Poetry Night VI — September Reading Package

Prepared poetry reading-package discussion - read beforehand. Short summary Poetry gets ruined when people treat it like a code to crack. It also gets ruined when people treat it like vague emotional wallpaper. This night is meant to sit somewhere better. Poetry Night VI will be built around the proposed September reading package, *What We Hold Through Change*, linked below. The goal is simple: read the poems beforehand, come into the room with a few lines still echoing, and talk about what they actually do. Not school voice. Not open mic energy. Not a poetry slam. Not a workshop. There will be no writing prompts, no exercises, and no in-room poetry writing. This is reading and discussion only. A good poetry night should feel alive, not like people politely handling museum glass. I want the kind of room where one line can stop us, annoy us, expose something, or suddenly make ordinary life feel less flat. A few questions already sitting in my head

• “What line stayed with you after the poem was over?” • “Where did the poem feel alive instead of merely beautiful?” • “What did the poem notice that ordinary language usually misses?” • “Did anything feel too clean, too clever, or too easy?” • “What changed when you heard someone else respond to the same poem?” • “Which poem refused to become decorative?”

How the afternoon will go Come having read the September package beforehand. We’ll move through selected poems from the packet, stay close to the language, and let the conversation open from there. No need to be a poetry expert. No need to perform sensitivity. No need to pretend every poem worked for you. The best part is often disagreement: why one person is moved, another is suspicious, and a third heard something nobody else caught. This is not Poetry Prompt Lab. No writing in the room. Just reading, listening, arguing gently, and letting the poems do some damage. Reading Proposed September reading package: [What We Hold Through Change (PDF)](https://drive.google.com/file/d/148b1HEJ6BoNo2_bvs_wF2O7Xec9hKbq-/view?usp=drivesdk) When and where 🗓️ Date: Sunday, September 27th, 2026 🕒 Time: 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM 📍 Location: UBC Learning Exchange 612 Main Street, Vancouver, BC Meeting point: Main entrance at 612 Main Street. Cap No attendee cap for this event. Come ready to read closely without making poetry feel dead.

Please arrive 10 minutes before the event starts. Doors close 10 minutes after the start time.