This week, poets in communities across Canada, Britain, and Ireland will take to the street to read their work to people in hair salons, hockey rinks, gas stations, and other everyday places as part of the second annual Random Acts of Poetry campaign. The campaign’s goal is to promote literacy and raise awareness of poetry.

In a press release issued on Canadian Newswire, Wendy Morton, the campaign’s organizer says, “I’ve had remarkable experiences reading poetry to strangers and seeing how poems move them — sometimes to tears.” The Victoria-based poet is rather well acquainted with the power and perks of poetry. According to her bio on the League of Canadian Poets website, “she [has been] sponsored by Daimler Chrysler, who provides her with a PT (Poetry Travels) Cruiser when she is promoting poetry across Canada,” and was appointed WestJet’s “poet of the skies” when she “read poems on the flights, wrote poems for the passengers, and introduced the delights of poetry to some very captive audiences.”

Related links:
Click here for the press release on Canadian Newswire
Click here for Wendy Morton’s page on the League of Canadian Poets website
Click here for the Random Acts of Poetry website