Poetry is not just something that exists on a page, says local poet Daniela Elza. In fact, Elza believes that everyone can develop poetic consciousness—an associative and coherent perspective of the world. She will be joined by fellow B.C. writer Daniel Cowper at the Vancouver Public Library’s “Urban Matters: Poetry in the City” (Sept. 9, Central Library) for a discussion on what it costs to live in Vancouver.
“[Poetry] works in the service of life,” Elza says. “What I’m hoping is that we can have a poetic conversation about our living spaces [and] speak about the poetry of the city that is slowly being eroded.”
Preserving community
The Bulgarian-born Elza spent her formative years in Nigeria. At the age of seven, she moved to northeastern Nigeria with her horticulturist parents. The writer then returned to Bulgaria as a university student, where she faced culture shock. These experiences led to a rethinking of the connection between home and belonging.
“You can be home, but you might not feel like you belong; you might belong, but you might not feel at home,” she shares. “A house and a home are not just a roof; it is a community, and communities are built by people.”
The poet has also spent time in England and the United States prior to settling in Canada. Since a young age, Elza has been fond of writing poetry—a passion fuelled through her love of language, words and ideas.
Her love for poetry is also driven by a fascination with condensing language. This attention to language is reflected in her debut prose collection Is This an Illness or an Accident? Its title is inspired by an insurance form regarding prenatal care—a sign of the collection’s exploration of how paperwork forces people into “tight spaces.”
“Poetry opens [language], and forms try to zero in and tighten it up,” she shares. “I also play around with the idea of the margins and writing in the margins to explain the details of my life, but even the margins started getting tighter.”
Poems from Elza’s poetry collection SCAR/CITY were longlisted for the 2024 CBC Poetry Prize. It explores themes of belonging, urbanity and housing. The collection is in part inspired by Syrian architect Marwa al-Sabouni’s idea that the structure of a city impacts how people relate and engage to each other in a community.
“What I’m hoping comes out of this [reading and panel] is a conversation around what housing means to us [and] what not having housing is doing to us,” the poet shares. “One of the successes of Vancouver [is that it] is designed around neighbourhoods, each neighbourhood has a very specific character.”
For the love of a city
Elza is concerned with preserving these different neighbourhoods; her poetry, at times, directly addresses city planners and developers. In recent years, she has been advocating for cooperative housing—using a poetic voice to preserve what she sees as the poetry of cities.
“Cities are the ultimate expression of our social fabric—of the care [and] community,” she says, adding that ideas of inclusion and exclusion are also relevant. “This is an example and a metaphor for how we are with each other: how we tolerate each other, how we welcome each other.”
For the poet, there is also fun in this work. The acknowledgements section of SCAR/CITY is titled “Under Construction”—a sign that the work of preserving community is ongoing. Elza sees her collection as an “interrogation” of the city that she loves.
“I’m inviting you to play,” she shares of her poems’ use of blank spaces. “The spaces mean that there are things I don’t know, it’s a bit of a humble gesture of letting you come in and fill in the spaces.”
Elza also holds a doctorate in Philosophy of Education from Simon Fraser University. Through this academic work, she is interested in bridging the academic gap between poetry and philosophy.
“Poetry sometimes [can] be turned into a niche thing, and it forgets the big job it has to do,” she shares, adding philosophy is vulnerable to the same fault. “To me, revolutionaries, in a good way, and the writer-poet are inseparable.”
Her Bulgarian background showed the crucial role of poets in social change; they were held in high esteem as the “People’s Poet.” For Elza, poetry and philosophy must work together, both offering medicines for societal ills.
“[Poetry] has to be in our everyday: we have to live it, we have to breathe it,” she adds. “Poetry is life.”
The event is moderated by City of Surrey’s 2015-2018 Poet Laureate, Renee Sarojini Saklikar.
For more information, see https://vpl.bibliocommons.com/events/687141af84614f42001cb191.
