Each year the League of Canadian Poets sets a theme for National Poetry Month, celebrated in April. This year’s theme is “The Road,” which opens up possibilities for all sorts of journeys. The Nelson Public Library embraces National Poetry Month and its literary journeys with a book launch and poetry reading on Thursday, April 28 at 7 p.m.
Margaret Hornby launches her fourth book of poetry, Intention, fresh off the press this spring. She’s joined by invited poets Rayya Liebich and Pippa Bowley.
“What I see around me just translates itself into poetry,” says Hornby. “The life around me, the environment, the people.”
Hornby says she has been on the poetic journey for more than five decades. “My intention is to alert people to the fragility of our environment.”
Previous collections by Hornby include When the Snow Leaves Elephant Mountain (Chameleon Press, 2003) and Love in Exotic Places (PB&J Press, 2011). Intention’s cover features an original painting by Hornby’s daughter Karen.
Says poet Linda Crosfield: “Margaret Hornby takes language, feeds it ideas, and sends it out to play. Whether she is at a shrine in Japan, listening to Puerto Rican frogs, or visiting the Great Bear Rainforest, the poet is always watching, and never more so that when she’s at home in her beloved Kootenays.”
Rayya Liebich’s poetry collection Tell Me Everything won Ontario’s Golden Grassroots Chapbook Award in 2015. She’s been published in a number of literary journals, her essay “Radical Choices” won the Geneva Literary Award and her play Three Minutes won the Kootenay Literary Competition. She teaches Liminal Life Writing at Oxygen Art Centre.
Pippa Bowley’s publishing credits include Horsefly Magazine, Elephant Mountain Review, and the anthology Bread and Bones. She’s a frequent performer at Nelson’s Poetry Slam. She offers a quote from American poet Fanny Howe: “Poetry doesn’t just help someone survive, it is a survivor itself, fluid, protean as it passes through walls, and brings a particular beat to a way of thinking and being.”
The evening of poetry and celebration includes refreshments, books for sale, and words to savour.