The Garden

The Gardenby A. F. Moritz is a passionate denunciation of injustice, especially as seen in the violent injustice directed to the African diaspora in North America. Comprised of a long poem, "The Garden in the Midst", and an in-depth essay, "The Poet's Garden," the book centers on the South Central Los Angeles "riot" of 1992 in response to the acquittal of police officers caught badly beating Rodney King in 1991. From this central point, the poem and essay reach out to encompass the May 2020 police murder of George Floyd, the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, and the long history of legalized criminal repression these two deaths belong to. Largely completed in 1992, Moritz returned to his manuscript in 2020 following the death of Mr. Floyd out of self-interrogation and grief.The Gardensuggests that only the essence of poetry can prove antithetical antidoteif there can even be oneto this human crime and tragedy. (From Gordon Hill Press)

• The best Canadian poetry of 2021
• Poet A. F. Moritz on the under-appreciation of sparrows, poetry's 'uselessness' and more

Interviews withA. F. Moritz

Torontos poet laureate marks one-year anniversary of COVID-19 pandemic

4 years ago

Duration 2:24

Thursday marks the one-year anniversary since the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 pandemic. As a tribute to the past year, A.F. Moritz, Torontos poet laureate, presented a poem during Toronto City Council on Wednesday. Exactly Here the Marvel Spoke Memorial of a Plague Year: March 2020 March 2021 not only remembers those we lost, but also highlights the need for hope as we move forward. Take a look. (Photos courtesy of Evan Mitsui & Michael Wilson/CBC, Frank Gunn & Chris Young/The Canadian Press)

The Sunday Edition15:28Reading in isolation

This new age of social distancing and isolation is good for one thing: Reading. And reading is a good way to form or enhance something so many of us crave when isolated: Connection and community. Online book clubs have sprouted up as people contemplate how to spend their days apart from friends and family and their usual distractions. We asked some lovers of literature Toronto poet laureate A. F. Moritz, literature professor Rohan Maitzen, graduate student Ariel Leutheusser, novelist Sharon Bala and award-winning non-fiction writer Robert Macfarlane what they're reading during our springtime of isolation and unease.