Yvonne Blomer kicks off the tour at Victoria Public Library
Last weekend was a busy time for me, with my Saturday in particular fully booked. I was part of Poets Converse with Street Art | A Walking Tour – a cultural recreation organized and led by Victoria’s poet laureate Yvonne Blomer, and featuring Victoria’s youth poet laureate Zoe Duhaime, plus local poets Wendy Morton, Daniel G. Scott, Garth Martens and me – all asked to write poems in response to our choice of public art within a walking radius of the public library. There were also readings of Victoria poems by Carla Funk, John Barton, Robert Service, Rudyard Kipling and Michael Kenyon. Here’s how it looked on a day of all weathers:
Wendy Morton reads poem to steel sculpture by George Norris
Carla Funk’s Poetree
My chosen piece: Crystal Przybille’s “Raising a Tea Cup”
Local historian John Adams reads Kipling’s record of a boozy visit to Victoria.
Emily Carr’s monkey Woo who inspired John Barton’s poem
Lekwungen artist Butch Dick’s “Spindle Whorl”
Daniel G Scott reads poem reflecting Crystal Przybille’s “Holding a Mirror”
Wendy Morton admires Crystal Przybille’s “Panning for Gold”
Crystal Przybille’s “Tying a Rope to a Mooring Ring”
Crystal Przybille’s “Holding Binoculars”
Garth Martens reads to Robert Wyland orca mural.
Michael Kenyon’s poetry trapped in morse code on Broad Street
Yvonne leads us down dark alley
Yvonne Blomer reads Running Away, to Cameron Kidd (and street artists) graffiti mural
Yvonne and Zoe respond dynamically to String Figure Art Anne J Steves