Last Friday I attended, and read at, an event at the Alaska Hotel in Dawson Creek. The little restaurant was packed. It was a joy to see so many familiar faces and to hear so much outstanding poetry. I have to admit to some trepidation as I stood up last. These were some pretty hard acts to follow.
I read three poems that I thought were different enough, either in form or content, to provide an entertaining five minutes. I started with Shelide’s Gift; a mythic ballad about a winged snail who brings light to the world. That was followed by “Cross the Existential Track” a bit of humourous science-fiction musing. My final poem was “Silent Legacy”, a short, free verse poem that was inspired by an internal revolt against the human desire to leave material legacies that so often degrade into something sad and less than inspiring. What could be a more inviolate legacy than silence and what could that silence symbolize?

Click here to see me reading these poems at the Alaska Cafe.