Lenea Grace on how poetry breaks all the rules

April is National Poetry Month. To celebrate, CBC Books asked poets the question: "What is the power of poetry?"

Lenea Grace is a poet based in Gibsons, B.C. Her collection of poetry, A Generous Latitude, maps a series of relationships within a greater exploration of Canadiana, barrelling through shield and crag, river and slag.

"To me, the power lies in precision, the economy of words. A few stanzas can pack an oceanic punch — that is to say, deep and far-reaching — and do so without the luxury of length afforded to novels. I'm interested in poetry as a form of controlled chaos.

"Or to reverse that — poetry as a drunk and disorderly schoolmarm, a diagrammed sentence gone rogue, where subject and predicate kiss, bow, take off their shoes, break all the rules." ​