News

Warning: poetry is addictive

By Rose Spencer
PETERBOROUGH, ON
(CUP) - Ariel would prefer if
you didn’t smoke. Instead of
smoking try poetry. It’s just as
cool. Toronto poet Ariel, who
describes himself as “a rabid
anti-smoker,’ conceived of
Poet Lights as a political and
artistic retort to smoking.

Poet Lights look exactly like
a 20-pack of cigarettes. The
wrapping is brightly coloured,
has a catchy logo and comes
complete with “warnings.”
Once “smokers” open the
pack, they discover 20
poems, neatly rolled into cig-
arette shape, topped with
orange filters that
slide off so readers can unroll
each scroll-poem. There’s a
“combined thrust” to Poet
Lights, explains Ariel. First,
its an attempt to address the
fact that “traditional venues of
poetry don’t reach the audi-
ence.”

“Poet Lights distribute poet-

ry in a way that’s grounded in
reality,” says Ariel. “It may be
a cheap gimmicky trick, but it
works.”

Second, Poet Lights provide
an alternative to smoking.
“Smokers can get chemical
help for their addiction,’ says
Ariel, referring to interven-
tions like the patch and nico-
tine gum, “But there’s nothing
to replace the physical act [of
smoking].”

There are benefits to non-
smokers, too. The poet jokes
about non-smokers being
able to partake in a poem and
enjoy the benefits of a smoke
break, like “poseur smokers”,
but turns serious when he
discusses the turn-off of
watching people smoke. Ariel
has used his poem-cigarettes
to mimic smokers, to carica-
ture the act he finds disgust-
ing. A non-smoker myself, |
tried out Ariel’s theory at a
party. When the smokers
announced they were going

5 Words That Don’t Exist, But Should:
1. AQUADEXTROUS (ak wa deks’ trus) adj. Possessing the ability to turn the
bathtub faucet on and off with your toes.
2. DISCONFECT (dis kon fekt’) v. To sterilize the piece of candy you dropped
on the floor by blowing on it, assuming this will somehow ‘remove’ all the
germs.
3. LACTOMANGULATION (lak’ to man gyu lay’ shun) n. Manhandling the ‘open

here’ spout on a milk container so badly that one has to resort to the ‘illegal’

side.

4. PHONESIA (fo nee’ zhuh) n. The affliction of dialing a phone number and

forgetting whom you were calling just as they answer.

5. PUPKUS (pup’ kus) n. The moist residue left on a window after a dog press-

es its nose to it.

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outside, | did

likewise. It’s kind of liberating
to say, “I’m going for a
smoke,” when a) you never
get a chance to say it and b)
you aren’t ‘going for a smoke
to smoke.

Once outside, | was privy to
that previously mysterious
experience: the smoke break.
The atmosphere was intimate
as the smokers huddled
together in the freezing night
air and shared body heat, cig-
arettes, lighters and second-
hand smoke. They tried to
outdo each other's expletives
about how cold it was.

1 unrolled my first poem,
read it and passed it around.
The poetry itself is nothing to
quit smoking over. Poems like
“Friendly Touch of Hand” and
“Kites” have an adolescent,
relationships-gone-wrong
quality. Other poems, like
“The Siren” and “Love” have
more depth, but the reader
still feels like the poet is talk-

Men’s Team

Women’s Team Karla Stedham

ing to himself. In “Never Mind
the Syllables: Three Rogue
Haiku” Ariel stops talking to
himself and shares the joke.
From “Titanic”: “Even without
the iceberg/ He would have
drowned/ In their tears.” The
smokers threw away their
butts and filed in. At the end
of my first smoke break | was
happier to have been a part
of the smoke break cama-
raderie than | was for having
read “Friendly Touch of
Hand”.

But this criticism actually
proves Ariel’s point: the phys-
ical format of the poems
demands that they be
shared, enjoyed, discussed.
Instead of standing around
cursing the weather, why not
talk to someone new, or learn
something from your fellow
break-taker? In this way, Poet
Lights may indeed make
poetry available to previously
unreached audiences.

Ariel's idea to create poetry

Year End Stats

The following are the year end stats for our players in the league:

Kent Bergstrom

lan Hogan

Jennifer Bondaroff
Nicole Kerr

Congratulations to the following UNBC Basketball players that have made the
BCCAA All-Star teams: BCCAA Women’s Second All-Star team - Nicole Kerr
BCCAA Men’s Second All-Star team - Kent Bergstrom

Nicole was voted seventh best in the league, while Kent was voted 6th overall.
Athlete of the Week: Kent Berstrom of the UNBC Northern Timberwolves
Men’s Team has been voted athlete of the week for the BCCAA. Kent is a 1st
year BCCAA athlete and former graduate of Vanderhoof Secondary. This for-
mer “AA” MVP from Nechako Valley has played an important role in the
University of Northern British Columbia’s inaugural Season. pers

Kent scored 23 points in each game of a back-to-back
series withthe CCAA number 2
ranked team in the country, the
University College of the Fraser
Valley. Although the Timberwolve
lost both games, he lead his team
with 46 points, 11 rebounds and 10
assists in 2 very close games. This
6'3” point guard finished the season
placing in the Top 10 in two cate-
gories. Kent placed 5th in points and

4th in assists.

Kent Bergstrom

- number 5 in scoring
- number 4 in assists
- number 6 in rebounds
- number 4 in scoring
- number 8 in assists
- number 9 in rebounds
- number 2 in assists

cigarettes came from an
impulse $5 purchase - a roll
of cash register receipt paper.
It seemed “vulgar” to Ariel to
fold the resulting poem,
“Receipt”, so he rolled it
instead, following the receipt
papers natural tendency to
curl itself up.

Inspired by the paper, Ariel
first conceived of a “pack ‘o
poems” in 1996, and has
been developing the concept
and growing the Poet Lights
venture ever since.

Embarking on large-scale
production and trying to dis-
tribute his work has been
challenging, but fun. The
poet/entrepreneur encourage
others to keep working on
what they know is a worth-
while idea. “The difference
between having an insane
idea and a valuable business
is saying ‘| know this will
work,’ he says
philosophically.

Nicole Kerr