My Favourite Poet (A Guest Post By David)

My favourite poet is Shane Koyczan. I hadn't heard of him before Saturday. But now he's my favourite poet.

On Saturday, Lisa and I attended an arts & cultural festival in Port Alberni, British Columbia. Forest Fest is a somewhat strange mix of music, spoken word, art, blacksmithing, insect bites, and forestry, reflecting the heritage of the lovely Alberni Valley. In the morning, we proudly watched as Lisa's mother gave a public reading of a rocking good short story - so good that total strangers approached her later in the day to say how moved they were by it. So the trip to Port Alberni was worth it just to witness her triumph. But, as a bonus, we got Shane.

In the afternoon, we attended performances by a trio of big-name Canadian spoken word artists. We were familiar with two of the performers (indeed, we had seen them on other occasions), but Shane Koyczan was a new name. Given his apparent rock-star status in the poetry world, it's kind of strange we'd never heard of him; but given that he's a poet, maybe it's not so strange. Not many (any?) poets are household names these days. Though after seeing Shane Koyczan, you feel that, in a perfect world, he would be a household name. On the other hand, you also feel that he's speaking both to you and for you, and as such, not everybody is going to get him, just like not everybody gets you.

Shane's poetry is for the common people. There's nothing academic about cutting open your heart for the world to see. His poetry is unabashedly sentimental, emotional, romantic, sensual, humanist, and so inspirational, you feel like cheering him along. I laughed, I cried - literally.

A thirty-minute performance wasn't nearly enough. Fortunately, Shane lives in Vancouver, which means (we hope) he probably makes it over to Vancouver Island on a reasonably regular basis. I'll be watching for him to return - we'd drive a long way to catch a reading by him.

Shane, if you ever Google Blogsearch your name, send Lisa an email the next time you're in Victoria. We'll make you an excellent homecooked meal.

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I am making a point of not watching much YouTube of Shane. I feel his brand of slam/performance poetry is best experienced live in person. But for anybody who's interested in a taste, these are two good pieces. The first is obviously one of his signature pieces - he performed it Saturday. The second I like for its unrepentant love of (old school) Degrassi.

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Some quotes from Lisa:

"He was a surgeon for my battered heart. At times it was as quiet and precise as a scalpel that's so sharp you can't even feel it slice the skin, but sometimes the only tool for the job is a thoracic saw, noisy, bloody and painful"

"How can anyone doubt that poetry is important? It made me feel more human, more alive, more sure of my awesomeness and more connected with myself and every other person in the world. If there's a higher calling than that I don't know what it is"

Comments

[Lisa]

Mindlessly going through my google reader list and find another "guest post". Oh great, I thought, but wow! Thanks so much for the links. He is a very talented writer - made my morning!

Take care,

Lisa