Donal Power thinks the most beautiful word in the English language is the onomatopoeia "susurrus," as in "Susurrus like a breeze through the trees," he says. Power has 100-point font prints of his favourite poems on his bedroom walls. He likes statements phrased as questions? His sentences end in punch lines. His eyebrows dance up and down.
The 38-year-old, a former Daily News journalist turned editor at the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council think-tank, had poetic ambitions since high school. He liked making the most impact possible with the least amount of words. He enrolled in journalism at King's College to further his writing career. Now he's a "recovering journalist" who's "come full circle." On March 25 he launched a monthly community journal for local poets: beginner or pro. The idea came from a poetry initiative he started "years and years ago" at King's. It's not quite what you'd think.
Power picks a single sheet of paper from the top of a stack and folds it twice. Ten-point font poems of no more than 28 lines cover both sides. It's the first issue of Open Heart Forgery. Power publishes the journal at ohforgery.com. He wants readers to rip it off, print it, forge it and distribute it in surprising places around the HRM: "UFO landings," the pamphlet suggests. "Drum circles. Pub crawls. Swanky affairs."
"There are not a lot of places around here that you see poetry in the run of---ever," he says. "You don't see it around, in the world."
So far the journal has turned up in coffee shops and Power's heard reports of it on a bus in Bayer's Lake and in a bookstore in Dartmouth. OHF is free, ad-less and not-for-profit. The editor says OHF is giving writers, songwriters and poets a reason to emerge from the shadows where they were formerly unable or unwilling to get published. "There's no place to get published, and really, people give up after a while." The second goal is collaboration. He wants creative Haligonians to meet each other at monthly readings. Maybe a songwriter will meet a poet. Maybe they'll create something with potential. The third goal is to turn skeptics on to poetry. "Maybe this isn't like drinking cod liver oil," he says, imagining someone finding the journal in a food court. "Maybe this is a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down."
So far, Power says the journal proves Halifax has loads of unpublished talent. In the future he hopes other cities harness the idea and use it to beautify public spaces. If there's a poet in you, ready to come out of the shadows, consider submitting through the OHF site. The only rules are: no racism, no sexism, no hate. Keep it local and under 28 lines. The next deadline is April 28 at midnight. —Hilary Beaumont