{"id":1974,"date":"2007-06-08T00:43:43","date_gmt":"2007-06-08T04:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=1974"},"modified":"2007-06-08T00:43:43","modified_gmt":"2007-06-08T04:43:43","slug":"toronto-public-spaces-in-creative-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/06\/08\/toronto-public-spaces-in-creative-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Public Spaces in Creative Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nOne of the ways we interact with public spaces is through their representation in media like film, photography, and literature. It might be the perspective we achieve from seeing a familiar place reflected through someone else’s eyes, and it might be the pride we feel from seeing our<\/em> public spaces writ large, but there’s something satisfying about the moment something distinctively Toronto dips into a story or picture.\n<\/p>\n

Diaspora Dialogues<\/a>, a charitable society that “supports the creation and presentation of new fiction, poetry and drama that reflect the complexity of the city back to Torontonians through the eyes of its richly diverse communities,” is releasing<\/a> a new anthology this Saturday, June 9th, entitled TOK 2. The book contains writing set in and concerned with Toronto, and is the second in an annual anthology of “stories and poems that bring to life, sometimes overtly and sometimes obliquely, the taste and smell, sights and sounds, of a complex urban environment.”<\/p>\n

I took part in the Diaspora Dialogues mentorship program last year, and have three poems in the new book. In the time I’ve been following Waterfront issues for Spacing I’ve spent a great deal of time looking at planning, environmental, and sustainability issues, but emotional ties play a strong role in why I think the Waterfront is such an important public space in the city. In an act of shameless self-promotion, I’ve reproduced at the bottom of this post one of my poems from the anthology, set on Toronto’s Waterfront.<\/p>\n

The Diaspora Dialogues website has more information<\/a> about the book launch (and the preceding celebrations), but here are the pertinent details:<\/p>\n

ARTofLUSH + TOK Book 2<\/em> launch and party
\nSaturday, June 9, 2007:<\/strong>
\n12—3pm: ARTofLUSH
\n3:30—6:00pm: TOK 2 launch and party
\nHarbourfront Centre, Queen’s Quay West\n<\/p>\n

________________________________<\/p>\n

\n

\n

january — ward’s island beach<\/p>\n

yes, this places still exists in winter,
\nalthough reduced ferry service and
\na wind that rattles the bones
\nof the skeletal trees lining the beach
\ncertainly make it less accessible.<\/p>\n

and the sand is coarse and hard —
\nthe weight of too many ghosts
\nhas compressed it and the ice has cooled
\nsummer’s too-hot-to-stand-in dreams.<\/p>\n

but the pole we took turns throwing
\nstones at still stretches from the sand
\nand the spot we drifted to about twenty metres out
\nstill glistens from the sun
\nand the memory of that moment.<\/p>\n

if i close my ears and pull my toque over my eyes
\ni can see us running around me:
\ni’m wearing my red bathing suit,
\nyou’re half-wearing your birthday suit
\nand we’re smiling and running,
\nkicking sand in the face of my future self.<\/p>\n

your friends are with us, too:
\ne.e., theodore and the polish
\nwoman whose name we could never pronounce,
\nthough she pronounced ours just fine.<\/p>\n

i’d take their books from
\nthe pocket where i’ve kept them,
\nbut it’s too cold to turn the pages
\nand, anyway, they’re somewhat
\nsurly in cooler weather.<\/p>\n

still, their muffled speech somehow makes
\nits way to my ears, and while the air freezes some words,
\nmost of them are clear if i listen just right, and put their verse
\nin your voice.<\/p>\n

you might ask me (and in fairness)
\nhow these words could be true if
\nthe other ones, the ones i dare
\nnot repeat, implicitly pursue.<\/p>\n

and your friends and our ghosts
\nwill freeze and cock their heads,
\nwaiting for the answer that’s brought
\nme this far, to this perfect beach
\niced over in the dead of winter:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153i’m in the wrong place at the wrong
\ntime. i follow the timing of the ferries, i set
\nmy watch by the boatman, not he
\nby mine. it’s that intersection of sand
\nand water, where the grains of me
\nare pulled into the infinite of you. it’s these
\nghosts that rattle on my flesh, it’s their
\nsmiles, incapable yet full of foreknowledge.
\nit’s me missing that pole with the first
\nfew throws, not expecting the
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcding!’ of solemn, perfect connection.
\nit’s the wall of words i throw up to
\ndeflect something we both know. it’s
\nskipping stones on the surface over
\nthe abyss of us, but not following them below.
\nit’s hoping some place in the sand that marks where we sat
\nremembers the shape of our bodies even if they never go back.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153it’s none of those things,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nyou say, and your hands slide
\nthe toque from my head
\nand a rare winter heat wave
\nripples across the island
\nwhere in our moments most
\nisolated and free
\nwe imagined a future without this winter,
\nthis forgotten, frozen beach
\noccupied only by me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the ways we interact with public spaces is through their representation in media like film, photography, and literature. 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