Poetry is a risk. Poetry can expose you. Can make you laugh, make you giggle like a fool. Poetry can be intoxicating, or maybe sobering. It can be thoughtful, pensive, methodical. It can be "deep." Sometimes it can be just totally fucked up. Poetry alters your perspective - shows you the world in a new light, however fleeting the glimpse might be, it draws your attention to something you might never have noticed before and might never notice again. Poetry is subversive. Maybe even a little bit criminal!

For some, poetry is a secret indulgence. Most of all, poetry is organic, it's always growing and changing, and it is in this spirit that The Antigonish Review (TAR) has created The Poet Grow-Op, an online space dedicated to emerging artists in Canada. We want to help poets who are in the midst of post-secondary studies, to set their roots and maybe cultivate a name for themselves. We want to bring attention to - focus our fluorescent lights on - some of the great writing that's happening on college and university campuses nation-wide.

Every month the Grow-Op will feature the work of two up-and-coming Canadian poets. And getting involved couldn't be easier - all it takes is an email. (See guidelines for more information.) Poetry is flora. It can be found in the neighbours' flowerbed, in a pot out on the building's fire escape, or growing like weeds in the ditch.

The Poet Grow-Op strives to nurture new growth and give student writers an opportunity to showcase their work, to share their art with our online readers around the world. TAR's Poet Grow-Op will begin in early 2008. The Grow-Op editor will be TAR's student intern, James Goldie. James is a writer and student at St. Francis Xavier University. ( to Top )