The St. Albert Cultivates the Arts committee is lifting local poetry off the beaten track and turning it into a highway nomad.
They have just been given the green light to plaster 48 St. Albert Transit buses that travel around the city and into Edmonton with poetry penned by our own citizens. The panels will be installed and showcased in August eight weeks before the StArts Festival revs up Sept. 17 and 18.
To get the ball rolling, the committee has created Poetry on the Bus, a competition that invites writers to send in one unpublished poem before the Sunday, May 30 deadline. “We wanted to do something for St. Albert that was unique and it’s a go,” says literary arts committee representative Sandra Mooney-Ellerbeck.
The internationally published poet says the “two-way ride” benefits both poets and riders. Not only does this offer a chance for poets to have their work seen by a larger audience, but “It also gives riders a more enriching and pleasurable experience. You get a smile or an insight rather than just reading the same ads.”
The competition offers developing and professional writers a chance to compete with their peers. Three age categories have been introduced: 12 to 14 year olds, 15 to 17 year olds and 18 and over.
Writers are encouraged to explore poetry in its many forms whether it’s a haiku, blank verse, parody, ballad, doggerel, limerick, epigram or rhyme.
And the subject material is wide open. The poems can be highbrow or lowbrow. They can range from wild bungee jumping and madcap spending sprees to exotic travelling or at-home nostalgic moments. Whatever piques your interest. In fact, you can even script a poem about the bus.
Mooney-Ellerbeck presented this idea to the committee after she was inspired by Edmonton’s 1999 voyage into Take the Poetry Route. At the time, Edmonton was the third city after Toronto and Vancouver to showcase a poetry-in-transit project. However, the venture collapsed in 2007 after the Canada Council for the Arts cut funding.
Complete details for Poetry on the Bus are on the website at www.startsfest.ca. Questions can be emailed to [email protected]. Submissions go to Community and Protective Services, 5 St. Anne Street.
