What is a “Poetry Bomb”? Like a yarn bomb, a poetry bomb is a covert piece of poetry–written on a piece of decorative card–and left around the city to share poetry with Calgarians! I first created poetry bombs as a way for poets and non-poets alike to come together, craft and share poetry as part of The People’s Poetry Festival. Occasionally, I still host poetry bomb-making workshops in coffee shops around the city and am pleased to be crafting hundreds of bombs for a second year for the Calgary Reads book sale.

If you come to a poetry bomb-making workshop, I have all the supplies you’ll need–paper, pens, scissors and more–to craft your very own poetry bombs! We’ll also have a good selection of poetry books for you to pull from, but you’re welcome to bring along your favorite poetry scraps, or write some of your own! For the 2014 Calgary Reads book sale, I’ve tapped some great local Calgary poets and good friends of mine, Valerie Roney (Twitter: @vlrny) and Bryan McLean (Twitter: @lyinghere) to contribute poetry. Be sure to visit their websites for more great poetry and other related projects. In the meantime, happy bombing!