Grand Unveiling: Friday, 6 pm, April 25, 2025, Victoria Park, Cobourg, ON.
POETCHRY is a non-profit organization dedicated to utilizing laser technology to etch the poetic arts onto assorted surfaces in the public domain. This includes municipal picnic tables that grace our parks.
For too long, poetry has languished lonely and neglected on library bookshelves, while biographies, mysteries, history, how-to books get all the attention. POETCHRY releases poetry into the wilds of the open air public domain.
The performative arts have stages and studios, concert halls and stadiums to entertain and culturally enrich wide swaths of people, whereas poetry has poetry readings where poets read their poems, mostly to other poets. The impact of poetry on the public is sadly minimal.
PICNIC ON POETRY provides a unique venue for poetry in the public domain; it brings elevated language to our public parks where people play, eat, and relax. Our parks can be a home for eloquence and imagination. Picnic tables that can inspire. Benches that become departure lounges to the glorious Imagine Nation.
Cobourg will be the first municipality in the world to implement such a project. (Just ask GROK) Cobourg can be a showcase for English literature, from the Canon Poets of the UK, USA and Canada, to living accomplished Canadian poets and municipal poets laureate from across Canada.
Cobourg can set a precedent, not just locally, but nationally, as more and more picnic tables bearing eloquence and imagination are distributed throughout Town parks. Cobourg can earn the honour; “COBOURG: Canada’s Poemtown”. This is the Town where Canadian poets will want to have a picnic table of their own, bring their family and friends to PICNIC ON POETRY, Banquet on Bards or have a card game on The Bard Table.
On Friday, April 25, in National Poetry Month, ten picnic tables ladened with poetry and prose will be unveiled at 6pm in Victoria Park, Cobourg, ON. This tranche of picnic tables is very Cobourg oriented, because Cobourg has deep roots in poetry. Next year there will be branching out to include other languages.
The first table to be unveiled was curated by Wally Keeler on behalf of Ret. Ontario Superior Court Judge, JAMES CLARKE, who was born 1929 in Peterborough; practiced law in Cobourg and was a Cobourg Town Councillor during the early 70s. Mr. Clarke will be in attendance to unveil his table.
The remaining tables, not in any specific order, are:
A POEM OF ONE’S OWN, The Voice of Women in Poetry, was curated by Kate Hoogendam (MERKAT). This table bears nine outstanding poems composed by women regionally.
The following three picnic tables were curated by Cobourg Collegiate Institute students: Cadence Brak, Sofia Cooksey, Gigi Lees, Leanna Michaud, Afiat Taiyeba and Kripa Thomas.
1. THE BARD TABLE contains 14 Shakespearean Sonnets selected by the students.
2. ARCHIBALD LAMPMAN was the leading poet of a group that became renown as the Confederation Poets. Archibald Lampman was a student at Cobourg high school before going on to Toronto.
3. SUSANNA MOODIE stepped onto the pier at Cobourg in 1832. Margaret Atwood’s book, The Journals of Susanna Moodie, brought her to prominence. Cobourg Town Crier, Mandy Robinson, costumed as Susanna Moodie will unveil this table.
TABLE TALES is a table containing four short story writers from the Blue Denim Press stable. Prose is the sibling of Poetry. Want skinny stories? 4.75 inches wide. Then this table is for you.
MANDY ROBINSON, Cobourg Town Crier, curated a table of her popular “CATALYST POETRY”. She will be on hand to unveil her table. She will open the unveiling ceremonies with a cry.
SPIRIT OF THE HILLS ARTS ASSOCIATION, Writer’s Group, curated a table of six poems and four short stories. (The table with short stories will be unveiled in Victoria Park on Canada Day.)
POETRY, NATURALLY is a table of nature poems curated by Kate Rogers. This was the most popular of the tables, receiving 33 poems. One table containing these poems from poets across Canada will be unveiled April 25, 6pm. The remaining poems will be unveiled on Canada Day.
Just as Stratford is renown for its Shakespeare Festival, and Niagara-on-the-Lake for its Shaw Festival, as both are unique and distinctive, Cobourg can present PICNIC ON POETRY in its public parks as both unique and distinctive, becoming a true Poemtown for Canadian poets and the place where a random human can dine on the eloquence of elevated language outdoors. POETRY RAISES THE STANZA OF LIVING. Students of literature at York U, or UofT, or Trent U or Queens U, can easily spend a day exploring our parks for poetry-laden picnic tables. Highly literate tourists.
This project has been in the glorious Imagine Nation of the Peoples Republic of Poetry since its founding in 1971. That is when it passed the Policy of Poetry Proliferation. PICNIC ON POETRY is consistent with that policy.
Wally Keeler, Poetician1, is eternally grateful to the Municipality of Cobourg for the opportunity to elevate our literary culture, locally, regionally, nationally and globally. And forever thanks to Dave Glennie, who carried a lot of weight to have this job physically achieved.
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
