Poetry Reading with Josephine LoRe

Part of the "Poetry at Paraguas" series

WHEN: Tuesday, September 17, 2024 at 6:30 p.m.

COST:  Free admission

ABOUT THE POET:

Josephine LoRe's childhood dream was to become a writer. Her first publication at age 12 appeared in the Toronto Gladstone Library collection. Josephine went on to win the Norma Epstein Prize for Creative Writing in her third year at University College (University of Toronto) for her first collection of poetry.

Josephine 's poems are rooted in and inspired by nature and family, and contain lyricism and depth. Her writing oftentimes reveals an underlying universality and echoes with truth. 

Josephine has published three collections: Unity, which integrates her photographs, poetry and prose; The Cowichan Series, a Calgary Herald bestseller written on and inspired by the spectacular Cowichan valley on Vancouver Island; and In My Father's House, poetry of family and place. 

Individual poems have been published in literary journals and anthologies on four continents, fifteen countries and in five languages. She has also published a number of short stories. 

Josephine has extended poetic connections around the globe and is active in numerous poetic societies in Canada and abroad. She is a member of The League of Canadian Poets, Haiku Canada, the Writers' Guild of Alberta, the Alexandra Writers' Center Society, Parkland Poets, the Stroll of Poets, Cultivating Voices Online Live Poetry, and Brownstone Poets.

Josephine enjoys collaborating with artists and writers, and her poetry has been read on stage and in international Zoom rooms, put to music, danced, and integrated into paintings & visual art. Beyond writing, Josephine has taught numerous workshops both live and online, served as editor, judge, and mentor.

Excerpt from 'Minus the Killing' (published in the 2020 Pandemic Poems Anthology)

I discover I like the dark

walking in the rain

the song of the birds in the morning

All their voices

the questions of the robin

The bossy crow

the tapping and flicker

on the side of my house

My favourite time is dusk

when the sky mutates                                                                                 

from cornflower to periwinkle

And robins again ask

The same questions

I keep my bedroom windows open

for news of the birds

barbecue sauce, the burning of wood