edited by Linda Rogers

Victoria, the Garden City famous for its felicitous climate and heritage charm, is also renowned for its flourishing artistic community. Drawn to the beauty of Vancouver Island and the vibrant culture of a livable city, poets and artists have chosen this location as home. In Framing the Garden: Reflections of Victoria, Poet Laureate Linda Rogers presents a tapestry of contemporary Victoria, composed of images, poetry and prose by its many acclaimed authors and artists. Including work by poets such as PK Page and Patricia Young and artists Robert Amos, Miles Lowry and Phyllis Serota, Framing the Garden reveals a lively cultural centre, where past and present, words and images, nature and civilization, like sea and shore, are in a constant dance.

I am thrilled that the City of Victoria has chosen this book as my poet laureate legacy project. Artists should work together as models of co-operation for the world around us. As in the time of Keats, truth and beauty live together. I wanted my legacy project to reflect that desideratum. In Victoria we have artists, poets, painters and dancers collaborating all the time. Companies like Suddenly Dance and Ballet Victoria include spoken word in their performances. Many of our poets work with musicians. Ekphrasis, poets responding to visual art, is common practice.

Even though we couldn’t fit dancers and fiddle players in this book, we hope the poems and paintings sing and dance for you.

We couldn’t fit in all the fine poets and painters who work in our garden, but we do hope this book represents their fabulous variety.

~ Linda Rogers