Poetry in Collaboration with Art, Architecture, Dance & Film

Once a poem leaves the writer it takes on a life of its own. Here are some examples of poetry in civic spaces, in film, and art.

As part of the King Street Pilot Project in 2018, PLANT architects painted my poem “The City” and on King Street in downtown Toronto. In “Asphalt Poetry” the letters were painted a foot high and the poem itself was 30 metres wide. The poem could be viewed from the sidewalks, the streetcar and the buildings engaging travellers unexpectedly in poetry.Reading this poem became a physical act of walking back and forth along a city block.

Filmmaker Midi Onodera used the poem “Grief Without Fantasy” to inspire a short film which was an official selection at the Toronto Urban Film Festival. Midi invited me to collaborate with her in her Project Pizzini happening for all of 2024.

Venice, Italy has been a huge source of inspiration for me. In 2018 I was commissioned to write and present poems as part of an international group of conservationists, artists and historians in the symposium and exhibition Rhino: Luxury’s Fragile Frontier at the Palazzo Contarini I continue to write about Venice and an excerpt of Venice Journals has been published in Ice Floe.

“I used to know” is a poem written at the height of the pandemic. It was made into a dance film by choreographer Julie Tomaino.

For many years, and especially in my work as a poet in health care, I’ve offered The Spontaneous Poetry Booth, writing poems on the spot for people on the subject of their choosing. The booth — and it’s sister booth “RX for Poetry” where I prescribe poems on little pads — has since gone beyond the hospital to conferences, fundraisers, bookstores, and events in Canada, the UK, China and Italy. Here’s one unique encounter at a poetry booth

Lastly, here’s an interview in Spacing Magazine about Poetry in Community. Because that’s where poetry lives.

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