News of the Weird February 14 2009

LEAD STORY: Poetry on the Rise: 1) Twelve local poets jumped into the frigid Green Lake in Seattle in December, just because they thought it would be a good way to publicize their art. “It’s not enough to write,” said one. “You need that audience.” 2) The Ontario Court of Appeal overturned the conviction of Antonio Batista in November, declaring that his “death threat” against a Mississauga City Council member, in the form of a sonnet on long-neglected potholes, was more likely literary expression. 3) Jose Gouveia, 45, recently published Rubber Side Down, a book of poems by bikers about the open road (including 17-syllable “baiku”), some from the educationally upscale Highway Poets Motor Cycle Club of Cambridge, Mass.

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