rooms and shops...on the surface of the earth are us, who look in error and only seem."

Toronto's fourth poet laureate George Elliot Clarke,
(a shout out to you if you can name the previous three) was commissioned by  CBC's Metro Morning to write about the peacock who escaped from the High Park zoo last month.  He was the talk of the town (the peacock not George) as he strutted through alleyways, climbed onto porches, flew up into trees and generally captivated our attention. We were filled with glee at the thought of an escaped prisoner and relieved when the zoo let him go back in his own time.

He (George and the peacock) made us realize for a little while that "your habitat doesn't have to be just potholes and taxes" ...also why we have a poet laureate.  Listen to the poem online when you have a minute.