The Worldliness of Poetry
City of Victoria Poet Laureate John Barton and local poets Terry Ann Carter, Christine Walde, and Derk Wynand bring the world, near and far, that much closer.
Originally planned as a reading to celebrate National Poetry Month at the Greater Victoria Public Library, The Worldliness of Poetry was cancelled in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Until it is possible to reschedule, John Barton has invited the three readers to share their work virtually through poems connected to Germany Portugal, France, and Japan in order to momentarily transcend social distancing and self-isolation.
Featured Writers
Terry Ann Carter’s “Station Forty: Narumi” is a haibun, a traditional Japanese form.
Listen to Yvonne Bloomer read "Station Forty: Narumi" by Terry Ann Carter.
Read a few of Terry Ann Carter's haiku here.
Poet and paper artist Terry Ann Carter is the author of six collections of long-form poetry, two haiku guidebooks, and five haiku chapbooks; she has edited four haiku anthologies. As past president of Haiku Canada, and founder of and facilitator for KaDo Ottawa (2001-2012) and Haiku Arbutus Victoria Study Group (2014-present), she has given hundreds of haiku and book arts workshops around the world. Tokaido (Red Moon Press, 2017) won a Touchstone Distinguished Book Award. In 2019, Terry Ann was a judge for the first international haiku contest in Morioka, Japan (Victoria's sister city). Haiku in Canada: History, Poetry, Memoir will be published by Ekstasis Editions in the spring of 2020. Photo credit: Rhonda Ganz.
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Derk Wynand, a poet as well as a translator of contemporary German literature, shares his translation of Hans Carl Artmann’s “A Cabinet Maker” and a poem of his own, “Queluz Palace.”
Listen to Derk read his translation of Artmann’s poem as well as the poet’s original German text.
While listening to him read “Queluz Palace,” you can virtually wander the grounds of this Versailles-like Portuguese landmark.
Derk Wynand, born in Bad Suderode, Germany, in 1944, arrived in Vancouver with his mother and brother in the fall of 1952, half a year after his father. After receiving his BA in English and philosophy and his MA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia, Derk taught at the University of Victoria from 1969 to 2004, serving two terms as chair of the Department of Writing and as editor of The Malahat Review from 1992 to 1998. While at UBC, he began to translate contemporary German poetry and fiction into English, including the poems of H. C. Artmann and Dorothea Grünzweig. Derk has also published eight books and three chapbooks of his own poetry, as well as an experimental novel. The Essential Derk Wynand will be published by Porcupine’s Quill in the fall of 2020. Photo credit: Eva Wynand.
Christine Walde’s “Apparition of Appearances” is drawn from Bride Machine (Flask, 2018).
Listen to Christine read her response to the work of French Cubist painter Marc Duchamp.
Christine Walde is a writer, artist, and librarian whose work combines library and archival research with interests in experimental prose, poetry, visual poetry, performance, and the visual arts. Her collection, Bride Machine, is a limited edition artist multiple composed of fourteen folios of poetry with original artwork in a custom-made clamshell box, inspired by Marcel Duchamp’s iconic Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even, also known as the Large Glass. Bride Machine is both a disruption and meditation on the act of reading, challenging readers’ assumptions about the codex and the ephemeral nature of the archive. Christine lives and works in Victoria. Photo supplied by artist.
