He brings his lifelong love of language to the world stage, and most recently wrapped up his tenure as Canada's Parliamentary Poet Laureate.

The CBC's Amy Smith sat down with George Elliott Clarke recently to talk about everything from the power of library card, the importance of poetry in contemporary society, the wisdom of Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan and Plato and Clarke’s career as a self -described agitator-documenter. Here’s Amy Smith’s conversation with poet George Elliott Clarke at the Halifax Central Library.