Beth Jankola is Vancouver poet who wrote and read poems at places like the Black Spot in the late-1950s.
In 1974, Jankola published a small unpaginated chapbook entitled The Way I See It (Intermedia Press). The poems featured forward slashes and justified margins.
In reproducing the poem below, I have tried to stay true to character placement. As you can see, the right margin is serrated.
She was home/from school/talkin
g/about her day/so I told her a
bout mine/I had gone to the Art
Gallery /to see the photos/I had
been told were hanging/photos o
f me/Beth Jankola 1962/and Beth
Jankola 1972/I feel so bad/I us
ed to be/pretty/even prettier /
than you/I remember you/she sai
d/with your hair/down to here /
touching my back/you were beaut
iful/yeah I said/remembering/yo
u just gotta face it/mum you’re
ageing/
Beth is a grand dame of Canadian Poetry. I published a few of her chapbooks through my micro-press, Greensleeve Editions, from the mid 1980s to the early 1990s. A unique voice.
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