World Poetry Day is March 21. Poetry is integral to life (not just in song lyrics) and The Voice‘s contributors have mused on the many facets of poetry.
Verses to fight by. Writer Wanda Waterman St. Louis traces how controversy over a poetry reading fuelled a rebellion. “Other insurrections have reportedly been inspired and fuelled by poetry, but I can think of no others fought in its defence.” Maghreb Voices — Power, Poetry, and Popular Dissent in Algeria, Part I, February 11, 2011.
Looking beyond the words. Another entry by Wanda Waterman St. Louis continues some views on Canadian poetry and its relationship with culture and ethnicity. “But we need to stop seeing our literature as either a set of ethnic solitudes or an elitist, exclusionary hierarchy; we need to recognize literature as a network of consciousnesses that are all, in their way, significant to the culture at large.” The Mindful Bard — On Canadian Poetry, Part II, October 15, 2010
