It could be argued that city governments everywhere need a little poetry. The Mayor of the City of Regina, Pat Fiacco, recognized that when he encouraged city councils across the country to invite a poet to read during council meetings.
As a poet who has worked hard to engage the public in poetry, 91亚色 English Professor Priscila Uppal (BA Hons. 鈥97, PhD 鈥04)聽was a natural choice. She鈥檒l be reading one of her poems at the Tuesday, April 10 Toronto city council meeting at 9:30am as part of the Mayor鈥檚 Poetry City Challenge. It also coincides with National Poetry Month.
鈥淭he fact that it is on the Toronto city council agenda makes poetry an item of civic interest and civic debate,鈥 says Uppal. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 intended to send a message that arts and poetry are an important part of our community life.鈥
Left: Priscila Uppal
So what poem did Uppal chose for this austere five minutes in front of Toronto鈥檚 city councillors and Mayor Rob Ford? 鈥淚 opted for a poem I wrote for my father. It celebrates my father as an immigrant who worked for the Canadian government and suffered an accident which necessitated that he overcome major health issues.鈥 A quadriplegic, Uppal鈥檚 father raised two children as a single parent.
Uppal has long kept a list of words her father likes to use, 鈥渨ords that a lot of immigrants like to use which longtime Canadian citizens don鈥檛,鈥 she says. So words like gallivanting and ragamuffin and hootenanny.
The poem, 鈥溾, is from her 2010 collection, . 鈥淲hat it means to be a citizen is very much a part of this poem,鈥 says . She also thinks it should be part of council debate.
Uppal鈥檚 books include , Ontological Necessities, which was shortlisted for the $50,000 Griffin Poetry Prize, Confessions of a Fertility Expert, Pretending to Die, and .
She is the editor of The Exile Book of Canadian Sports Stories 补苍诲听The Exile Book of Poetry in Translation: 20 Canadian Poets Take on the World and the author of We Are What We Mourn: The Contemporary English-Canadian Elegy.
The Mayor鈥檚 Poetry City Challenge project is led by the Saskatchewan Writers鈥 Guild in partnership with the League of Canadian Poets.