What is the plural of poet laureate?

Both poets laureate and poet laureates are acceptable.

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2010 Griffin Poetry Prize Winners

2010 Canadian and International winners of the tenth annual Griffin Poetry Prize. [details]

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A poet's autobiography is his poetry. Anything else is just a footnote.

Yevgeny Yevtushenko

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Poet Laureate Map of Canada

Don Benson

New Westminster, B.C. Poet Laureate
1999 - 2006

Born in 1933, writer/poet Don Benson grew up in New Westminster’s bustling riverfront district. In 1991 his book Wire Song became the first book in Canada to be catalogued as both poetry and history. When Wire Song was produced as a successful video poem, he tailored his many subsequent works for the broader audience of cable TV over print. He became New Westminster’s second poet laureate in 1999, and served for eight one-year terms before being named poet laureate emeritus early in 2007. An accomplished athlete, he won the pentathlon gold medal at the 2004 Canadian Masters Championships.

Tall Ships

Have you been outward bound on a Tall Ship
          When her sails find a wandering breeze?
Have you stood at her helm as she enters her realm –
          The Kingdom of Seven Far Seas?
Her perfumes are tar, hemp and canvas;
          Her masts have a roguish rake;
An ancient sea-chime marks the passage of time
          While seagulls stiff-wing in her wake.

Have you climbed to the top of a Tall Ship
          And reached out to gather a cloud?
There’s a sudden strong gust; your ship feels the thrust
          And she answers it, graceful and proud;
Have you stood wrapped in wind and high canvas,
          And felt what it means to be free?
With the mast’s giddy sway through the great Milky Way,
          You knew you were bred to the sea.

Have you weathered a storm on a Tall Ship
          When the bottom fell out of the glass?
Heard whip-crack of sail, and the shriek of the gale
          As she plunges into a cravass?
Then the bowsprit is spearing the heavens;
          There’s fear and despair in the air;
The waves are so vast as you cling to a mast
          That you find yourself shouting in prayer!

Have you watched far at sea as a Tall Ship
          Glides regally out of the dawn?
With white wish-bone wake, like a bird on a lake -
          A giant majestic white swan;
When the world was first new, The Creator,
          Decreed that Tall Ships in His plan
Have great wind-filled wings; the most beautiful things
          To ever be crafted by Man.

Sailors leave home for the Tall Ships
          For a world where horizons are far;
But only winds know the reasons they go
          To steer for a distant bright star;
Does a sailor reflect in the oceans?
          Or the oceans reflect in him?
Is his love for sail some unreachable Grail
          That gleams on horizon’s rim?

I dream troubled dreams of the Tall Ships
          When canvas falls slack in the sun,
And the last Tall Ship swings, with white folded wings
          At anchor - and then are none;
And if that day’s near, I pray I’m not here
          When old sailors dream on the shore,
No Tall Ships remain, lonely winds search in vain
          For the cloud of white sail – that’s no more.

Published Works