Dec. 9, 2006 - If global warming signals the beginning of the end, Victoria poet P.K. Page hopes she's not around for the bleak finale.

Tonight marks a dramatic reading of Page's prose piece, Unless the Eye Catch Fire, at a small local theatre. The poetic narrative paints a frightening picture of a world tipping toward destruction. Soaring temperatures have forced citizens to stay in their homes, which are insulated against searing heat with layers of spray-on foam.

Oddly, Unless the Eye Catch Fire was written in the 1970s -- years before most scientists went public with dire predictions about global climate change. Page, who is 90 years old, said it's a subject that has preoccupied her as a writer for the past three decades.

"We absolutely seem to ignore [global warming], don't we? I'm not too sure it isn't too late," she said.

"People are blind. It isn't convenient for them to face it. It means they'd have to make vast changes in their lives... Civilizations have died from their own stupidity before. Look at the Easter Islanders. And we'll do it. I may be gone before that, I hope. Oh God, I hope. I'm too old already."

Unless the Eye Catch Fire will be read this weekend by actor Romany Miller, with original music by Douglas Hensley. Proceeds from the event go to the Institute for Cross-Cultural Exchange, of which Page is chairperson.

She is a poet with a national reputation. Page's collection, The Metal and the Flower, won a Governor General's Award. In 2003 she was shortlisted for a $40,000 Griffin Poetry Prize -- the richest such award in the world. Because this is her 90th year, she was the subject of numerous tributes in 2006, including a Victoria Symphony concert in her honour.

Unless the Eye Catch Fire chronicles a breakdown in society's infrastructures -- supplies of gas and food run out, for instance. Ironically, Page experienced a taste of this during the recent snowstorm. She lost power to her Uplands home, and found herself fiddling with a battery-powered radio and a butane burner "so I could scramble an egg." The power outage was especially difficult because she requires a powered chair to get up and down her stairs.

Unless the Eye Catch Fire was previously performed at the Belfry Theatre by actor Joy Coghill. It was also made into a film directed by Anna Tchernakova, although Page -- who acted in it -- was less than thrilled with the results. It deviated too much from her original intent.

"They monkeyed about here and there with it. I'd just as soon as forget the whole thing," she said.

Nonetheless, Page is giving film another try. Victoria filmmaker Art Makosinski, who once made a documentary about Ravi Shankar and his daughter, shot footage of the poet over the past year for a project titled P.K. at 90.

Page has penned more than a dozen books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction. She still writes. In 2007 she will publish a book of essays and a book of "quirky" short stories. The latter, titled Up on the Roof, takes its name from her story of a man who, to escape his wife, retreats to his roof with a flashlight and frying pan.

Poetry doesn't come to her as quickly as it once did. She said in her newest work, the subject of mortality occasionally emerges,such as in a just-penned story called My Chosen Country.

"I don't know if it's about the end of my life, or the end of the world," said Page, smiling. "I don't recommend getting old. There are a lot of disadvantages. But I'm not afraid of death. No. Not at all."

She thought for several seconds.

"I mean, I may be when it's staring me in the face. It's easy to be brave. I'm not afraid of lions, but then there isn't one in my living room. You might feel differently about a lion in your living room."