Two Torontonians have created Canada’s first and only agency for personalized poetry after making their mark on the city’s various pop-up markets. Sisters-in-law Daniella Zanchi and Hannah Geiser are the founders of Poesy, an agency of poets who write personalized, on-the-spot poems on vintage typewriters. You might’ve encountered a Poesy poet at a market in Toronto, like the Good Friends Market or the Hippie Market. They also service weddings, parties and corporate events — anywhere some romantic whimsy is requested.
Guests approach a Poesy table where a trained poet, or “poetic entertainer” is at the ready with their typewriter (and listening skills). Based on their conversation, the poet will produce a heartfelt, custom poem in two minutes or less, and place it into a personally addressed envelope for their subject to take home.
“Our poets are kind of like therapists at times. People open up to us, they trust us with their secrets, breakups, affairs,” says Zanchi. “I’ve learned that people will often share more with a stranger than their best friend.”
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Poesy is an agency featuring a collective of poets on a freelance basis, but Zanchi prefers to describe the concept as a movement to make poetry more accessible.
As a first-generation Canadian, Zanchi says she was not particularly literary growing up. The humanities were not considered practical career options in her home, so when she went to Western University, and discovered her love of literature for the first time, her mind was blown.
“I felt immediately connected, less alone, like I was just understanding the world for the first time,” she says. She loved literature so much that she went on to complete a master’s in English and cultural studies.
Her first job after completing her studies was as a script writer for live events and broadcast. She worked there for two years and loved every second of it. “For the first time in my life, I experienced writing beyond the desk. I was writing for arena-sized audiences of over 20,000 people,” she says. “That experience sewed the early seeds of Poesy, because it introduced me to a writing style that was collaborative, community-focused and exchanged in live time.”
While working a corporate communications job, she began conceptualizing the idea for Poesy in her free time. “The core of it was knowing that words can bring people together,” Zanchi says. Incidentally, she had been gifted a typewriter that she had yet to discover a purpose for. Suddenly her vision was coming together — she could use the typewriter to create a poetic exchange with a physical element.
She mentioned the idea to her sister-in-law, Hannah, who also loves poetry, and they started talking about why they love the medium and what’s missing from it.
“There are limited outlets for poets; typically it’s spoken word or publication,” Zanchi explains. “But without formal education, or training, it can often be difficult to access those opportunities.”
Though Geiser was living in Vancouver at the time, and Zanchi in Toronto, they proceeded to have long, late night conversations about how they could make poetry more accessible, to both poets and consumers.
In August of 2022, Zanchi got a call from a friend who runs a small market who’d had a vendor drop out last minute. Asking if she wanted to fill in, Zanchi knew this was her chance to pilot her idea. So she grabbed her typewriter and set herself up at the market.
“I loved it,” she says. “Somebody sits down at your table and they tell you their dreams, their sorrows, whatever is on their mind. And in that moment, you’re able to have an honest conversation in a way that you never typically have with a stranger. You wrap up the poem in a couple minutes, read it to them and suddenly you’re connected.”
She created an Instagram for Poesy and the next month, she set up a booth at Toronto’s Elevate tech and innovation festival. She worked eight-hour days, and connected her typewriter to a TV screen so that curious passersby could watch her in action. Before she knew it, she had lineups of people waiting to have a personalized poem made for them.
“I had an overwhelmingly positive response, people thanking me for their poems and expressing visible emotion. It was exhilarating, and I knew I was onto something,” says Zanchi.
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Zanchi kept doing markets, eventually expanding to weddings and working with Geiser to recruit poets. “We hire both established and emerging writers,” Zanchi explains, “because it’s more about how are you as a person — whether you demonstrate empathy, and whether people are able to connect with you.”
As demand for Poesy grew, Zanchi took on corporate gigs for companies like TikTok Canada and W Hotel. After juggling her commitments for months, Zanchi finally made the decision to resign from her day job in December 2023, and pursue Poesy full-time.
Last month, the agency completed a third round of hiring, sifting through 300 applications in order to hire 11 poets, one of whom is Andrea Josic, the present poet laureate of Mississauga, and another who is Ayomide Bayowa, Mississauga’s preceding poet laureate. Now Poesy is a collective of 18 and growing. Zanchi and Geiser also established a studio space where they can develop interactive retail installations, and allow their poets to develop their craft and work on larger projects. Currently, Poesy is partnering with Hyatt’s Writer’s Room bar for ongoing activations.
While market rates are PWYC, Poesy charges $185/ hour for unlimited poetry at private and corporate events. In the next five years, Zanchi hopes to expand the agency across Canada. “Toronto has been the place that has given us the space to do this,” she says gratefully. “It means the world to me.”
