Diane Tucker, Vancouver poem in Apple Valley Review

It's a point of pride with me (I know, cardinal sin and all that. Fine. I'm a sinner. That comes as a surprise?) that Pacific Theatre's CHRISTMAS PRESENCE and other such nights (CONFESSIONS, PASSION, TESTIMONY, etc) almost always feature a real live poet. We've had Richard Osler, we've had Karl Petersen, we've had... Well, lots.

One of 'em is the much-enthused-about Diane Tucker, who's just had one of her pieces published in the Apple Valley Review literary journal. I'll make you make your own journey to their site for the poem itself - just click on the link, scroll down past the pretty picture of the little girl and leaves and nature and stuff to find the link to Diane's - but I'll whet your appetite with her notes on the poem's Vancouver setting;

On “Speeding north: Vancouver”
I’ve taken the Number 10 Hastings bus down Granville Street into downtown Vancouver hundreds of times, but one night, a shiny, rainy, stereotypical Vancouver night, everything I saw meant more somehow. I guess I was thinking how the city’s changed since I was born there almost 42 years ago. Even though Vancouver, still a young city, has taken over the last few years to wearing too much make-up and unbuttoning her shirt a little too low to attract the cool guys, I still remember her when she was a sweet, interesting nobody in comfortable shoes who was perfectly happy with bad Chinese food, walking in the rain, a romantic movie and a slice of (non-gourmet) pizza. I still want to think of her that way and I don’t think she likes it.