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Kingston, Ont., poet laureate writes coronavirus pandemic poem

WATCH: A pandemic-inspired poem by Kingston Poet Laureate is the first in a series of related poems – May 14, 2020

As the coronavirus pandemic continues, Kingston, Ont.,’s poet laureate Jason Heroux has recently completed his poem called ‘All People.’

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He says the poem was inspired by his learning about the word pandemic itself.

“It comes from ancient Greek, ‘pan’ meaning all and ‘demos’ meaning people, and you see ‘demos’ in democracy and things like that so ‘all people’ is a literal translation of pandemic.”

‘All People’ is intended to be a reflection of peoples’ experience during COVID-19, says Heroux.

“It was tricky, I did not want the poem to be too grim or too positive at the same time. I felt it was important for the poem to have more questions than answers.”

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Heroux refers to the poem as a buffet of emotions, positive and negative.

It will soon be appearing on the Kingston Frontenac Public Library’s poetry blackboard online.

‘All People’ is the first of what has now become a series called “Poetry in the time of a pandemic”.

Heroux says he has invited four other poets to produce their own pandemic poems over the coming months, including, “Bruce Kauffman, Eric Folsom one of Kingston’s poet Laureate’s previously, Sadiqa de Meijer and Alyssa Cooper.”

Their poems will be released once every month over the summer and into early fall.

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