Last Saturday night I attended the Pratt Lecture at MUN’s campus. The speaker was Canada’s parliamentary poet laureate, John Steffler.

Since I am writing my Masters exit paper on the ‘problems of teaching poetry’ and the theme for Steffler’s speech was ‘The Uses of Poetry’ I thought I should attend. Plus, I am currently teaching a poetry unit in school. One stone, many birds.

The speech was decent, and the free wine and cheese was yummy. Before I left I looked at the texts on sale that were written by Steffler. I selected ‘That Night We Were Ravenous.‘ Poems set within the experience of natural world, often throughout rural Newfoundland.

I am enjoying it so far. Now back to my poetry paper. Due tomorrow.