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Updates✨Happily Hibernating✨
✨New Publications ✨ December 10, 2025, "The Invocation". Editor: Theresa Smalec. https://publicreverie.com/the-invocation/ November 27, 2025, "For You, Dear Friend & Fellow Poet", Kemp honors Barry's decision to take MAID on November 27, 2025. https://periodicityjournal.blogspot.com/2025/11/penn-kemp-for-you-dear-friend-and.html November 26, 2025, "For You, Dear Friend & Fellow Poet", Public Reverie Mag, Kemp remembers beloved poet Barry Dempster. https://periodicityjournal.blogspot.com/2025/11/penn-kemp-for-you-dear-friend-and.html Review by Gordon Phinn theseaboardreview.ca/p/new-old-and-notable-volume-1-issue-2. Lives Of Dead Poets by Penn Kemp (Above/Ground Press 2025) Penn Kemp has been regarded as something of an iconoclastand trailblazer for fifty odd years, the composer of thirty plus books ofpoetry and prose, seven plays and several daring, and dare I say seductive, experiments in sound poetry. If you suspect that there are boundaries that yet require breaking then Penn has already been there, joyously deconstructing. In this chapbook, she fondly recalls the lives and work of contemporaries who have shifted their focus to that universe next door. Let me say: she knocks and gains entry. Gwen MacEwen, Robert Creeley, Robert Hogg, bp nichol, Jack Spicer, Phyllis Webb, John Ashbery, James Reaney, Colleen Thibaudeau, P.K.Page, Robert Kroetsch, Teva Harrison, Joe Blades & Ellen S. Jaffe: all reevoked, praised, loved and grieved. Her heart is in the right place and her aim is true. "One by One, They Depart, the Great Ones Only their poems can transcribe mysterium tremendum – where they’ve gone. Their words embodied on the page for me. For you." Reposted on https://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2025/11/gordon-phinn-reviews-premieres-posies.html November 11, 2025, "The Poet in Charge", Public Reverie Mag, "remembers the incomparable Phyllis Webb. Kemp also honors Webb's decision to die on November 11th, 2021." https://publicreverie.com/the-poet-in-charge-by-penn-kemp November 11, 2025, "Lieder, Lead, Led", Public Reverie Mag: A Journal of Literature, Culture, and Ideas. "Kemp's tribute to Mary Oliver and to lives cut short." https://publicreverie.com/lieder-lead-led-by-penn-kemp/ “Four Poems: Alphabet for Ashberry; The Girl from Sao Paulo; Joining the Joy-Riders; Shooting the Duck ”, https://publicreverie.com/four-poems-by-penn-kemp/ Review of Penn Kemp’s LIVES OF DEAD POETS by Karl Jirgens, https://publicreverie.com/review-of-penn-kemps-lives-of-dead-poets “Auguries of this Inauguration”, https://publicreverie.com/auguries-of-this-inauguration-by-penn-kemp “Two Poems and Two Paintings for 2025”, https://publicreverie.com/two-poems-and-two-paintings-for-2025-by-penn-kemp “Drink Poems”, https://publicreverie.com/drink-poems-by-penn-kemp “Reading: Bob In the Light Of”, https://publicreverie.com/page/2/?s=Penn+Kemp edited by Theresa Smalec. October, 2025. "The palimpsest (in DREAM SEQUINS), P. 38-42. Version 9 Magazine, https://version9magazine.com/edition-1-volume-8-autumn-2025-2/ September, 2025. "Encountering the Other", P. 4-5. I’m grateful to SAGEING for the opportunity to engage in questions such as the editor quarterly asks. These queries on the nature of creativity go to source and provoke response. They lead me into unknown ground I am delighted to explore. Creativity for me has its source in encounters with the Other. https://www.sageing.ca/, #54. https://www.sage-ing.com/Sage-ing54.pdf ✨On Line✨ 11/11/2025: https://pennkemp.substack.com/p/first-snows 4/10/2025: https://pennkemp.wordpress.com/2025/10/04/the-palimpsest/ 25/9/2025: https://pennkemp.substack.com/p/poetry-as-the-seasons-change 9/9/2025: https://pennkemp.substack.com/p/septembers-new-energy 7/7/ 2025: https://open.substack.com/pub/pennkemp/p/art-in-action-in-response-to-peril ✨April, 2025. https://poets.ca/nvw2025/#life. The League of Canadian Poets celebrates my work with the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award! The award selection committee writes: "Penn’s contributions to community are wildly impressive and undeniable. The tendrils of her devotion to poetry and literature not only span decades, but extend across mediums, forms, and the country. Directly or indirectly, so many of us have benefited from Penn’s contributions to our literary landscape. Over a career spanning six decades, London ON poet Penn Kemp has done it all: poetry in both voice and print, editing anthologies, publishing, mentoring countless young writers, writing for theatre and sound operas, extensive collaborative and community engagements, and promoting poetry in all its forms. As important as her poetry, and integral to it, is her activism and commitment to social justice. Translated into multiple languages and performed around the world, Penn’s poetry addresses peace and justice, environmental activism, domestic violence and a range of other social and political concerns. With books and multi-media projects published as early as 1972 and as recent as, well, yesterday, Penn is more than deserving of this celebration of a lifetime very full of achievement." On winning the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award, Penn writes: "To be the inaugural winner of the League's new Lifetime Achievement Award is a profound honour, given the wealth of senior poets across Canada. Throughout sixty years of writing and publishing, poetry has been my lifeline. But there is so much more to explore! At eighty, I feel at the beginning of all that poetry can offer... I still stare daily at the blank page until words unfurl. In accepting this award, I'd also like to pay tribute to our elder poets, for whom this ongoing award is so pertinent." A deep bow to the League for supporting poetry in Canada over the decades, and on. ✨Publications 2025✨ ✨September 21, 2025, "ENCOUNTERING THE OTHER", P. 4-6, https://www.sage-ing.com/Sage-ing54.pdf August 18, 2025. "War Stories" and "Weather's New Word", Speculum: poems of the last milieu. Editor, Andreas Gripp, blackmallardpoetry.wixsite.com/home ✨June 20, 2025. "Art in Action: In Response", essay and poems, Sage-ing With Creative Spirit, Grace and Gratitude, #53, P. 17-20, https://www.sage-ing.com/Sage-ing53.pdf. From editor Karen Close: “Penn Kemp has been once again moved to activism by recent political events. ART IN ACTION: IN RESPONSE presents an important chronology of her activism through poetry.” ✨June, 2025. "Four Poems" by Penn Kemp. "Alphabet for Ashberry", "Girl from Sao Paolo", "Joining the Joyriders" and "Shooting the Duck", from ORDINARY / MOVING. https://thetypescript.com/four-poems-by-penn-kemp/. Editor Theresa Smalec ✨May, 2025. "On Greeting the Recently Departed" with Jim Kemp's "Three Ghouls" https://vernacularjournal.com/On-Greeting-the-Recently-Departed "Drawing Conclusions, Grade Nine" https://vernacularjournal.com/Drawing-Conclusions-Grade-Nine with "Still Life with Fish" by Jim Kemp, VERNACULAR JOURNAL ✨May, 2025. "Breast Stroke", p. 18, issue 102 of WEI, Women & Environments International Magazine: Identities And Knowledge of Care. https://www.yorku.ca/weimag/ ✨"Barbaric Cultural Practice by Penn Kemp reviewed by Linda Lucas", https://www.theseaboardreview.ca/p/barbaric-cultural-practice-penn-kemp. “Such a surprise and special pleasure to see the excellent review of Barbaric Cultural Practice by Linda Lucas! It's so extremely rare for a decade-old book to be revisited in this way, and the charm and value of this particular one certainly hasn't diminished.” Allan Briesmaster ✨ Karl Jirgens' timely review of LIVES OF DEAD POETS, "Ghorst Writings", https://thetypescript.com/review-of-penn-kemps-lives-of-dead-poets/! Thanks, Karl E. Jirgens; Theresa Smalec, editor, The Typescript; and rob mclennan above/ground press! ✨Book, Ordinary / Moving. Silver Bow Press, print and ebook, https://www.silverbowpublishing.com/ordinary-moving. html https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/229111007-ordinary-moving. Kindle: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/229081887-ordinary-moving. Paperback: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/229111007-ordinary-moving https://pennkemp.substack.com/p/zoom-launch-of-new-poetry-june-18. Link to Zoom launch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X8uu0PNhwM ✨April, 2025. "Drawing Conclusions", p.33, issue #2, "Lines", https://penstricken.com/lines/ ✨April, 2025. "Saturday Morning Art Class with Greg Curnoe" and "Suppose". Editor, Andreas Gripp, Sola Poēta, issue 3, p. 5-6. https://silverstarlingpress.wixsite.com/home/solapoeta ✨April 5, 2025. "Auguries of This Inauguration Are Not Innocent". How appropriate that my poem "Auguries of This Inauguration Are Not Innocent", comes out in The Typescript on this day of #PROTEST! Editor, Theresa Smalec. https://thetypescript.com/auguries-of-this-inauguration-by-penn-kemp/ ✨March 21, 2025. “Co-creation in Motion: Equinox in the Garden", Issue 52, p. 9-13, Sage-ing: The Journal of Creative Aging, Editor, Karen Close, age-ing.com/sageing52.html. ✨March, 2025. Images of my poem "Lethologica" are in these public slideshows: https://vispo.com/seaofpo/public/slidvids/Penn_Kemp/index.html and https://vispo.com/seaofpo/public/slidvids/Penn_Kemp_2/index.html ✨March, 2025. "Two Poems and Two Paintings for 2025." The Typescript, Editor, Theresa Smalec. https://thetypescript.com/two-poems-and-two-paintings.../ ✨March, 2025. “When Ideal Meets a Bar”; “When Rules Change, Roles Follow”, “One Concession to Go”. Editor, Andreas Gripp, Sola Poēta, issue 2, p. 46-51.These poems will be published in a new collection, ORDINARY/MOVING, from https://www.silverbowpublishing.com/home.html. https://silverstarlingpress.wixsite.com/home/solapoeta ✨ March 2, 2025. “One by One, They Depart, the Great Ones”, periodicities! https://periodicityjournal.blogspot.com/2025/03/penn-kemp-one-by-one-they-depart-great.html ✨ February 2025. "Lives of Dead Poets", chapbook, https://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2025/02/new-from-aboveground-press-lives-of.html ✨ February 2025. "The World According to Penn Kemp, The Prairie Journal, https://mailchi.mp/magazinescanada/cover-lines-february2025 ✨ February 2025. "A Short History of Epiphany", Issue "A Place to Call Home", uproar literary blog, https://lawrencehouse.ca/a-short-history-of-epiphany/ ✨February 2025. "The Race" (parts 1 and 2), "Copper Penny", from a manuscript in progress, Ordinary/Moving; and "New Year’s, 2025", p. 5-8. Issue One of Sola Poeta. https://silverstarlingpress.wixsite.com/home/solapoeta" ✨January, 2025. "What Matters", my poem with "Red Blue Splash", a painting by my father, Jim Kemp, is up on https://vernacularjournal.com/What-Matterst. The Vernacular Journal, https://vernacularjournal.com/ "The garden's breath so long it is immeasurable. But I wait... May the earth find her stability." ✨"All Things Considered" with "Spinning Sun" by Jim Kemp. https://vernacularjournal.com/All-Things-Considered ✨"Lethologica", https://seaofpo.vispo.com?p=pk for animation ✨Forthcoming Readings✨ Spring, 2026. Penn Kemp and Ann Denny, performing for TREA's anniversary celebration event, https://www.trea.ca/programs/. TREA (Thames Region Ecological Association), a London ON non profit aims to educate the community and protect the environment. Contact: Penny Lee <[email protected]> <[email protected]> 519-777-3449. Or TREA (519) 645-2845 [email protected] ✨2025 Past Readings and Workshops: December 3, 2025, 7–8:30pm. Colleening: Colleen Thibaudeau: An Evening of Poetry and Memories. I read her "Inwhich I Decide To Look Once More at the Letter in CV 11... to Penn(y) Kemp", from FOUR WOMEN, Red Kite Press, and my poem for Colleen in LIVES OF DEAD POETS and Local Heroes. Antler River Poetry, Landon Library, London. https://youtu.be/FKmuXikViDU (Words Festival) September 18, 2025, 7-8:30 pm. Reading and discussion with London poets Penn Kemp and Jennifer Wenn. Ann Denny sang several of my poems from Ordinary / Moving with me! The evening at London Public Library was so special. See and hear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVZZjTTbcBQ&t=271s. Q & A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsVki63L-rI Central Library, 3rd floor, 251 Dundas Street, London ON N6A 6H9. https://www.lpl.ca/events/poetry-reading-discussion-penn-kemp-and-jennifer-wenn. Our books were sold by beloved Mandala Books. M.C. Libby Harding https://www.silverbowpublishing.com/ordinary-moving ✨LIVES OF DEAD POETS https://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2025/02/new-from-aboveground-press-lives-of.html and my essay on the collection’s origins in the A Space reading series I curated: https://periodicityjournal.blogspot.com/2025/03/penn-kemp-one-by-one-they-depart-great.html. "As if the word that springs to mind is devotion, as if, despite the mess, life's unholy business forever left unfinished." ✨Readings 2025 ✨ August 13, 2 pm. For The League of Canadian Poets' townhall zoom, the Senior Poets Caucus asked me to read poetry. The poetry I read is from Lives of Dead Poets, https://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/.../new-from.... and Barbaric Cultural Practice, Quattro Books. June 28, 11:30 a.m.-1 pm. Sounds of the Forest: Cello and Poetry Reading with Luc Julian and Penn Kemp at Meadowlily, https://www.thamestalbotlandtrust.ca/passport_to_nature Free. Contact: Avery [email protected], [email protected]. Thames Talbot Land Trust P.O. Box 25054 London, ON N6C 6A8. I was delighted to perform with my favorite cellist, Luc Julian. Such a collaboration at Meadowlily is a joy, since my poetry explores environmental concerns, delighting in multimedia. My reading is supported by the League of Canadian Poets and the Canada Council for the Arts June 18, 2025. Zoom Launch of Ordinary / Moving: "enormously readable and inviting, full of warmth and insight, humour and humility, story and song.” Susan McMaster https://www.silverbowpublishing.com/ordinary-moving. https://pennkemp.substack.com/p/zoom-launch-of-new-poetry-june-18. Link to Zoom launch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X8uu0PNhwM April 12, 4-5:30pm. Open Mic, Senior Poets Caucus zoom, [email protected]. April 9, 7 pm. Feature, Apposite Poetry Series, celebrating National Poetry Month! Launching LIVES OF DEAD POETS, https://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2025/02/new-from-aboveground-press-lives-of.html and https://periodicityjournal.blogspot.com/2025/03/penn-kemp-one-by-one-they-depart-great.html. Mykonos Restaurant, 572 Adelaide St. N. ✨Forthcoming Publications ✨ Ear Rings (1987), Penn's text with performances by Anne Anglin, Penn Kemp and David Prentice, Underwhich Audiographics. Siren Recordings. Toronto https://sirenrecordings.com/ua-archive-main Archival Director, Brandon Hocura. Akash Bansal, Operations Manager, [email protected] Winter, 2025. "Lieder, Lead, Led"; “Three New Year’s Haiku”, https://thetypescript.com/. Editor Theresa Smalec February, 2026. "Weather's New Word", Sublime: Poems for Vanishing Ice, anthology, the third book in Yvonne Blomer’s trilogy of climate crisis/water.Caitlin Press. https://caitlinpress.com/Books/S/Sublime ✨ Reviews 2025 ✨ Jennifer Wenn's review of Lives of Dead Poets: https://miramichireader.ca/2025/05/lives-of-dead-poets-by-penn-kemp/. "this chapbook is a precious glimpse into an extraordinary time and a special group of writers. Happily for all of us, we have their works, and, as Kemp says, “As the poets fall into their tradition/our beloved dead are more intimate/now than ever they could be in flesh.” The review is also up on https://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2025/05/jennifer-wenn-reviews-penn-kemps-lives.html along with Karl Jirgens' timely review of Lives of Dead Poets:, "Ghost Writings", https://thetypescript.com/review-of-penn-kemps-lives-of-dead-poets/! Thanks, Karl E. Jirgens, Theresa Smalec, editor of The Typescript and especially rob mclennan, above/ground press! From “Ghost Writings”: “Penn Kemp weaves us spells of language. Makes magic. Bewitches. Casts spells. Which wood have we entered? Witchwood?... Penn Kemp is one of Canada’s national literary treasures… Kemp has spoken these words for you and for me. Read these readings and writings. Read these pleasures of the text!” ✨2024 Publications✨ December, 2024. Five Poems from "Widow's Season": "When I go...", Through the Glass Darkly”, "Solastalgia", "Obsequies", "How Things Are Here". p. 30-36, Issue 83 of The Prairie Journal of Canadian Literature, https://www.prairiejournal.org. Also a digital scan for the Alberta Public Library e-magazine Collection December, 2024. “Playing for Keeps and Keep on Playing”, p. 4-8, Issue 51 of Sage-ing: The Journal of Creative Aging, https://www.sage-ing.com/Sage-ing51.pdf, Winter 2025. My piece includes the poem from The League of Canadian Poets Poetry Pause, "Believe". https://www.sage-ing.com/Sage-ing51.pdf November, 2024. 5 poems from Across, my new manuscript. The Capilano Review,ti-TCR: On Collective Care. Fall 2024, p. 47-53. “Solastalgia”, “As News Invades”, “What consoles, what is solace?”, “One by One, They Depart, the Great Ones”, “Already the Dreadful”. https://thecapilanoreview.com/project/ti-tcr-20/. Editor, Emma Jeffrey. November, 2024. Interview and poems, Version 9 Magazine, Issue 7, Editor Andrew Cyril Macdonald. “Our upcoming Issue features 3 poems and an interview with Penn Kemp, towering icon of modern Canadian poetry." (Towering, eh? Hope I don't keel over:)!) "The necessary tension of creativity is excitement— the pull between solitude and the community, between what we’ve learnt over decades and what we continue to absorb." Poetics and the ethical domain. Discover the work of @pennkemp, https://version9magazine.com/category/issues/e-book-autumn-2024/ October, 2024. "For bp nichol"; "for Jack Spicer"; "Joe for Joe, Encore". Three poems from LIVES OF DEAD POETS (above / ground press, February, 2025), https://periodicityjournal.blogspot.com/2024/10/penn-kemp-three-poems.html July, 2024. “The Conference of the Birds” is a collaborative poem from BLACK KEYS OF KIEV with Harold Rhenisch. Canadian Literature #256, https://canlit.ca/article/the-conference-of-the-birds July, 2024. Morgiana’s Podcast #2: Penn Kemp Hem Press has just published an interview on sound poetry with me, starting with a sound poem: take a listen, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZpznmNu47o. The interview is also up on Morgiana’s Podcast #2: Penn Kemp, on Hem Press, https://substack.com/home/post/p-146584193. Thanks to the insightful and enciting Richard Capener! Thanks to Karl E. Jirgens for this insightful review of INCREMENTALLY and to rob mclennan for including it on Periodicity! Oh and Richard Capener of Hem Press for publishing text and album! https://periodicityjournal.blogspot.com/2024/06/karl-jirgens-incrementally-sounding-by.html July, 2024. "Burnt Umber", poem + interview, Desire issue. Pinhole Poetry, Editor Erin Bedford. "Burnt Umber" is an ekphrastic poem written in response to one of my father's paintings. It's up on now in the desirable Desire issue of Pinhole Poetry on https://pinholepoetry.ca/6445-2/, wtih an interview with Erin Bedford and me: https://pinholepoetry.ca/an-interview-with-penn-kemp “A Widow's Season” and “Weather Metonymy”, Synaeresis: arts + poetry #24, pp 6-8. Andreas Gripp, editor. https://beliveaubooks.wixsite.com/home/magazines. https://2e8a8d6d-e97c-4235-92c8-7aa31bae0d77.filesusr.com/ugd/830f0d_09b6cca015ed4aa1b9e93fb370b95450.pdf ✨ “Lethologica”, The Vernacular Journal, Spring 2024, https://vernacularjournal.com/Lethologica “Gone Fishing”, “Of Course”, “Recall”, “For I am a sensitive man & Enjoy My Jokes" and “Wednesday’s Man” are up on The Typescript, https://thetypescript.com/drink-poems-by-penn-kemp/. May, 2024 "A Painter in Search of His Original Face", https://centred.ca/a-painter-in-search-of-his-original-face My poem “Lethologica” is on https://seaofpo.vispo.com?p=pk. Jim Andrews's marvellous slideshow of 44 variations on the poem on https://vispo.com/seaofpo/public/slidvids/Penn_Kemp. See https://vispo.com/writings/essays/Sea_of_Po2.pdf, P. 62. “After the Cull” and “Devotion”. Synaeresis #23, pp. 14-15. April 2024, https://beliveaubooks.wixsite.com/home/magazines, https://2e8a8d6d-e97c-4235-92c8-7aa31bae0d77.filesusr.com/ugd/830f0d_fd5cfc8dc493496eb85acb418f658fe4.pdf Spring, 2024: “Searching For His Original Face”, Sage-ing With Creative Spirit, Grace and Gratitude, #48, P. 24, https://www.sageing.ca/ https://www.sage-ing.com/Sage-ing48.pdf Interview, CV2 with Penn Kemp by Sophie Guillas: https://contemporaryverse2.ca/interviews/an-interview-with-penn-kemp/ March 1, 2024: "The Lords and Ladies of the Fermi Bubbles", a collaborative poem with Harold Rhenisch in Masque & Spectacle.: An arts & literary journal, https://masqueandspectaclejournal.wordpress.com/ "The Big Ask”, the Transitions issue, Uproar, https://lawrencehouse.ca/the-big-ask/ For my beloved granddaughter, Ula Podesta Chalmers: https://pennkemp.wordpress.com/2023/12/13/for-ula-two-poems/ "Losing the Vernacular", with image by Jim Kemp. The Vernacular Journal, https://vernacularjournal.com/On-Losing-the-Vernacular, Winter 2024 Jim Andrews from Vancouver included my poem “Lethologica” in his wondrous See of Po series: https://seaofpo.vispo.com?p=pk. And on Jim Andrews’s manifesto, manual, and magazine, https://vispo.com/writings/essays/Sea_of_Po2.pdf: P. 61. For Sea of Po, I wanted to write a language poem that would lend itself to animation, to movement, to be read in swirls, side to side, and yet form couplets. Hence, Lethologica, so that the word is not lost in Lethe's forgetful current, but is re-imagined as image, as colour. ✨Now Out ✨ Intent on Flowering, anthology, Rose Garden Press, 2024. Contributing poets: Katie Jeresky, Penn Kemp and Jessica Lee McMillan. This remarkable collection is curated by Rose Garden Press for their handprinted book. Contact: [email protected], Michelle Arnett and Michele Vanderwal @rosegarden_press. To order: https://rosegardenpress.ca/intent-on-flowering/ @rosegarden_press. ✨Check out:✨ Catherine Owen, Episode 5, “Performing your Poetry”, https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/catherine960/episodes/Episode-5-Performing-your-Poetry-e2f9etr She draws from my piece, “Performing Your Work”, https://poets.ca/performing-your-work/. Kevin Spenst, “Chuffed About Chapbooks” on my project, “Poem for Peace in Many Voices”. SubTerrain issue #95, 2024 and Review. Kevin Spenst, “Chuffed about Chapbooks”, SubTerrain #98, https://subterrain.ca/ writes. "Intent on Flowering (Rose Garden Press, 2024) contains three interwoven sequences of poems by Penn Kemp, Jessica Lee McMillan, and @Katiey. Kemp's contribution frames the chapbook with a long poem divided into parts with MacMillanand Jersky's individual poems interspersed in ways to play off the themes of growth, poetic conversation (Dante, Blake, Yeats, and Auden are namechecked), and the interconnectedness of things. All the poets' work reads beautifully together, especially with Kemp's minimal approach of short lines as liturgical chants playing off powerfully with the more varied lexicon of MacMillan's coming-of-age narratives. "Rose, intent on / flowering" is a line from one of Kemp's poems, found in the middle of the collection, as if we were in the very centre of a rose with "the dance of bees," all of us feeding off a paradise of pollen. Immediately following the titular phrase, we read: “intense in all / directions." This is well positioned in the middle of the chapbook as we think of the rings of a rose reverberating out like a red-hued puddle... we might embody the insight gleaned from Kemp and MacMillan. The great act of imagination within intent on flowering is the working together of three poetic hearts." ✨Recent In-person Poetry Readings 2025, ✨ ✨June 7, 1-3 pm. London Writers Society. Writing workshop with Penn. Contact: [email protected]. ✨June 8, 2025, 2-4 pm. Blackfriars Bistro cocktail party celebrating the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award with Penn reading from LIVES OF DEAD POETS and poems for Ula in ORDINARY/MOVING. Hosted by Bryan Lavery! Blackfriars Bistro. 519-667-4930. 46 Blackfriars St, London, ON. N6H 1K7 [email protected] May 25, 2-4pm. Penn's reading and writing workshop. Timbuktu Alpaca Farm, 2211 Egremont Drive, Strathroy ON N7G 3H8. Contact: Thandi. [email protected], www.timbuktufarm.com I can't wait to explore sound with you in meeting our animal allies, real and/or imagined! Bring a writing pad and an active imagination. Sounding frees the voice to find its natural expression both in a group and on the page. Come join us! What sparks your imagination? FOR ME IT WAS FOXES: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E58HtvVZQXs... April 9, 7 pm. Penn Kemp, feature, Apposite Poetry Series! https://www.facebook.com/groups/6284385151607133 Launching LIVES OF DEAD POETS, https://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2025/02/new-from-aboveground-press-lives-of.html and https://periodicityjournal.blogspot.com/2025/03/penn-kemp-one-by-one-they-depart-great.html. Mykonos Restaurant, 572 Adelaide St. N. London ON. apposite_poetry_series Contact: [email protected] January 5, 2025, 7pm. New Year poems for the Council of Canadians, London ON. October 10, 2024. 3:30-4:30. New Sonic Poetries. Session 3: Panel 8: Panel Chair jill battson—Chet Singh & Caylie Staples “Age of Rage” + Penn Kemp, “Luminous Entrance”+ Gary Barwin. OCADU Waterfront Campus, 130 Queen’s Quay E, Level 4R, Toronto. A conference event held at both Brock University (St. Catharines) and OCAD U. Contact: Gregory Betts <[email protected]>. I performed “Luminous Entrance". My reading was sponsored by Playwrights Guild of Canada. October 2O, 2024, 3-5pm. "Art of Improv", with Bill Gilliam, Penn Kemp, and Eugene Martynec (electroacoustics). The Kensington Sound Studio in Kensington Market, 170 Baldwin St, Toronto, ON M5T 1L8. An afternoon of voice and improv., the theme Art of Improv. My reading was sponsored by the League of Canadian Poets and the Canada Council for the Arts. October 21, 2024, 7pm. Art Bar Reading Series, With Robert Priest and Romeo Desjardins. My reading was sponsored by the League of Canadian Poets and the Canada Council for the Arts. October 4, 2024, 11:15-4:15. 2 Grade Six Classes, 80 minutes each. "What Springs to Mind", poetry reading and workshop. Pearson School for the Arts, sponsored by the League of Canadian Poets. July 21, 1-4 p.m. Poetry Workshop for London Writers Society, https://londonwriterssociety.ca/ June 15, 10:30-11:30am. Sounds of the Forest: Music and Poetry Reading at Meadowlily Nature Reserve on the south side of the Thames River between Highbury Avenue and Meadowlily Road, London, ON N6G 2N5. Passport to Nature in support of Thames Talbot Land Trust, https://www.thamestalbotlandtrust.ca/passport_to_nature. Free but you need to register here: https://www.thamestalbotlandtrust.ca/p2n2024_soundsoftheforest June 10, 10am-2pm. A day of poetry at Pearson School for the Arts, London ON. My reading is sponsored by the League of Canadian Poets and the Canada Council for the Arts. June 5, 6:30-8pm. Black Mallard Reading Series features Penn Kemp and D.A. Lockhart, Mykonos Restaurant, 572 Adelaide St. N., London ON. It’s World Environment Day! https://blackmallardpoetry.wixsite.com/home. Free. My reading is sponsored by the League of Canadian Poets and the Canada Council for the Arts. April 28, 3-5pm. Poetry Reading among the Alpacas by Penn Kemp with cellist Luc Julian. 2211 Egremont Drive, RR5 Strathroy ON, N7G 3H6. Contact: Thandi, [email protected]. Celebrating National Poetry Month on the theme of Weather. https://www.timbuktufarm.com/event-details/poetry-readings-alpacas February 25, 12:30-1:30pm EST. Penn Kemp and Katie Jeresky read from INTENT ON FLOWERING with cellist Luc Julian in Heeman’s Greenhouse, 20422 Nissouri Road, Thorndale ON February 10, 2024. Book launch and poetry reading from Rose Garden Press’s new release, Intent on Flowering, with three poets: Penn Kemp, Katie Jeresky and Jessica Lee McMillan. On the Lunar New Year! Missed this lovely weaving of voices? Here it is https://fb.watch/q7u_oWXOJq/! Thanks @RoseGardenPress! Special #thanks to @JoshLambier https://wordsfest.ca/ And from 2023: Thanks to @wordsalouddfest for a delightful, delicious, resounding October weekend in Owen Sound! If you enjoy participatory sound poetry, join us at the end: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa_kl_I1nMs&list=PLiywD8uW8V27EClMDI6BEmr1EwiajhqM0&index=6&t=315s December 15, 2023. "For an Elder, Turning, Returning” .Norma West Linder Tribute issue. https://lawrencehouse.ca/for-an-elder-turning-returning/ December 4, 2023. “3 favorite reads in 2023”, https://shepherd.com/bboy/2023/f/penn-kemp My choices: Emma Donoghue, Susan McCaslin and Harold Rhenisch. My 4th: Alicia Elliot's new AND THEN SHE FELL. "Heraclitus Ongoing", "Invocation Beyond Building Bridges", Leviathan Meets Behemoth", Wordsfest Zine 2022, p. 64-66. https://wordsfest.ca/assets/images/zines/Bridging-Divides-Wordsfest-2022-Zine.pdf Kevin Spenst’s Chapbooks Review of “Poem for Peace in Many Voices” book and CD, subTerain magazine, WINTER, #96. https://subterrain.ca/ Want a sense of the workshops I offer? Here you go: https://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/news/local-news/sound-poet-shares-secret-finding-her-muse. You can hear more of my techniques on "The Craft of Writing": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn2HRTLuQOA Doesn't this great review make you want to read/hear Incrementally?https://periodicityjournal.blogspot.com/2023/10/laura-kerr-incrementally-by-penn-kemp.html The text, Incrementally (88 pages and free!) is now up on https://www.hempressbooks.com/shop/p/incrementally-by-penn-kemp ! Album is on https://angrystarlings.bandcamp.com/ https://www.hempressbooks.com/angrystarlings https://www.hempressbooks.com/authors/penn-kemp E. Ruth Strebe filmed "Night Orchestra" when I was reading it with audience participation that included alpacas and...:) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Okzs9hnbvQc 1.232 3“from Night Orchestra”, “Declination”, “Bees Needs”, Interpoem: A Visual Anthology. Editor, Laura Kerr, https://sedserio.com/about January 17, 7 pm. Antler River Poetry, Celebrating small presses! Karen Schindler and Rob McClennan. With readings by Katie Jeresky and Penn Kemp from Intent on Flowering, Rose Garden Press, [email protected], rosegardenpress.ca 2 POEMS for Ula Podesta Chalmers, Celebration of Life. Sunday, December 17. AIA, Toronto Island. https://pennkemp.wordpress.com/2023/12/13/for-ula-two-poems/ CAROLS & POEMS! Sunday, December 10 to a full house. Grosvenor Lodge, 1017 Western Rd, London ON N6G 1G5. Heritage London Foundation presents the 4th concert of the 2023 Community Music Series, featuring 'Carols & Poems' with local poet Penn Kemp, cellist Lucas Tensen and singers from the Waldorf Faculty & Community. December 6, 2023, 6:30-8pm. Black Mallard Reading Series features Madeline Bassnett and Jennifer Wenn. Penn reads "Invocation" for the 14 women killed in the Montreal Massacre. Open mic, Mykonos Restaurant, 572 Adelaide St. N., London ON November 15, 2023, 6:30pm to 8:00pm. Launch of the anthology, Stones Beneath the Surface. Mykonos Restaurant, 572 Adelaide St. N., London ON https://blackmallardpoetry.wixsite.com/home/books November 14, 2023, 7pm ET. “Heart to Art”, video for Quai Nocent Docent (What Hurts Teaches): A Collection of Poems and Musings. The Friendly Spike Theatre. Contact: [email protected] November 4, 2023. Reading from Joey and his Friend Water and Barbaric Cultural Practice for the Power Up Climate Solutions Rally, Council of Canadians, Victoria Park, London ON, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsHGUz_z0H8&list=PLGO4M_omdRNuZHjHSitWmk8vPQRuYrHws&index=6 October 31st to 5th November.“Wishing Well” from www.riverrevery.ca. “Buenos deseos” Spanish translation by Camilo Bosso. Mary McDonald’s videopoem “Wishing Well” on www.riverrevery.ca will be shown in "CLIMATE CHANGE AND SUBJECTIVITY": Debate con Mary McDonald, Ian Gibbins y Sarah Tremlet. MALDITO FESTIVAL de Videopoesía /MALDITO FESTIVAL, Albacete, Spain. https://malditofestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/MALDITO-FESTIVAL-Programa-VII-EDICION-2023.pdf. What a glorious weekend of poetry at www.wordsaloud.ca, thanks to Richard-Yves Sitoski and his grand team, and the POETS! This reporter stuck around for my 2 hour workshop on sound poetry... and participated:) https://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/news/local-news/sound-poet-shares-secret-finding-her-muse. My reading on October 22, with participatory sound poem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa_kl_I1nMs&list=PLiywD8uW8V27EClMDI6BEmr1EwiajhqM0&index=6&t=291s Great Lakes Odyssey Radio Hour. “On this trek of the Great Lakes Odyssey Radio Hour we examine how climate shapes and defines culture… And poetry performance by Penn Kemp with Bill Gilliam.” The show is up now, 44.42, https://radio.wcmu.org/show/great-lakes-od/2023-10-17/great-lakes-odyssey-october-14-2023. On October 21, 7 pm, WBFO-NPR Buffalo/Toronto aired it. October 21, 10 pm, WCMU-NPR Central/North Michigan aired it. The reach is 100,000 listeners! Re-Creative: Penn Kemp on Poets in Collaboration: https://re-creative.podbean.com/e/re-creative-penn-kemp-on-fellow-poets-harold-rhenish-and-sharon-thesen/. Re-Creative with Penn Kemp on collaboration and tipped canoes. A podcast about creativity and the works that inspire it. Hosts Joe Mahoney and Mark A. Rayner.October 11, Re-Creative with Penn Kemp on collaboration and tipped canoes. Colleen Thibaudeau: An Evening of Poetry and Memories |
May poetry see us through!
Such deep gratitude for the ongoing support and love we have experienced over the last years of turmoil. In the midst of challenges and change, I feel warmly embraced. Much love returned to the community of family, friends and all those generous people whom I haven’t yet met. Thank you for your kindness on so many levels! https://leagueofcanadianpoets.wildapricot.org/Sys/PublicProfile/41483365%20 https://playwrightsguild.ca/paupress/profile/penn-kemp/view/ ✨Poet, performer and playwright Penn Kemp has been celebrated as a trailblazer since her first publication of poetry by Coach House (1972). Penn has long been a keen participant/activist in Canada’s cultural life, with thirty+ books of poetry, prose and drama; seven plays and ten CDs produced as well as award-winning videopoems. Penn has performed in arts festivals around the world, giving readings and workshops in various writer-in-residencies from the Yukon to Labrador and throughout India and Brazil, Britain and Germany. Her work has been translated often: “poem for peace in many voices”, for instance, is out in 136 languages. Recent publications are "Lives of Dead Poets", chapbook, above/ground press, https://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2025/02/new-from-aboveground-press-lives-of.html and POEMS IN RESPONSE TO PERIL: an anthology for Ukraine. Penn’s collection, INCREMENTALLY, is up as e-book and album on https://www.hempressbooks.com/authors/penn-kemp. Forthcoming is ORDINARY / MOVING (Silver Bow Press). Delighting in multimedia, Penn is active across the web. See https://seaofpo.vispo.com?p=pk for animation. Updates are on www.pennkemp.weebly.com, www.pennkemp.wordpress.com and www.pennkemp.substack.com. From The London Free Press https://lfpress.com/entertainment/local-arts/poets-are-talking-tough-and-their-words-make-a-difference https://lfpress.com/entertainment/local-arts/loreena-mckennitt-headlining-sold-out-london-benefits-for-ukraine. From words to comfort to action, March 23, 2022. https://www.thelondoner.ca/entertainment/local-arts/london-poet-driving-force-behind-new-anthology-of-poems-about-war-in-ukraine/ https://lfpress.com/entertainment/local-arts/belanger-our-poet-laureates-financial-plight-and-a-call-to-help As every writer, every artist knows, this is a time of diminishing monetary returns....so please buy our work! My books are available from [email protected] or from https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=Penn+Kemp&ref=nb_sb_noss. I'd rather you buy from me than Amazon! See https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/126379.Books_by_Penn_Kemp. Events Eco-Poetry: Using Arts to Celebrate the Earth London Public Library's 2022 Environmentalist in Residence Jennifer Chesnut is in conversation with local poet Penn Kemp on how poetry is a way to go beyond our normal perceptions and connect to the wonder of natural spaces that are sacred and magical, and to bring our inner lives and what we feel and value into the public realm. They share favourite poems that celebrate the Earth and nature. Penn's poems from 32.45 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLw0HMtzI2k&list=PLhMxXgVpLqCCOCe__qsXCuASbUEKtTV98&index=4. Also on https://riverrevery.ca/news/ |
