Join us Wed, June 15 at 7:30 Virtually for Marguerite Pigeon and a Tribute to Kieren Egan
 Marguerite Pigeon writes poetry, fiction and reviews. Her first book, Inventory, was a finalist for the Gerald Lampert Award for best first book of poetry. Her next book was a novel called Open Pit, followed by a story collection, Some Extremely Boring Drives, which was a finalist for the Alberta Trade Fiction award. Her latest publication, The Endless Garment, is a book-length poem she wrote to try and unravel her lifelong preoccupation with fashion and clothes. Originally from Blind River, Northern Ontario, she lives here in Vancouver, where she works as a freelance editor and writer through her business, Carrier Communications. https://margueritepigeon.wordpress.com
Kieran Egan was a Professor Emeritus at Simon Fraser University and a member of the Royal Society of  Canada. His chapbook, Among the branches, was published by Alfred Gustav Press, in June, 2019. He was shortlisted for the Times Literary Supplement Mick Imlah prize in 2017 and the Acumen International Poetry Competition in 2020. His poems appeared in many Canadian, UK, and USA magazines. In a former life he published twenty plus sort-of academic books, with forty or so translations into about twenty other languages. Kieran Egan lived in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
You can pre-register for this Zoom event by clicking on this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUkce-srzkoGtD2i1VWhOjEY5XDIFroZVuC
Our May Reading
Our May reading was touched with sadness as we remembered Kieran Egan, long-time supporter and much loved contributor to Poets Corner, who passed away earlier this month. We plan to do something special in June to recognize this fine poet. Till then, listen to him reading this One Minute Poem which he recorded for us a year ago.
 Our first featured poet for the evening was Natalie Lim, who read selections from her debut chapbook arrhythmia. These poems cover a wide range of subjects mused upon during the time of the pandemic, but as she says herself “mostly, it’s a book about and for the people I love.” Her delivery was engaging and expressive and showed how she has been inspired by spoken word poets like Sarah Kay. In One Poem Wonder, an accident with her parent’ car prompts her to speak of poetry as something beautiful rescued from a car wreck and brings into focus her nagging fear that she might be “a superhero whose only power is burning out early”. The Science of Holding On contrasts scientists’ effort to conquer time and see into the future with her own simple desire to slow the hands of the clock and linger in the present, where “everyone I love is now”. In Six Months and Counting she asks her dog Luna to “teach me to be good“ and yearns to have the dog’s simple faith and ability to love people “in every small way they allow,/trying to make this world, yes, a little gentler,/ however I can.”
The evening continued with Jude Neale reading a diverse selection of poems from several of her  published works. Her poetry speaks of family and relationships and calls up deep memories with images that strike to the heart, inviting us to see new meaning in things we previously might have overlooked. Her poems are not afraid to tackle difficult subjects, but always sorrow is lightened with small telltale signs of love or even a spark of humour. In poems like Why is it always an insult to be ‘just like your Mom’? she proudly talks of the traits she shares with her mother. Teddy Bear’s Picnic touches obliquely on the subject of child abuse and a cherished stuffed Panda called Max, who “when I wasn’t sure what childhood was, [my bear] held the mirror”. In Blazer of the Universe she considers Mozart’s famous melody now familiar to the world as the children’s song “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and wonders out loud if the great composer could have known that his music would be “for all the sleepless children to come”. She is a trained singer and her delivery is evocative and moving. Her body of work exemplifies her philosophy that poems should always show love and poets should be positive torch bearers in the world.
All in all, it was an inspiring evening of community through the medium of poetry. We hope that you will join us on June 15 for the next reading, our last one until the fall.
One Minute Poem Series
 Head to our YouTube channel to watch our One-Minute Poem Series. This month catch Michael Goodfellow reading "Diesel" and Shalan Joudry reading "Apukjanit".
Click here for Michael's poem
and here for Shalan's
Along with our Twitter feed, we’ll be posting here up-to-the-minute reminders of upcoming readings, and features of our guest poets.
On our website, you'll find information about what we do, who we are and where to find us. We've created pages for our upcoming readings (Events and 1 Minute Poems), an archive of posts, posters, and newsletters, and information about the team members.
Keep on Donating!
Thank you to our generous donors! Your donations are what allow us to pay our poets and bring you top shelf poetry readings every week. You can donate on our website at https://poetscorner.ca/. If you have donated regularly, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. If you haven't donated yet, but you have a little cash burning a hole in your bank account because you haven't been able to go out anywhere to spend it, we will put it to good use!
More Thanks
Thank you to the Canada Council for the Arts, the League of Canadian Poets and the Writers' Union of Canada for their funding. We at Poets Corner, and especially our feature readers and one-minute poets, appreciate the support.
 
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