Monthly Archives: February 2016

Poetry of Conscience and Witness – Part Two – Amber Tamblyn

February 24, 2016 – 5:49 pm

Some say poetry does not have a role in documenting  and bearing witness to the injustice and suffering in our world. It is not a documentary art, I heard a celebrated poet say at a workshop.Bollocks to that I say. As American poet Carolyn Forche has documented in her anthology, Against Forgetting – Twentieth Century […]

By Richard Osler | Posted in Poetry | Tagged , Comments (0)

Poetry as Social Conscience – Part One – Sue Goyette and Amber Tamblyn

February 20, 2016 – 4:27 pm

Poetry is language used with particular intensity. It is not, as many suppose decorative speech. Poets tell us what our eyes turned with too much gawking, and our ears dulled with too much chatter, miss around and within us. Poets use words to drag us into the depths of reality itself. They do it not […]

By Richard Osler | Posted in Poetry | Tagged , Comments (0)

A Short Reprise – A Poem by Sara Eliza Johnson

February 15, 2016 – 5:32 pm

Last year I profiled American poet Sara Eliza Johnson. For a link to that blog post click here. Because of formatting issues at the time, since rectified, I was not able to include a poem I had wanted to highlight in that blog post. Here it is: Lesson After walking for many hours in the […]

By Richard Osler | Posted in Poetry | Tagged Comments (2)

Love’s Two-Sided Knife – Not So Happy Valentine from Carol Ann Duffy

February 14, 2016 – 7:04 pm

  Valentine Not a red rose or a satin heart. I give you an onion. It is a moon wrapped in brown paper. It promises light like the careful undressing of love. Here. It will blind you with tears like a lover. It will make your reflection a wobbling photo of grief. I am trying […]

By Richard Osler | Posted in General | Tagged Comments (0)