Next >> Tanya Evanson Tanya Evanson is a Caribbean-Québecoise Lover, Writer, Griot and Director of Mother Tongue Media based in Vancouver. Her work has been published in literary journals, anthologies and on audio recordings. Her long spoken word performance history has taken her to stages large and small and to national television and radio, as a solo artist and alongside poets, dancers, visual artists and live musicians. As Mother Tongue Media, she has published her own chapbooks and produced and promoted literary, spoken word and music events and is currently the site manager for several Canadian media and political web sites. Current art projects include a travel novella, videopoem, spoken word CD, and participation in various artists networks, most of these funded by the Canada Council for the Arts. She frequently performs in the Griot tradition with Carlos Joe Costa on percussion and flute. Open your arms if you want to be held. Contact: mothertonguemedia@yahoo.com www.mothertonguemedia.com Selected Poem: Ashk (Farsi/Urdu for tears, sorrow & ecstactic love) The shell of the Beloved has fallen away only the light remains The body imposes such a suffering! My veins exposed. This heartache is deeper than anyone suspects You abandoned me. And so, like a good disciple, I am abandoning myself as well. ~ It is difficult to move from you, and so I concern myself not with direction. I refuse to sleep, I'm going to protest! By turning night into day With the movement of one quarter step If you can take it. Soon my feet will leave the ground And I may not prevent it from happening! Hands have applauded this Beauty Drums have been palmed in this Way I am never awake But always awakening. I'll think not of how you broke my heart Only how you mirrored it, brighter than the original Now that you and I are divorced, I write my Book of Vows In preparation for the real wedding I have wept unimaginable tears Perhaps, this is all my imagination. Back to the Poets Directory Home