Stormin' Norman

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by SIOBHAN O'CONNOR

 Norman Nawrocki is hard to pin down. Part funnyman, part guerilla activist, part earnest poet, there's little this Montreal-based talent doesn't do--his list of accomplishments is dizzying. Now, add to the list his new collection NO MASTERS! NO GODS! Dare to dream, a playful pink book of poems and other subversive, wordy things. He's half piss-taking, to be sure, but mostly he's telling stories. Which begs the question: why poetry?

 "I don't try to write poems," insists Nawrocki. "But poetry tells the truth and that's what I'm about."

 While verse might not seem like the most obvious vehicle for one as politically charged as Nawrocki, he argues otherwise. "Poetry has always been used by rabble-rousers, way back to Shakespeare and Byron... Poems reflect the world around us and can force us to challenge what we see."

 

You can drink to that at Nawrocki's book launch, Tuesday, Feb. 8, 7pm at Librairie Alternative, 2035 St-Laurent.