ARTS
Teachers, scroll down for a quick list of key resources, including a link to the Toronto Poetry Map and today’s MapMaker Interactive map!
Discussion Ideas
- Toronto’s terrific poetry map was spearheaded by the city’s poet laureate, George Elliott Clarke. What’s a poet laureate?
- A poet laureate is a poet who has been officially appointed by the government or other organizing group.
- Does your region have a poet laureate?
- Most likely! The city of Toronto, the “cultural capital of English-speaking Canada,” may be a little unusual in that it has its own poet laureate, but many countries and states appoint their own poets laureate. For example:
- Michel Pleau is Canada’s (French-speaking) poet laureate. Charles Wright is the poet laureate of the United States.
- Most U.S. states have poets laureate. For example, Juan Felipe Herrera is the poet laureate of California, Nora Marks Dauenhauer is the Alaska State Writer Laureate, and Dolores Kendrick is the poet laureate of Washington, D.C.
- If you’re in the U.S., use the “states” drop-down menu here to find the poet laureate and poetry events in your own state.
- Most likely! The city of Toronto, the “cultural capital of English-speaking Canada,” may be a little unusual in that it has its own poet laureate, but many countries and states appoint their own poets laureate. For example:
- Take a look through the Toronto Poetry Map. What neighborhoods have inspired the most lines of poetry?
- Busy neighborhoods where people come and go seem to be mentioned in the most lines of verse. Some of these areas include parks, popular shopping districts, and places where commuters enter and exit the city.
- Create a poetry map of your own using our MapMaker Interactive. Get inspired!
- The Toronto Public Library suggests poems that mentioned a specific place, mentioned a place only in the title, and sometimes just mentioned a famous resident of an area.
- named place: High Park
Walk on over to High Park,
hop the streetcar west. Find a bank
by a river if you’re lucky. - unnamed place: The Junction
Temperance dried up these streets
in nineteen oh something
& thirst became the hidebound
neighbourhood legacy –
oasis reversed. - resident: The Annex
“I float on forgetting why I came and become caught in Atwood’s wide-brimmed hat.”
(The great Canadian writer Margaret Atwood is a resident of The Annex, a Toronto neighborhood.)
- named place: High Park
- You might want to include local advertising jingles or song lyrics, which are some of the most familiar poems memorized today.
- Here’s a quick map of my own neck of the woods! Attach links to your own map in the comments to this blog post!
- The Toronto Public Library suggests poems that mentioned a specific place, mentioned a place only in the title, and sometimes just mentioned a famous resident of an area.
- Take a look at this fantastic poem map of (mostly) the United States. Are there poems from your city or neighborhood? (Happy to see so many contributions from Salinas!) Contribute your own!
TEACHERS’ TOOLKIT
Toronto Star: Toronto poetry map reveals an inner world
Toronto Public Library: Toronto Poetry Map
Nat Geo: Explore our poetry collection! (Looking for an introduction to poetry? Try this one. Looking for something for older students? Try this.)
Nat Geo: SuperQuick Monterey County Poetry & Prose Map
Academy of American Poets: poetry near you
Power Poetry: Write Your Own Life Story poetry map