poetry

Poets & poetry back in YYJ

by Rhona
March 23, 2015April 6, 2026
Cartography, Ex-Ville, literary criticism, poetry, poetry readings, poets

I’ve been to a few poetry (& other) readings since my return to Victoria, and even given one, and time to report on a bit of that with more on the horizon.

But first, I recently found this generous and thoughtful review of Ex-ville, from the online UK arts-zine London Grip, lurking in my inbox via Facebook, and this lovely one on GoodReads via Twitter. Social media seems to be kicking in to take the place of our print reviewing platforms, shattered as they were in recent years.

It’s gratifying to have the recognition: most of us are small fish in a small pond and it can make for a life of overcrowded isolation. These were the first reviews in any media that I’d had for the book, and I’m delighted. Not least because my last collection. Cartography, of which I remain very proud – a dozen years in the making – garnered not a single print review, nomination or mention since its publication in 2006. That is, until social media struck most kindly again in December last year, and then out of the blue this month with a warm and thorough online review.

2015Feb13ChrisLevenson — Chris Levenson (poetry)

2015Feb13CathyFord — Cathy Ford (poetry)

So. Returning to Victoria after the infinite literary delights of London… I have been more regularly attending Planet Earth Poetry, our local weekly readings series, than I had been able to over the last couple of years while travelling up and down Vancouver Island in search of nutrition training. We’ve had some great readers passing through from near and far, among them Christopher Levenson from Vancouver, Cathy Ford from Sidney,George Szanto from Gabriola Island, and Julie Paul from Victoria.

2015Feb20GeorgeSzanto — George Szanto (fiction)

2015Feb20JuliePaul — Julie Paul (fiction)

Swiftly ollowed by Lorri Neilsen Glenn who took a cherry blossom break on the West Coast from a truly ugly Atlantic winter in Halifax to read us a mixture of poetry and memoir; and by Alice Major, taking a green break from a prairie winter in Edmonton, who read mostly new and unpublished work.

For my own part, I gave a local reading back in February, in the friendly performance space at Gorge-ous Coffee. The place is fully booked with events of all kinds, musical, poetic and beyond, so was delighted to find an open slot.

Coming up soon: April is National Poetry Month, and I have three performances booked for that. The first is billed as a Read Local BC event, Poetry Without Borders, and takes place on Wednesday April 8 at the very lovely Munro’s Books in downtown Victoria. I’m reading with local poets Patrick Friesen, Beth Kope and Inge Israel. Next up is Poets Converse With Street Art – a poetry tour organized by Victoria’s own newly crowned Poet Laureate, Yvonne Blomer, which will be a poetry tour of Victoria, with poets strategically placed to read works inspired by public art; look for me beneath a sculptural streetlight, as I’m engaging with a pair of hands that were part of The Hands of Time, a project that marked Victoria’s 150th anniversary in 2012. That takes place on Saturday April 25, with morning and afternoon strolls planned. On Wednesday April 29 I’m part of a Food, Farming & Fishing Poetry Potluck at Haliburton Community Organic Farm, with Brian Brett, Linda Rogers and Dennis Reid.

And that’s the poetry bulletin for today. Next time I’ll do a little food security/urban agriculture update. My interests and involvements are like a spreading pool, so I have to keep track of the rivulets and my inner librarian is trying to create order in all this. You’ll find most of my hands-on, face-down food writing taking a decidedly nutritional vein, over at the Go Local Nutrition site. I’m also tweeting @iambiccafe and @golocalnut, and Facebooking at Digging the City, Go Local Nutrition, and Rhona McAdam (my writer page) (please Like these pages rather than trying to Friend me if you don’t know me personally).

Telltale & Other Poetry

by Rhona
January 14, 2015April 6, 2026
events, London, poetry, poetry readings

Judging panel chair Helen Dunsmore announcing TS Eliot prize-winner

Wednesday’s reading with the Telltale Poets was great fun, and has been well reported by champion blogger and poet Robin Houghton (whose book for blogging writers is essential reading – practical and well illustrated – for those wanting to take the plunge).

Went to a lunchtime talk at the Wellcome Institute on Friday, by epidemiologist Liam Smeeth from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He spoke very well on the state of epidemiological research in the UK, explained his role in untangling the confusion over the MMR vaccine in the 90s, and talked about some large scale research going on to track different cancers in very large populations. I heard distinctly Goldacrean echoes in his discussion of the value of using electronic medical records to improve medical research, and the all-important and extremely time-consuming work of checking data meticulously before reaching conclusions.

This week’s poetic entertainment started on Sunday with the TS Eliot Prize finalists readings. These readings now take place in the Royal Festival Hall (capacity 2500) – a near sell-out from all reports. It was certainly a busy and overwarm venue, the proceedings beautifully presided over by Ian McMillan.

He introduced us, and more importantly the short-listed poets, to the notion of the poetry year. This he explained was like a dog year, but much shorter, lasting precisely 8 minutes. So each poet had one poetry year, and no more, to read… which included time for the poets to reach the podium, adjust their glasses and introduce the poems, though this part of the definition had not been entirely apprehended by all, including one or two of the most experienced readers.

Made me think nostalgically of the reading I attended at Toronto’s Harbourfront, watching the gratifyingly pugnacious (in this instance anyway) Greg Gatenby walk onto stage to tell the equally pugnacious Irving Layton that he had exceeded his reading time. Many an audience member has sent out prayers for this kind of intervention which occurs too seldom on our over-polite stages. I’ve seen the other end of the spectrum too, at the Vancouver literary festival, where poets were sent to the podium which was rigged with a timer, set to go off at the end of their reading time. Surely there must be a happy medium.

All that having been said, I name my favourite reader as Michael Longley, whose elegies to his twin were simple and strong. The eventual winner, however, was David Harsent, often nominated so a fair choice, though his reading style put me off, as a bit self-satisfied, and found his poetry too distant for my tastes, other than his poem Icefield, a good clean observation on climate change. Fiona Benson‘s poem Portrait with a Bandaged Ear remains a favourite – a powerful portrait of an abusive relationship that lost something for me, curiously, when I re-read the title and realized it was a Van Gogh poem. (You can read a sampling of poems from all the shortlisted poets, plus discussion notes here)

More excitement to come in my world anyway with another reading on tonight’s horizon. I’ll be reading at the Poetry Cafe in Covent Garden (22 Betterton Street, London WC2) tonight at 8pm, at the Loose Muse women writers’ night. Open mic and a fellow reader I look forward to meeting and hearing: Tania Hershman. If you’re around, come on down!

Announcing Ex-ville

by Rhona
October 24, 2014April 6, 2026
Ex-Ville, news, poetry

Dear readers,
I have been a sleeping blogger for these many months, but have awakened just as the leaves fall and the books launch.

After a suspenseful summer, I am more than pleased to report that my sixth full-length poetry collection, Ex-ville, has at last made its way to the printers and will soon be available from the good folks at Oolichan Books, and better bookstores near you.

Sporting a dynamite cover (from a photo by the marvellous Cherie Westmoreland) it includes poems never before seen as well as many that have appeared in such journals as Acumen, the Antigonish Review, Contemporary Verse 2, Descant, The Malahat Review, Prism International and Vallum, and some anthologized in the likes of Force Field: 77 Women Poets of BC, Poems from Planet Earth, Rocksalt and Walk Myself Home. I humbly hope you like it.

Over this silent summer I’ve been preoccupied by many things, not least the final months of study which have culminated in yet another string of letters to squeeze onto a business card. These letters are satisfyingly close to my own name, and I am now Rhona McAdam, R.H.N. I have enjoyed my time at the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition and will be able to keep my ties there as an instructor (Eco-Nutrition) going forward.

I continue to ponder the future of this blog – whether it can span food, poetry and holistic nutrition, or whether some other tool is needed. Meanwhile, for those wanting to follow my food security and urban agriculture interests, find me at my Digging the City page on Facebook; likewise I add literary notes and links to my Facebook writer page. See you here, there and everywhere!

The audible worlds of poetry and dirt, and Growing Out of Hunger

by Rhona
January 21, 2011April 6, 2026
online readings, poetry
2 Comments

Online marketing… just when you thought your inbox couldn’t take any more – more and more is coming from all directions. And when it’s from the right sources it’s not unwelcome. But it’s still too much. Every new piece of mail nudges another few minutes away from something else I might choose and prefer to do. Increasingly I find the best way to manage my time is to take my laptop and hide in a library where there’s no WiFi.

Even the Poetry Book Society is doing it. And if the emails about the TS Eliot shortlist are not enough, you can go looking for more. Their Online Poetry Readings promises to bring you some excellent poetry.

As I’ve probably said before , I love love love radio. It’s great company for the multitasker. Here are a couple of shows by our own David Suzuki – episodes from his Bottom Line series – about soil. Among others, they feature the hyphenated self-described grass farmer from Virginia, Joel Salatin, who is always entertaining to listen to. Podcasts for Bottom Line Part 3 are Soil: Life in the Dirt followed by Soil: How to Feed the World.

Meanwhile, I’m gearing up to see and hear a live person next week in Vancouver. Urban agriculture giant Will Allen is going to be speaking on the topic Growing Out of Hunger.

Last of the Solstice Poets

by Rhona
January 2, 2011April 6, 2026
poetry

Happy new year!

I was among the Solstice poets featured in the paper this season, and my poem appeared today. It’s a great series to be part of and the Times-Colonist is to be commended for its boldness in publishing (gasp) poetry.

But… in the online version, my stanza and line breaks were gone (which is part of the problem about ebooks and poetry, by the way), so for the purists, and my fellow “line-making creatures” – as Billy Collins calls us – out there, I give you the poem as it was supposed to look.

Solstice RhonaMcAdam

Sensorial overload

by Rhona
October 23, 2010March 30, 2026
poetry

Hard to find coherent words to report on an overwhelming couple of days. Here are some sights:

I found my long lost love, Testarolo; said to be the earliest pasta, it’s named for the large flat pan it’s cooked in. Cut it into strips, cook in water and toss with pesto. Heaven…

Some of the educational displays in Terra Madre include a map of the world’s Presidia products.

These are characteristic, traditional food products that are singled out for promotion; Slow Food helps with product development and marketing. I sense Canada’s not exactly pulling its weight here…

All kinds of everything at the Terra Madre World Market; vendors lay down blankets and sell whatever they’ve brought from their countries. Here, some vegetables: