As a form of creative expression, poetry doesn’t get its due. That is indeed strange, considering the literary art form has been with us forever — the earliest surviving poem being Epic of Gilgamesh written on clay tablets in ancient Mesopotamia in and around 2100 BC.
More recently, works penned by the likes of John Keats, Oscar Wilde, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and Maya Angelou brought poetry wider attention. Locally, poets indeed walk among us, many of them writing verse for their own enjoyment before tucking their poems away from prying eyes.
Then there’s PJ Thomas. Few in Peterborough have done as much as she has to bring poetry to a wider audience, sharing her work mostly via social media. There’s a lot to share. Thomas has written more than 1,400 poems, a selection of which are at the heart of Drifting, her third book of poetry published by PAJE Press.
Drifting, the final instalment of her Water Trilogy (Thomas published Undertow in 2020 followed by Waves), will be launched on Sunday, November 24th from 1 to 3 p.m. at The Gordon Best Theatre at 216 Hunter Street West in downtown Peterborough.
Emceed by fellow poet and Show and Tell Poetry Series founder Justin Million, the launch will also see readings by Peterborough-based writer and poet Esther Vincent and Trent University Professor Emeritus, playwright, and novelist Ian McLachlan. Copies of Drifting will be available, priced at $15 (cash only), with the author more than willing to sign each.
“Undertow was a very open, honest, and simple addressing of mental health issues, love, community, water — all the things I write about,” says Thomas, adding “I read it now and I go ‘Oh, isn’t that cute.’ Waves looked more at the sensuality of nature and answers (found) in the beauty of the natural world; being in your physicality and being alive. It’s a very uplifting, more hopeful book.”
For her poem selections for Drifting, Thomas pulled from more personal experience.
“I fell in love for the first time when I was 59 and wrote a lot of love poems,” she says, adding “It was just a natural progression from that.”
“Drifting brings full circle the water theme, of living in the Kawarthas. The rivers, the lakes, the streams — it overwhelms me with beauty and admiration. We are so lucky to live here.”
McLachlan, clearly impressed with Thomas’ work, wrote a few words for the back cover of Drifting.
“These poems perform their own individual acts of magical transformation,” he writes. “Their roots are deeply embedded in everyday experience. We recognize our own lives in them. There is nothing elitist about them, none of the condescending pretensions of literature with a capital L.”
“They speak to us in a variety of different voices, filled with humour, sadness, flashes of anger, warmth, pain, and truly wonderful generosity. They express our feelings openly, celebrating the ways in which quite ordinary moments can suddenly become extraordinary. Read them! You will find beauty and emotional truth in them, and they will give you pleasure.”
Considering the source, that’s remarkable praise indeed and, for that, Thomas is grateful. That said, writing is a daily regimen for her, done not only for the joy it brings her way but as an emotional outlet for whatever she’s feeling at the time.
“I write poems to communicate with my friends on Facebook and then just spill out to the bigger poetry world,” says Thomas.
“It feels really good when people say ‘Thank you for describing how I feel’ or ‘I can so relate to that.’ It’s nice to feel connected. I live alone with my cat — I’m one of those crazy childless cat ladies — but I’m very happy to be writing and connecting with people in Peterborough and poetry people across the country.”
Not lost on Thomas is poetry’s “reflective” place in a world spinning way too fast.
“My landlord was just in hospital. I gave him a copy of the new book. He read it while he was in the hospital. He said to me, ‘I’m not one to pick up a poetry book but that was really relaxing.’ I think simmering down to the simple beauties speaks to this complex busy world in ways that we can appreciate more than ever now.”
Making her home by the Otonabee River, Thomas is an associate member of the League of Canadian Poets and is a voting member with the Writers’ Union of Canada.
Prior to publishing Undertow, Thomas wrote two novels and years later, in 2021, wrote the lyrics for three songs on Rick Fines’ 2021 Juno Award-nominated album Solar Powered Too.
While writing poetry will always be a focus, Thomas is thinking over a new writing direction.
“I would love to write short stories,” she says. “I wrote a book of erotica short stories. That was my early days, and then I didn’t write for five years and, then, I thought ‘I feel like writing something about being schizophrenic.’ Not a lot of people understand schizophrenia. I’m a very accessible schizophrenic. I’m a very mild case and I take my meds religiously.”
“So the first poem I wrote was called The White Cat. Very short. It was about the Expo year here in Canada (1967) and I called it Schizophrenic Poem Number One. From there, Waves moved out of the mental health arena into love, beauty, and connection, and Drifting takes off with that, and water in this incredible part of the world.”
Thomas’ introduction to poetry came at a young age in her Grade 5 classroom.
“I took to it like a duck to water,” she says, adding “My teacher put my first poem on the wall. None of the other kids got their poems on the wall. I toyed around with it in high school. I wrote a little bit of poetry for a novel that was mixed with poetry.”
“That’s my next project: to do a prose and poetry combination. I’m just applying for grants now — we’ll see if someone will pay me to write it. It’s going to be about the downtown arts scene going through COVID. I’m going to interview arts professionals and write poems from their stories and connect them, I think, in a linear timeline with prose or creative non-fiction.”
VIDEO: “Up From Under” – Lyrics by PJ Thomas, video/music by Sherine Cisco
In the meantime, Thomas is excited over the prospect that there are people who have yet to discover poetry and its related soul-soothing benefits.
“One of the highest compliments my poetry has been paid is it’s not high-brow language. People who don’t like poetry like my poetry. It’s not trying to be classic with old world language. It’s very real, experiential, and in the now.”
Back in 2022 before her launch of Waves, Thomas noted being out there wasn’t something she was all that comfortable with. That, she says, has changed.
“I’m getting better at it. I’m actually almost enjoying it a bit. Relaxing with audiences and connecting. We’re all humans in the same room. While we’re here, let’s have a laugh.”
Noting she likes the challenge of writing lyrics — “It’s like writing poetry into a crossword” — Thomas recently collaborated with Peterborough musician Sherine Cisco on a song that has been submitted to the Don Skuce Memorial Music Collective songwriting competition.
Also ahead on November 21 is Thomas’s first out-of-town reading, at the Best Western Cobourg Inn as part of the Third Thursday Reading Series. Editor’s note: this event has been cancelled.
For more information about Thomas, to read her poetry, to order her books and to support her work by donating, visit pjpoet.ca. You can also follow her on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) where she regularly debuts her poems.
The original version of this story has been updated with the rescheduled date for the book launch.
