Poems & Plays for Sale, by the Book-full!

Books are the best gift for a time of self-isolation!  A shout-out to Canadian small press publishers and indie bookshops.  Long may you thrive! Your health all round!

Here are my recent offerings for your wish list, to share with poetry- and play-loving pals.

If you order the books from me, I’ll sign them for you!

Penn Kemp
525 Canterbury Road
London Ontario N6G 2N5
pennkemp@gmail.com

Or order from Amazon*. Details below.

From Insomniac Press*, $2O + tax + postage:

Celebrating local writers! https://lfpress.com/entertainment/books/new-books-by-london-and-area-authors-just-in-time-for-christmas

From Quattro Books*, $2O + tax + postage:

Also, prose to celebrate Jack Layton: Love, Hope and Optimism, Ongoing!*

Travel to Ancient Egypt with me for $6 + tax +postage!

Or this fabulous hand-made chapbook from Mother Tongue Books for $50 + tax +postage!

If you love plays and local history, two of my plays about Victorian explorer Teresa Harris are available: https://www.canadianplayoutlet.com/products/the-dream-life-of-teresa-harris and https://www.canadianplayoutlet.com/products/the-triumph-of-teresa-harris.

And this anthology,  available only from me. $20 in this format.  But for $12, without the colour, order from https://www.canadianplayoutlet.com/products/performing-women.

* Find my books on https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=Penn+Kemp&ref=nb_sb_noss.

You can also find them in your Library, I hope. Certainly London Public Library has them all, plus CDs and DVDS.

Blessings for a Joyous Holiday! 

Penn
http://www.pennkemp.weebly.com

Poems for Sale: a wish list for you

Books are the best gift for upcoming holidays… a respite from the rush.

Here are my recent offerings to share with poetry- and play-loving pals.

If you order from me, I’ll sign them as you wish!
Penn Kemp
525 Canterbury Road
London Ontario N6G 2N5
pennkemp@gmail.com

Or order from Amazon*. Details below.

From Insomniac Press*, $2O + tax + postage:

From Quattro Books*, $2O + tax + postage:

Also, prose to celebrate Jack Layton: Love, Hope and Optimism, Ongoing!*

Travel to Ancient Egypt with me for $6 + tax +postage!

Or this fabulous hand-made chapbook from Mother Tongue Books for $50 + tax +postage!

If you love plays and local history, two of my plays about Victorian explorer Teresa Harris are available: https://www.canadianplayoutlet.com/products/the-dream-life-of-teresa-harris and https://www.canadianplayoutlet.com/products/the-triumph-of-teresa-harris.

And this anthology,  available only from me. $20 in this format.  But for $12, without the colour, order from https://www.canadianplayoutlet.com/products/performing-women.

* Find my books on https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=Penn+Kemp&ref=nb_sb_noss.

Blessings for a Joyous Holiday!
Penn

An ABC on Voting NDP

Look at each party’s records, not their rhetoric.

At their history, not the hysteria which is bound

to heighten all next week. Liberals are known to

“signal left and turn right” once they’re in power.

Like the Cons, they will promise Moon and Mars

to be elected again, then follow their own agenda.

Vote with your heart AND mind for Canada’s NDP.

 

On Polls

Who has landlines these days? Who answers

unlisted numbers on the phone? Those who

respond to polls. If we listen to the very skewed

results that such demographic offers, the numbers

will themselves create the reality we don’t want.

*

Harper will not pass judgment on Rob Ford’s
previous misdeeds. Gee, maybe he should
empty the prisons while he’s being so generous…

*

Je me souviens! Remember THOSE scandals?
An all too timely reminder of what LIES ahead.
Same old same? Sorry for the schadenfreude…

*

Penn Kemp

When Politicians are Poeticians…

Here’s to a new tradition in London, Ontario: Poetry meets Politics!  Even more reason to be proud of our new Council!  Here’s to the YukYuks Eight!

On Saturday at YukYuk`s London, I had the honor of opening the afternoon festivities for“Poets and Politics”, Fun, funny and fund-raising for the Food Bank. Politicans/ poeticians*: we both love language:)… and they outdid themselves.  Thanks especially to John Hassan for seeing the event through from concept to actuality with a little help from his friends!  Holly Painter was our charming MC… no awkwardness there.  And we were treated to a moving poem by Glen Pearson and a song, “Four Strong Women”, with Gina Barber.  Electric all around! Yes, we are this city!

Here`s my rant.

Writer Ursula K Le Guin was honored for her life’s work this month at the American 2014 National Book Awards. In her resounding, prophetic speech, she announced: “Hard times are coming, when we’ll be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope. We’ll need writers who can remember freedom – poets, visionaries – realists of a larger reality….
Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words.”

Politicians, you are poeticians. You share a love of language with poets. I ask you to consider your words carefully, starting with ‘considere’: to be with the stars, to take the widest view. Consider the meaning of the word ‘integrity’: the state of being whole, entire, or undiminished; soundness. You are like poets in that you believe in words. I wish you fewer! But I wish your words to work true all the way through.

Our new Council is a visionary council, with all the power of new beginnings and a future four years anticipated. As visionaries, you see this world at the same time as you see another. What kind of city can The Forest City be? The movement of potential transformation is from envisioning (as the consultations with Londoners have shown) through expression in words that can then be translated into action, with the people of London behind you. Our new Council, I believe, is keen to negotiate, to include and to persuade. May your ideals translate into direct and effective action. May our plans for this beautiful city be realized. May the best manifest.

Penn

Photo of me by Nick Steinburg
Photo of Holly and me by Paul Seale

October 11, The Poetry Salon, Durham Ontario

The Poetry Salon | Open Book: Ontario.

 

Saturday, October 11, 2014 – 7:00pm

Where

Gallery of Ancient Egyptian Art
211 Elgin Street North
Durham, ON
N0G 1R0

Details

Join us for a reading with Allan Briesmaster, Penn Kemp and flautist April Barker. There will be an Open Mic portion involved. The evening will take place at the beautiful Gallery of Ancient Egyptian Art.
Penn Kemp will also be performing sound poetry and reading from From Dream Sequins.
There will be a launch for Jack Layton: Art in Action , put out by Quattro Books.

For more information, please contact
Daniel Kolos
Box. 567
Durham, ON
N0G 1R0
519-369-1129
damilos@bell.net

Sponsored by the League of Canadian Poets

Upcoming Events with Penn Kemp, Fall 2014

Saturday, September 27, 2014: 100 Thousand Poets for Change, http://100tpc.org/. Gathering Voices, world-wide and on radio in London ON. Contact: Michael Rothenberg, mrwalterblue@gmail.com. See https://www.facebook.com/100tpcradioclik?fref=nf and for the radio show, chrwradio.ca/content/upcoming-episodes-gathering-voices.

CHRW Radio Western, 94.9 FM. Tuesday, September 9, 2014, 6:30 – 7:00 pm. (R. September 16, 2014, 6:30-7:00am). Gathering Voices celebrates 2014’s 100,000 Poets for Change event on September 27, Part 1. http://chrwradio.ca/content/gathering-voices-100000-poets-change-parts-1-2
Tuesday, September 23, 2014, 6:30 – 7:00 pm. (R. September 30, 2014, 6:30-7:00 am). Part 2. The show celebrates 2014’s 100,000 Poets for Change event on September 27. Archived on http://chrwradio.ca/content/gathering-voices-100000-poets-change-parts-1-2.

FALL READINGS

Saturday, October 11, 2014, 7-10 pm. The Poetry Salon. Reading with Allan Briesmaster, with flautist April Barker and Open Mic. Gallery of Ancient Egyptian Art, 211 Elgin Street North, Durham, ON. Penn will perform sound poetry and read from From Dream Sequins. We will launch Jack Layton: Art in Action, Quattro Books. Contact: Daniel Kolos, Box 567, Durham, ON N0G 1R0, 519-369-1129, damilos@bell.net. Sponsored by the League of Canadian Poets.

Wednesday, October 29, 7-9 pm, 2014. Reading/workshop, London Public Library, Stevenson/Hunt Room, 251 Dundas St, London ON N6A 6H9, http://creativeagelondon.ca.
“Penn Kemp will read several scenes from her plays to serve as inspiration for your own writing, whether as dialogue or as poetry or prose, whatever form it may take. We will work with memory, sound,dreams, images and character development to conjure evocative new ways of entering your writing. Perhaps a memoir will emerge; perhaps a story: be open to the surprise of possibility. For more information on Penn’s work, see www.mytown.ca/pennkemp. Come prepared to raise the roof of your imagination!” Sponsored by Playwrights Guild.

January 24 or 25, 2015. “Homeward Bound”, PlayWrights Cabaret. A scene from a full-length play Penn is working on about London’s arts community mid-(last) century, thanks to a Ontario Arts Council Theatre Reserve grant from the Grand Theatre, London, Ontario and a London Arts Council Community Arts Investment Program grant.  The play will be produced in London by AlvegoRoot Theatre in 2015.

On Line

http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/kemp/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penn_Kemp

http://www.pennkemp.wordpress.com

The Last Line. To the Letter by Penn Kemp

The Last Line. To the Letter by Penn Kemp.