TORONTO - Poetry in unusual places has long been a passion for Wendy Morton, who got the ball rolling several years ago on Random Acts of Poetry, which involves poets reciting their work to total strangers in unexpected locations.
Now, one of her poems is being published on the label of a Canadian wine, along with the works of other 10 other poets including P.K. Page, Stephen Elliott-Buckley and Christopher Dewdney.
The labels were designed for Southbrook Vineyards, a small boutique winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., which is unveiling its Poetica wines at an event in Toronto on Wednesday.
Morton said she received an email from Toronto graphic designer Laura Wills who told her she wanted to use her poem "If I Had a Name Like Rosie Fernandez" on a wine label. Wills had found the poem on the University of Toronto's website.
"I said, `Of course.' I was absolutely thrilled," Morton recalled from her home in Sooke, B.C.
Wills said it was a journey of discovery as she researched Canadian poets and read hundreds of poems before arriving at the ones to grace the wine labels.
Morton's poem will adorn bottles of Cabernet Merlot. Altogether there will be nine vintages in the Poetica series.
The bottles will be limited edition and numbered.
Morton was previously a "poet of the skies" for WestJet, occasionally writing rhymes for the airline's passengers. Now she says she'll be "the poet of the vines."
