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Wendy Morton: Other people’s stories
Thursday, August 20th, 2009 by GetawayBC.com
When it comes to fulfilling creative potential, Wendy Morton should be a template for guaranteed success. Not content with her quarter-century day job as an insurance investigator (although private eye sounds so much better), back in the late ’90s she decided to tackle a late-in-life reinvention of herself as poet. But not just any poet; as recounted in her 2006 memoir, 6 Impossible Things Before Breakfast, in less than 10 years Morton went from unpublished writer to a professional poet with four books, a pair of impressive-and totally self-motivated-positions (WestJet’s Poet of the Skies and DaimlerChrysler’s Poet of the Road) and at least one achievement that has grown beyond even her own expectation and imagination: the creation of the now nation-wide Random Acts of Poetry week.
Perhaps best known locally for hosting the long-running Mocambopo poetry nights (now based out of the Black Stilt and called Planet Earth Poetry, from which she recently stepped down), aside from her garden at her home in Sooke, Morton’s current project is a book fusing archival photographs of Alberni Valley settlers with her poetry based on the stories of historic residents-including seven survivors of residential schools. “It’s a huge departure for me,” says Morton of What Were Their Dreams? Valleys of Hope and Pain: Canada’s History. “It was a really moving experience and it gave me a vision I didn’t have before.”
Despite the fact that she turned 69 this year, Morton-who also helped create Victoria’s poet laureate position-has no plans to slow down anytime soon. “It’s all a state of mind. It’s bullshit to say 69 is the new 50; it’s more like 30 is the new 20,” she laughs. “Age is not a complicated thing: if you move your body, eat good stuff, have purpose and an interesting life of the mind, you’re going to live long.”
Same goes with her career in investigation. “I don’t think I’ll ever retire,” she says with a bit of a sigh. “I don’t ask for work, they just give it to me. It’s probably the most interesting job I could ever have gotten in my life.” But for Morton, it’s about much more than just being a snoop sister; it’s about hearing other people’s stories. “That’s what I do on a weekly basis, and that’s what my poetry often is-other people’s stories.”
Asked & Answered
What’s one thing Victoria needs?
To tear up the boulevards and plant gardens. Let’s do it, man.
What’s Victoria’s best-kept secret?
Dragon Alley. Everybody knows about Fan Tan, but nobody knows Dragon Alley. People work there and live there, so it’s not as commercial as Fan Tan; the ghosts are still there.
What’s the best way to spend a rainy day?
My favourite place to be anywhere is a hotel lobby . . . I love to just sit there and watch the way people communicate, the way they dress, everything. So I’d go into the upstairs mezzanine of the Empress-which isn’t as good as in the good old days, when you could go into the lobby and just sit.
Where’s a good place to meet someone?
The Black Stilt. It’s a charming place with leather couches and chairs.
Where’s the first place you’d take out-of-towners?
I do love to take them to the Empress, just to see it. There, or Value Village. Often I don’t buy anything-unless it’s a Tuesday, when I get the senior’s discount of 30 percent off-but I just go around and look, because it’s just so much fun; sometimes I call it “VV Boutique Therapy.”
What’s one local must-visit store?
I really like the Market on Yates, because it’s small and people bump into each other. It’s the best chatty store and they have really good seafood.
Who’s an essential person to know in town?
Dean Fortin. He’s such a nice man and he has a good heart. I introduced city council to poetry, and he was always so eager. He’s the least political politician I know and he’s a very decent human being. I hope the mayor’s job doesn’t change his essential goodness.
Can poetry change people’s lives?
Yes. It sure as hell changed mine! Can it change your life in a thunderbolt way? No, but it can open your heart for a day. So many people say to me, “You made my day.”
What’s been your greatest poetic success?
Random Acts of Poetry. To be able to have poets all over Canada experience what I’ve experienced-the joy of sharing their poetry to people who may not have heard a poem for over 30 years-is just the best thing. It’s okay to preach to the converted, but to read a poem to the unconverted is another thing altogether. Thousands of people have been poemed, affecting not just them but the poets too.
Why is Victoria such a poet-heavy city?
It’s rich, isn’t it? Well, Patrick Lane has been running poetry retreats since 1997, which is a huge thing for encouraging and nurturing poets . . . I started with nothing in 1998 and am now on my sixth book. And it’s a lovely place to live. It’s also a less competitive, more supportive environment than, say, Vancouver or Toronto.
What have you learned from hosting
Planet Earth Poetry?
This series has been going on in Victoria for 12 years, and listening to poetry and reading my own have taught me what it means to be a poet.;