Marie Metaphor Specht is Victoria’s current Poet Laureate for 2023 to 2025. This honorary position celebrates literature and poetry in the capital city.
Specht is a spoken word poet and multidisciplinary artist whose work has been published in Oratorealis, Untethered Magazine, The Chestnut Review, The Hellebore and Room Magazine among others. She regularly performs at a wide variety of venues ranging from arts festivals to literary events and poetry slams.
Specht has collaborated with musicians, filmmakers and lighting technicians to create complex and interactive works. Her first full-length book of poetry, Soft Shelters, will be published with Write Bloody North in fall 2023.
“Poetry is a way of reaching towards each other; of closing the spaces between us,” says Specht. “I believe that creativity is our shared human birthright and any artform with an audience is a means to foster connections between people; an opportunity to see and hold each other in our complex histories of joy and suffering. This work is how we imagine a way forward; how we birth new worlds. Our communities flourish through intrepid acts of beauty, through the incredible power of stories shared.”
For more information about this program, or to contact the Poet Laureate, email culture@victoria.ca.
Poet Laureate Projects
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Marie Metaphor Specht's 'Public Poetry Remix,' is an immersive art project produced with Monkey-C Interactive that has the Musical Railings art installation in the Yates Street Parkade animated by cut-up poems from seven poets, including the Poet Laureate and Youth Poet Laureate.
Musical Railings is installed on the five-story staircase on the south side of the Yates Street Parkade and transforms the staircase into a five-storey-tall musical instrument. Visitors can touch the sensors embedded in the railings to create sounds and play loops accompanied by sound-responsive LED lighting. Participants will be ‘cutting up’ the audio recordings of each of the selected poems by touching the sensors in the railings of the staircase. When they hold a sensor, one line from a recorded poem will play. They can touch the sensors in any order.
Public Poetry Remix: Selected Poems
In the summer of 2024, local poets and spoken word artists of all ages were invited to submit poems for the Public Poetry Remix Project. The selected poems were recorded and now animate the Yates Street Parkade Musical Railings staircase.
For Martin Wong
What do you miss the most? What was your favourite ice-cream flavour? Do you remember graffiti on a hot day? Is it poetry or kisses? Who was the lover you left behind? Can you see clearly where you are? What is it like to be weightless? Can you tell my grandmother...I love her?
Poetic Statement
Martin Wong was a Chinese American, queer artist who redefined the street culture movement through his political vision and courage. Wong’s ability to blend his cultural heritage with his sexuality in his art is a reminder of the importance of creative expression. His art is a celebration of resilience, love, and community. Wong’s legacy as a Chinese queer artist is a reminder of the transformative power of graffiti and words.
About the Poet
Judy Woo is an artist residing on the traditionalterritories of the Lekwungen speaking people known as Victoria. As a queer, disabled, descendant of a Chinese Head Tax Payer, Judy brings an innovativeperspective to their Canadian art. Their journey as an artist is marked by a multidisciplinary approach, seamlessly mashing poetry and street art. This innovative spirit is reflected in their role as the Ambassador for BC Culture Days.
Climb
Does gravity keep you here on earth? Or sing you on to climb? We can crawl up stairs — and tumble down — before we learn to toddle on level ground. “Stairway to the Abode of God” does not have the same ring to it. A flight of stairs is a stanza — a room of stacked words. Bless each landing for the white space to breathe. Climb with me to a minor kind of paradise: tone, semitone, tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone. Don’t underestimate the thrill of skipping stairs, counting fast by twos. Beauty is the muscle memory in a well-worn staircase. Follow the treads, eyes closed tight. Rise over run = the heart-thumping slope between me, down here, and you.
Poetic Statement
For “Climb,” it was fun to write a poem where the lines could stand alone or be remixed. This approach is not unlike the Persian ghazal, where the writer meditates on a theme, and couplets can be interchangeable, instead of telling a linear story. I enjoyed playing with images and metaphors that connect to climbing for me: music, memory, love, where we’re going and how we get there.
About the Poet
Andrea Scott is a mother, writer and high school teacher. Publications include The New Quarterly, FreeFall, Geist, Arc Poetry Magazine, The Humber Literary Review and The Antigonish Review. Her poetry will ride the bus as part of Poetry in Transit 2024/25. Scott’s first chapbook, In the Warm Shallows of What Remains, explores bodies, motherhood and life on a changing planet. It won the 2024 Raven Chapbooks Poetry Contest.
Stairway Wishes
May your light transform this shadowy staircase into spectacle. May your trepidation be steadied by these handrails. May your poetry soften this cold, cast concrete. May your shame be carried away by a gentle breeze. May your song drown out the crushing cacophony of cars. May your pain be dissolved by spring showers. May your inner spark ignite a creative revolution. May your joy peak high above the mountains.
Poetic Statement
“Stairway Wishes” was crafted specifically for remixing on the Musical Railings. The poem is inspired by the Musical Railings and the artist’s journey with healing and community building through the arts. The poem consists of eight lines, each a wish that invites remixers and listeners to release that which is holding them back and to create positive individual and communal change.
About the Poet
Blair Wilkinson aka Dr. Bear (they/them) is a queer artist of mixed-European settler descent who lives on the traditional and unceded territories of the Lək̓ʷəŋən People. Blair started their journey into poetry during the pandemic lockdown and has since performed on various stages, including at Victoria Pride in the Word (2023). Their artistic practice also includes mixed-media, burlesque, and drag. They can be found on Instagram @dr.__.bear
Teeth
there is a crackle man-made acoustic the way your mouth alights your tongue on your teeth like needle finding groove maker of your own static how my own name may buzz when held in your mouth
Poetic Statement
Given the history of the installation it felt important to play with the idea of musicality, so I started by writing about the body as instrument. From there it was about paring the piece down to only the essential lines that could exist without context while telling a story. The staircase was one of my favourite public art pieces in Victoria so I'm honoured to have my work featured here.
About the Poet
SJ Valiquette (she/ they) is a poet, photographer, actor, audiobook narrator, and apiarist from Treaty 7 Territory. They have been a part of the Canadian spoken word community for over a decade representing the city of Victoria at CIPS and the Bigfoot Regional Slam. Her next collection knick-knacks/ things no one is saying is coming out next year with Nightingale and Sparrow.
The Light
how deep do you harbour your inner light? some say climb higher, others say plumb the depths what bars you from your visionary ascent? trade a laboured breath for a measure of perspective the streets are incandescent with memories would you walk the moon into gravity’s embrace? would you cup the sun and pour it over these steps?
Poetic Statement
I wrote 'The Light' standing on the parkade's top level early in the morning. I tried to absorb every sensual aspect of the city, then I closed my eyes and imagined watching a day in Victoria's downtown unfold from a bird's eye view, the changing light from sunrise to moonset, the strange ways that lives and stories might intersect here.
About the Poet
John is a wordsmith, a practitioner of ritual arts, and a passionate lover of language. In addition to exploring poetry for his own enjoyment and for the pleasure of his muse, John performs words and music, teaches workshops on writing, body modification, and esoteric spirituality, and runs Leveret Press, a boutique publishing imprint and occult book shop.
Warm Miracle
exquisite exertion of ascending or descending today the elevator can wait hungry, empty, wanting you practice holding on and letting go your heart thrashes in your chest blood sparks through veins you are here, you are here, you are here this warm miracle of a moving, breathing body
Poetic Statement
This poem lives at the embodied intersection between the stairwell and the person ascending or descending. I considered the physical effects of exertion on the body and the process of holding on and letting go required to trigger the sensors on the railings. There’s nothing quite like an accelerated heart rate to place us squarely in our bodies; to remind us of the warm miracle of our own existence.
About the Poet Marie Metaphor Specht is a multidisciplinary artist, performer and poet and the sixth Poet Laureate of Victoria, British Columbia. She believes in intrepid acts of beauty. She believes in the power of stories shared.
Untitled
Our hearts fell like stars down stairs. Your hand on the rail smelled of wishes, old pennies. I told you I couldn't dance, but still you held tight to my hand. Lucky, a space was made for us, the sky opened up like a parking spot. Don't forget to come back for me, down the steps of your own spent time. At the bottom of everything, I'll still be there, waiting for you.
Poetic Statement This poem for the Public Poetry Remix Project conceptualizes the stairwell and parkade as threshold, where both lived experience and linear poetic narrative can be rearranged and reconstructed to create echo and in-between space. Images of anticipation, time and desire tessellate and diverge to allow an interactive, interpretive experience.
About the Poet Eva Haas (she/they) is a queer artist and poet originally from St. John’s, Newfoundland (Ktaqmkuk). She is currently pursuing a BA in Creative Writing and History at the University of Victoria and serves as the City of Victoria’s Youth Poet Laureate from 2023-2025. Her work has been a finalist for competitions at CBC, Room and Frontier, and has appeared or is forthcoming in the Malahat Review and Island Writer.
Past Poet Laureate Projects
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Poet Laureate Marie Metaphor Specht's Poetry in Light project was a great success. It consisted of two poetry writing workshops and a performance inspired by and performed with Love Begets Love, an interactive, sculptural lighting installation inside the Greater Victoria Public Library's sxʷeŋxʷəŋ təŋəxʷ James Bay Branch in January 2024.
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Together, Gabrielle Odowichuck of Limbic Media and Marie Metaphor Specht aim to create dream-like spaces that inspire thoughtful contemplation and a sense of magic. Gabrielle is an artist-engineer developing sound-reactive lighting technologies to activate installations and performances. Marie is a multi-disciplinary visual artist, spoken word artist and the current Poet Laureate of Victoria. The combination of these skills and experiences has resulted in the deep exploration of light, form and visual metaphor. Their immersive installations are a physical manifestation of the conversations between these two creative minds and are a collaboration in the truest sense of the word.
Artist Statement
Love Begets Love is an immersive, sculptural light installation that uses gravity-defying forms and visual metaphors to whimsically describe the nature of loving human relationships. Love can be a lens that changes the very nature of how we see our world, just as a prism can break white light into the full spectrum of colour.
Love Begets Love's faceted heart lanterns use carefully engineered colour-changing light patterns to represent diverse networks of loving relationships. Coloured light travels through the prism heart-forms, just as love travels through a community. Love Begets Love is powered by Aurora software and can easily be switched from pre-programmed patterns to sound reactivity, allowing artists to perform with the installation and see their work translated live into responsive colourful lighting patterns.
Former Poet Laureates
John is an established poet and editor and was the City's fifth Poet Laureate. His 26 books, chapbooks, and anthologies include The Malahat at Fifty: Canada's Iconic Literary Journal (2017), Polari (2014), For the Boy with the Eyes of the Virgin: Selected Poems (2012), and Seminal: The Anthology of Canada’s Gay-Male Poets (2007). Since 1980, magazines, newspapers, and anthologies on four continents have published his poems, essays, and reviews.
Yvonne Blomer was Victoria's fourth Poet Laureate from 2015-2018. Yvonne is an established poet, having published three collections of poetry and co-edited Poems from Planet Earth, an anthology from the Planet Earth Poetry reading series. Yvonne's work has twice been shortlisted for the CBC Literary Awards and she has appeared in The Best Canadian Poetry in English as well as in anthologies and literary journals in Canada, the UK and Japan. Yvonne’s recent collection of poems is As if a Raven.
Janet Rogers served as Victoria's Poet Laureate for three years. Her term ended on November 30, 2014. As Victoria's third Poet Laureate, Janet created opportunities for the community to come together in celebration of poetic voices on the traditional lands of the Coast Salish people. Janet is a Mohawk/Tuscarora writer from the Six Nations band in southern Ontario. She was born in Vancouver, British Columbia and has been living on the traditional lands of the Coast Salish people (Victoria, BC) since 1994. Janet works in the genres of poetry, spoken word performance poetry, video poetry and recorded poetry with music and script writing.
Local poet Linda Rogers served a three-year term as the City of Victoria's second Poet Laureate from December 1, 2008 to November 30, 2011. Linda Rogers is a poet, novelist, teacher and journalist who believes that celebration - the ritual integration of art, dance, music, and the spoken word - is essential to a community. Since most of her antecedents have been writers, lawyers or theologians, language is her natural medium.
Local poet, Carla Funk, was honoured to serve a two-and-a-half-year term as the City of Victoria's first Poet Laureate from June 2006 to November 30, 2008. During Carla Funk's term she participated in annual City of Victoria events and promoted poetry to Victoria neighbourhoods, schools and gathering places. Carla developed ideas to demonstrate that poetry is a primal, natural act - that it can heal, be funny, warm and moving, and accessible to the listener.
