Three Poems
Daughterfather
Hey, do you really believe in the Muses?
Here's my concern: how much do they believe in me?
Okay they published your Selected Poems. Can we get a big house like Mr. Johnson said?
Maybe I'll double your allowance.
Can we co-author some poems?
We've been doing that since you were born.
Dad, why do you go into a rant when someone says the poet wants to express herself?
I don't mind the word "express" when it means fast, like an express bus or Tom Raworth's poems. But Tom wasn't trying to express himself. He was trying to keep up.
Which is a bigger deal to you--poetry or baseball?
Dad:
Person 1: Your dad's been in the bathroom for over an hour
Daughter: Yeah, he says sometimes it's hard to express myself
Daughter: My grade three Creative Writing teacher said to write what you know.
Dad: She probably meant know what you write. Maybe that is okay for journalists.
Why did bp say that he didn't copyright his poems?
Our poems. bp knew that all the poems that will ever be known are already out there. Poets have to learn how to find them.
Hey, Dad, did you get any of your smarts in school?
I asked my grade five teacher who invented coal. She didn't get it, that all "invention" is discovery, as in poetry.
Hey, Dad. What is realism for?
To justify the ways of Men to God.
I've read that you say serious things in a humorous way
Take me lightly, but over a lifetime.
Why did Victor say there's no copyright?
You do know that Halley did not own that comet?
You love poetry and baseball--are they like one another?
They both get you used to something--and then comes a surprise. You love it.
Is the bluebird of happiness still to be found?
Well, if children could fly, there's be no need for poets.
A Log
If a tree fell in the forest
far, far from the nearest animal's ears,
but close to a recording device
that converted words to sounds on a graph,
and a scientist retrieved the graph without reading it,
and it fell from his helicopter
and was burnt to nothing in a forest fire,
so no one ever read the graph,
had the falling tree made any sound in its fall?
Mr. and Mrs. Padgett
Dear Ron
It's a good thing
your beautiful poem
about your wife
is so short.
The water around my
poor eyeballs just had
time to show its face.
11/7/25
George Bowering
George Bowering, Canada’s first Parliamentary Poet Laureate, is a major Canadian literary figure and one of the country’s most prolific authors, having written more than one hundred books, including works of poetry, fiction, autobiography, biography, and youth fiction. His texts have been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, German, Chinese, and Romanian. A founder of the influential poetry journal TISH, Bowering went on to become a distinguished novelist, poet, editor, professor, historian, and tireless supporter of fellow writers. He has twice won the Governor General’s Literary Award, and has been shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize, the BC Book Prize, the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, and the British Columbia National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. Bowering is an Officer of the Order of Canada, and has also been awarded the Order of British Columbia and the British Columbia Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence. The George Bowering Collection and Reading Room at UBC Rare Books and Special Collections is scheduled to open in late 2025.
Alberto Regueira
Alberto Regueira, born in 1994 in Havana, Cuba, is a visual artist currently living and working in Havana. His primary focus is painting, though he also explores printmaking, and drawing.
He began his studies in 2011 at the “San Alejandro” Academy of Visual Arts, where he experimented with sculpture, printmaking, and installation. In 2016, he enrolled at the Superior Institute of Art (ISA), concentrating solely on painting. In 2020, he completed his graduation and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Visual Arts.
His artwork serves as a narrative expression of esoteric themes, weaving analogies and symbols into a rich tapestry of meanings that connect the everyday with the mystical. His painting style centers on the oil technique and draws inspiration from classic painting landscapes, infused with surrealistic elements.
Regueira has showcased his work in numerous exhibitions, both in Cuba and internationally, including in Switzerland and the United States.