MARCH 2023 POETRY QUARTER

Poets: this is your chance to share your feelings about your pets in poetic form – the joy they can give, the sadness when they leave, the wonder at the bonds between you and them. What need do they fulfil in our lives? Is it a simple love or is it complicated by dependence or co-dependence? Have you ever wondered what your pet is thinking or feeling, and how that may be different from how you think or feel? It can be a multifaceted relationship, and we want to read your poems on the topic.

Stop fiddling and take up the trumpet

Editor, Glebe Report

Re: Letter to the editor “New Civic hospital – the time for fiddling is over,” Glebe Report, December 2022

Dear Fiddler:

You are right to issue a call to stop fiddling about the new Civic Hospital.

But the burning issues are in fact the proposed mega-hospital and the site given to the Civic. We have already lost Queen Juliana Park and probably around 200 to 250 trees. And the digging is beginning for the four-storey, above-ground, 2,504-car garage.

Added to that is the four-to-five football-field-length trek from the LRT station to the front door of the hospital (are you older or do you have a mobility limitation?) and the loss of over 50 acres of the Central Experimental Farm (a National Historic Site), accompanied by the loss of approximately 250 to 500 additional mature trees and the associated destruction of habitat (remember the recent COPS in Montreal).

Who was consulted about this mega-hospital? Who decided what "we" needed? How many years ago? Maybe what is needed now for the Ottawa region and the community-at-large, including Barrhaven, Kanata and Orleans, are regional centres of care (regional hospitals) where people live without having to drive for 30 minutes or longer in sleet, rain or snow while polluting the environment and then paying large parking fees so that the hospital can recoup its money for the garage and the pedestrian overpass over Carling Avenue.

There is one instrument that we share: it talks and is green. We know we are going to pay for this while others will be singing their way to the bank with our money – the developers. Remember Lansdowne. The hospital has asked for $150 million from the city coffers – that touches everyone, including you and me.

Yes , stop fiddling! Bring out the trumpets – we need a wake-up call, or more traditionally, a call to arms and to battle!

It is not too late to stop this project. The new Civic is the wrong hospital for us at this time and in the wrong place.

Walter Hendelman

restaurants are closed? We have phone calls from our customers that they have had to cancel because there is no on-street parking! Are you reimbursing me for the loss of sales?

I have the company Noel clearing my driveway. You should consult them. They are doing an excellent job because they have brains and plan things properly!

Caren von Merveldt Owner, Flipper’s /Von’s

As usual, poems should be:

· Original and unpublished in any medium (no poems submitted elsewhere, please)

· No more than 30 lines each

· On any aspect of the theme within the bounds of public discourse

· Submitted on or before February 21, 2023

Poets in the National Capital Region of all ages welcome (school-age poets, please indicate your grade and school). Please send your entries (up to five poems that meet the criteria) to editor@ glebereport.ca. Remember to send us your contact information and your grade and school if you are in school.

Deadline: Tuesday, February 21, 2023

Our Volunteer Carriers

Jide Afolabi, Jennie Aliman, Lawrence Ambler, Ella Åsell, Aubry family, Miko Bartosik, Alessandra & Stefania Bartucci, Adrian Becklumb, Beckman family, Joanne Benoit, Inez Berg, Naéma and Raphaëlle Bergevin Hemsing, Carolyn Best, Daisy & Nettie Bonsall, Martha Bowers, Bowie family, Adélaïde and Éléonore Bridgett, Bob Brocklebank, Ben Campbell-Rosser, Stella Cauchi, Bill Congdon, Ava & Olivia Carpenter, Ryan & Charlotte Cartwright, Chiu-Panczyk Family, Sarah Chown, Sebastian, Cameron & Anna Cino, Janis Ellis-Claypool, Avery & Darcy Cole, Jenny Cooper, June Creelman, Marni Crossley, Olivia Dance, Mark Dance, Dawson family, Richard DesRochers, Davies Family, Marilyn Deschamps, Diekmeyer-Bastianon family, Dingle family, Delia Elkin, Nicholas, Reuben, Dave & Sandra Elgersma, Patrick Farley, James & Oliver Frank, Judy Field, Federico Family, Maria Fobes, Liane Gallop, Joann Garbig, Madeleine Gomery, Camilo Velez Gorman, Barbara Greenwood, Ginny Grimshaw, Marjolein Groenevelt, Henry Hanson, Oliver, Martin, Sarah & Simon Hicks, Hook family, Cheryle Hothersall, Jeevan & Amara Isfeld, Jungclaus Family, Janna Justa, Michael Khare, Lambert family, Leith and Lulu Lambert, Mel LeBlanc, Jamie, Alexander & Louisa Lem, Brams and Jane Leswick, Aanika, Jaiden and Vinay Lodha, Vanessa Lyon, Pat Marshall, Patrick Collins Mayer, Alicia McCarthy & family, Catherine McArthur, Ian McKercher, John and Helen Marsland, Matthew McLinton, Cameron Mitchell, Julie Monaghan, Thomas Morris, Vivian, Elliot & Kate Moulds, Karen Mount, Maddy North, Diane Munier, Xavier and Heath Nuss, Sachiko Okuda, Matteo and Adriano Padoin-Castillo, Brenda Perras, Brenda Quinlan, Annabel and Joseph Quon, Beatrice Raffoul, Bruce Rayfuse, Kate Reekie, Thomas Reevely, Mary & Steve Reid, Jacqueline Reilly-King, Anna Roper, Sabine Rudin-Brown, Casimir & Tristan Seywerd, Short family, Kathy Simons, Abigail Steen, Stephenson family, Tara Swords, Ruth Swyers, Saul Taler, Christine Thiesen, John & Maggie Thomson, Tom Trottier, Trudeau family, Zosia Vanderveen, Veevers family, Nick Walker, Erica Waugh, Vanessa Wen, Paul Wernick, Howard & Elizabeth Wong, Ella & Ethan Wood, Murray and Christie Wong, Martin Zak.

WELCOME TO:

Janis Ellis-Claypool

Marjolein Groenevelt

Olivia Dance, Mel LeBlanc, and Mark Dance

THANKS AND FAREWELL:

Anthony Carricato

Harriet Smith and Fil Young

Jugal Shah

Mary Nicoll