In our Valentines Day issue last year, writer Tara Lee Wittchen mined stories about the crappiest gifts ever received. Take Christina, whose boyfriend gave her a homemade CD featuring him singing songs like Space Oddity, Moon River and Famous Blue Raincoat alone in his dorm room, accompanied only by the original versions playing faintly in the background. The bastard could not sing, she says. Then he made me sit with him and listen to the entire thing. The whole thing! It was awful.
Well, we cant all be as effortlessly cool as Leonard Cohen, but this year theres no excuse for lame gestures. Imagine your shmoopie-pookiekins face when you show up with a customized poem about him or her. And you dont even have to force a rhyme---just show up at Halifax Farmers Market this Saturday, February 9, from 8am to 1pm. Talented wordsmiths Sue Goyette, Heather Jessup, Warren Heiti, Sue Mersereau, John Wall Barger and lymeric writer Peter Munroe will interview you about your love and write a poem (haiku or sonnet) on the spot, based on your information. Best of all, proceeds go to Leave Out ViolencE.