First, on Friday, February 17, Planet Earth Poetry was again at James Bay New Horizons in the afternoon. It was an opportunity to hear words from the poet who would be featured later the same night, at the regular weekly event downtown.

On Friday, the poet was Justene Dion-Glowa, author of Trailer Park Shakes. Justene’s words were powerful. Their first poem (Justene’s pronouns are they / them) was a series of short ones about teeth. Having just recovered from some significant issues around teeth myself, I resonated with the images.

Many of Justene’s poems deal in some way with trauma; I later listened to a podcast with Justene on the “Metis Speaker series”. During the dialogue on the podcast, Justene mentioned how they see their poetry as a way of healing from trauma. I heard poems about living with poverty, about injustice, about wildlife. Crows mean a lot to Justene, as evidenced by the striking image of a crow on the cover of Trailer Park Shakes. Justene has a sense of humour as well, which the photo below does not show. It was another inspiring afternoon.

And second — I have personal news!

I have been asked to be a poetic opener for Planet Earth!

I will be opening for the featured reader on the night of May 26, downtown at Russell Books. I will have eight minutes to read a few of my poems. This is a big leap for me; I feel like a late-comer to poetry. Planet Earth features many amazing poets, so this is an opportunity for me to polish my writing before I step before the microphone.

If you’re in Victoria, mark it on your calendars and come be part of the audience!