This morning I woke up with “North by Northwest”. As I turned on the radio at about 7:30 (?) I heard a fine interview about ginkgo trees…thought I must have that word in a poem… I was thinking of a romantic story about a high school friend, but that one hasn’t appeared in a poem (yet).
After learning the correct spelling of “ginkgo”, I found I have that word in two versions of what I call a “dual list poem” – after a poem by Elee Kraljii Gardiner. (I’ve also confirmed how to spell her name. She with the beautiful new book of poems, “Serpentine Loop” – about skating.)
My poem lists terms from both dental hygiene and poetry…my life’s major works. I’d forgotten the term, “ginkgo walk” – but there it was…
garland of sonnets gauze
genre, gestures
ghazal
gingival, gingivitis gingko (walk)
glissando, glosa, glossary glossitis
grammar, punctuation and spelling (GPS) groove
Oh good, the italics (for poetry terms) survive here, and the line breaks… Where I posted it on North by Northwest’s Facebook page, it cam through in just a (funny?) paragraph form.
What about George Elliott Clarke? I’d better get back to my presentation about him, for delivery at the New Westminster main library this Tuesday at 6:30. “In Their Words” is organized by Alan Girling, and includes four genres. I wrote an essay about him for Introduction to Poetry at Douglas College in 2011. I presented this also at World Poetry at the library in Black History Month (2014?). Since 2011 Mr Clarke has been Poet Laureate of Toronto, and he is now Canada’s seventh Parliamentary Poet Laureate. He has also earned his eighth honourary doctorate. I’m happy to see the smile on his face (in photographs) these days.
BTW (by the way) the last post before this one has my poem which was written on September 17, 2001 – fifteen years ago yesterday – poem three in my “9/11 Trilogy”. “One Week After”. The first poem was written “Ten Years Before” – the title then was “A Valentine for the Western World”. It appears on the previous post, on the same day. It was also the first thing I heard on the radio one morning. My feelings had to be expressed in a poem. For me, it explained 911. Poem Two has not been published, so I won’t share it here.
G is also for “Good Morning”. Good Morning, Afternoon, or Evening – as the case may be.
Franci Louann 