100,000 poets for change, the Word on the Street

Posted by Daniela Elza on Sep 25 2011

Yesterday I participated in the Vancouver 100, 000 poets for change, an event that takes place simultaneously in 550 cities and 95 countries around the world. Vancouver is one of the 20 Canadian cities participating. The event for Vancouver was to clean up shorelines in the heart of the city, an action that hopes to inspire the community to work toward healthy watersheds and forest ecosystems in our province. We were the spots on the rocks on False Creek East, near Science World.

Here we are after the clean up. There was also a high school class that came along and helped. And us, poets.

Here is the trophy we found. A rock with words wrapped around it. (One of us thinks the language of the print might be Farsi.)

Then we went to the Carnegie Centre. My first time there. Check out the amazing stairway. Beautiful building with beautiful spaces. At the top there is a room with a huge skylight. So much light.

The reading included poets reading from the Enpipeline project— a long poem, 1173 kilometers of collaborative poetry. It is a long line. Somewhere in there I have two of my poems. The idea is to go dream vs dream in a collaborative poem designed to engulf and overwhelm the structures that allow proposals like the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline proposal to emerge.

Here, after the reading at the Carnegie Centre. (The orange and yellow paper/tape is the visual for the pipeline and its relative length.)

Thank you to Mary Woodbury of Moon Willow Press, Christine Leclerc (Enpipe Line project) and Rita Wong for the organizing of this event. Let’s make it even stronger next time. Clean up is not so bad to do. Once you start focusing on, looking for stuff you do not want you begin to see it everywhere. Even on your way to the library, or that restaurant. Being attentive to that may help us be more careful not to trash so easily. It may…

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