Next year's Spring Pulse Poetry Festival will be held May 14th–15th, 2010.
At our first Poetry Festival, we gave our first Lifetime Achievement Award to Douglas Pollard owner of the Highway Book Shop, Cobalt.
We were a bit ahead of the curve. Dec 31, 2008 Mr Pollard learned he was in the most recent list of new inductees to the Order of Canada. Our congratulations (again) go to Mr. Pollard for a life well-lived.
In other news this year, as a response to the successful Spring Pulse Poetry Festival in early April 2008, the Town of Cobalt declared Cobalt to be the "Poetry Capital of the North."
The Poetry Map of Canada features our Poet Laureate of Cobalt, giving us a large red dot in the northern part of Ontario.
The Second Annual Spring Pulse Poetry Festival was held March 26th–28th, 2009
The second annual spring pulse poetry festival is a resounding success. It was a celebration of Dr. Drummond's memory and legacy, plus a way our local poets, painters, and musicians could bond to share their collaborative creations.
Our first year saw 810 people be touched by poetry over 4 days and 20 events. This year we organized one week and 30 events for 1727 people experience poetry-themed events.A doubling of attendance and setting records for individual event attendance as well.
Many local poets entered the Dr. William Henry Drummond Poetry Contest .It exceeded last years total entries and has grown to 152 entries nationwide. Our poet in the school programme funded through the League of Canadian Poets saw Brantford Poet Laureate John B. Lee inspire over one thousand of our young students in St. Patrick School,Cobalt, Haileybury Public, New Liskeard Public, and Temiskaming District Secondary School.
We are proud to bring together for Northern Poetry Week our local artists to celebrate poetry, painting, and music. The largest poetry arts festival in Northern Ontario history has created a dynamic cultural tourism project that is indeed on the cultural map of the north..
Go here for calendar of events 
Dr. William Henry Drummond Poetry Contest
Deadline: April 12th, 2010
Cash prizes totalling $1,000 for poems in English.
And the 2009 winners are announced.
2008 brought 124 entries; entries for the 2009 contest totalled 152.
Well-done all.
Attention local poets from Temiskaming Shores to Temagami
Please submit 3 of your poems and email to David Brydges with subject heading: Poem of the Month to be considered for this feature.
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Flower-de-Luce (abridged) Thou art the Iris, fair among the fairest, Who, armed with golden rod And winged with the celestial azure, bearest The message of some God. Thou art the Muse, who far from crowded cities Hauntest the sylvan streams, Playing on pipes of reed the artless ditties That come to us as dreams. O flower-de-luce, bloom on, and let the river Linger to kiss thy feet! O flower of song, bloom on, and make forever The world more fair and sweet. By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow |