Oaths of Allegiance to Poetry, Vol.1, No.1.

Catherine Owen Takes the Oath of Allegiance to Poetry

Howard Tessler takes the Oath of Allegiance to Poetry

Howard Tessler is a working class poet. He was seen at the scene of Toronto`s annual Word In the Street flagging and flogging Peoples Voice.

Charlie Huisken takes the Oath of Allegiance to Poetry

Charlie Huisken, the proprietor of Toronto`s This Ain`t The Rosedale Library, took a few moments out to take the Oath of Allegiance to Poetry at Cine Cycle, the venue that held the 100,000 Poets For Change event held in Toronto. Charlie has a well-known rep for encouraging and informing the multi-alternatives to the plainstream media, and was one of the chief organizers of the event.

John Barlow takes the Oath of Allegiance to Poetry

John Barlow was performing his poetry at the 100,000 Poets for Change held at Cine Cycle, a back alley venue off Spadina near Queen West hosted by the breathy Louise Bak. It was here that he pledged the Oath of Allegiance to Poetry.

Jenny Sampirisi takes the Oath of Allegiance to Poetry

Jenny Sampirisi croaked at Dreamer’s Café in Port Hope last September 26. Jenny was launching her first book of poetry, CROAK, published by Coach House Books. Formerly held at Farzinis, this poetry outreach program of poet James Pickersgill, made its debut appearance at Dreamer’s Café, just as Jenny’s first collection of poetry made its debut appearance at this wonderful venue.

Jenny took a few moments out of her hectic book-mongering schedule to take the oath of allegiance to Poetry.

Bob MacKenzie takes the Oath of Allegiance to Poetry

Bob MacKenzie hails from penitentaryville, aka Kingston. He has been a very active member of the poetry community, hosting numerous poetry readings. Visit his web site for a prolific and wide variety of his poetry. On the evening of his peformance at Dreamer's Cafe in Port Hope, he took a few moments to take the Oath of Allegiance to Poetry.

ZACHARIA WELLS Takes the Oath of Allegiance to Poetry

ZACHARIA WELLS was born and raised in Hazel Grove, PEI, and left there at age fifteen, subsequently living in Ottawa, Halifax, Montréal and Vancouver. From 1996 to 2003, I travelled back and forth between the territory of Nunavut and southern Canada, working as an airline cargo handler and agent. I now live in Halifax and work for VIA Rail as a service attendant. I am also the Reviews Editor for Canadian Notes & Queries, possibly the finest literary magazine in the country. (Subscribe here.) When time permits, I write poems, reviews and essays, and read whatever I can get my hands on.

What time does permit, is a prolific body of poetic work which follows his writing philosophy:

“From Wilfred Hughes, who told me one badly hungover morning that I looked like I'd just chased a fart through a bag of nails, and from Dan Rintoul, who told me about moonshine that tasted like old cunts and boxing gloves, I learned the vitality of vernacular speech and the illuminating power of a well-built metaphor. From Clifford Collins I learned the concussive power of spondaic stress clumping and assonance each time he called me a stunned cunt—lessons I would learn often and would only relearn from G.M. Hopkins and Dylan Thomas later.”

LOUIS STOVER Takes the Oath of Allegiance to Poetry

RACHEL HOLMES Takes the Oath of Allegiance to Poetry

SHAYNE MARRELLI Takes the Oath of Allegiance to Poetry

JULIE CAMERON-GRAY Takes the Oath of Allegiance to Poetry

Julie Cameron Gray writes a weekly column for the Sudbury Star. Her chapbook, The Distance Between Two Bodies (2006) is available from Cactus Press and her work has been published in The Windsor Review, The Amethyst Review, Harpweaver, and Lichen .

EDWARD NIXON Takes the Oath of Allegiance to Poetry

EDWARD NIXON is a poet and writer, with three poetry chapbooks published since 2006: Nights in the City of the Dead (Aeolus House 2006); Arguments for Breath (lyricalmyrical 2007); Free Translation (Cactus Press 2009). He’s recently had poems published in Rampike, Misunderstandings Magazine and Jones Av. Edward also hosts and curates the monthly reading series livewords

Enjoy Livewords poetry readings here.

ROBERT PRIEST Takes the Oath of Allegiance to Poetry

ROBERT PRIEST handles language and ideas with the imagine native heresy of a child, tossing words into the air to permit random breezes of inspiration to edit them before they land into our surprised consciousmess.

You can swallow some of his poems HERE.

This is his writing philosophy:

“Also I am trying to break out of my own silence. The violence here is never towards you—it is only towards the language and the ideas.”

KAREN CORREIA DA SILVA Takes the Oath of Allegiance to Poetry

Karen Correia Da Silva is the founder and editor in chief of Steel Bananas, “a not-for-profit arts and culture zine and collective geared towards enriching the Canadian artistic community by collaborating freely with independent artists and independent art groups.”

KATHLEEN BROWN Takes the Oath of Allegiance to Poetry

KING FRANKENSTEIN Takes the Oath of Allegiance to Poetry

SARAH BEAUDIN Takes the Oath of Allegiance to Poetry

Sarah Beaudin is a contributing writer for Steel Bananas, where she admits that "Lately, I’ve been considering the possibilities of the universe...(more)"

CURRAN FOLKERS Takes the Oath of Allegiance to Poetry

Curran Folkers is an associate editor of on-line zine, Steel Bananas, "a not-for-profit arts and culture zine and collective geared towards enriching the Canadian artistic community by collaborating freely with independent artists and independent art groups."