What happened to the hours and days. So many exciting new projects and partnerships are happening since the last posting. Just talked to Erin messenger and her dance group is going to do 3 pieces with poetic themes.Tyna the festival co-ordinator has emailed me some pieces she will be exhibiting at the "visual/poetry" art exhibition on Feb. 10 at the new Temiskaming art gallery in the Temiskaming Shores town hall.Got poster from Paul at chat noir books and he is doing an open mike to support the festival.
So "bards of the north" come on out to this poetry/musical happening.
Last weekend we had a very impressive table at the family literacy day. As soon as the kids saw Tyna and Jerry making balloon flowers they rushed in and lined up for balloons. At the magnetic poetry game area a 7 year old was composing her first poem.
Is it true
said the egg
i love you
Later a katimavik volunteer named Raphael was composing a poem too
I eat a thousand dreams
my sleeping beauty
whisper a symphony of love.
We met many people who want more info and are interested in attending the poetry festival.
But the big news this week was fellow cultural entrepreneur Temagami resident Marvyn Morrison donated $2000 to the festival. We chatted for several hours and when he mentioned it i wasn't sure i was hearing correctly.This is a huge financial and emotional boost to our little shoe string budget project.What impressed me and still does with anyone who is contributing is that they get the big picture and understand this isn't about a poetry festival. It is the arts community coming together communicating and working in a unified fashion. Cultural tourism can reinvigorate economies of small communities and our festivals a way to keep our local talent supplied with financial incentives and recognition ones.On those very positive news i will end with a quote i found on my fridge.
Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap
but by the seeds you plant.
Robert Louis Stevenson
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Monday, December 31, 2007
What do local crafted beers,poetry, and breaking a snowshoe trail have in common?Let's regress and maybe this will shed some light on that last enigmatic sentence.
On Dec. 28 Spring Pulse Poetry Festival and Smoothwater Ecolodge teamed up to have an afternoon of beer tasting and poetry readings. It was a success with 16 people in attendance and 9 poets reading pieces. To say nothing of the fragrant aromas of the spruce and raspberry beers.To add musical accompaniment we had two young people (Whitney and Alex) poet/songsters guitarists play some of their poem/songs.OK that's the beer and poetry part but what of the snowshoe stuff.
Well i bought new snowshoes and the next day went for a hike in the bush. A small trail had been broken which i followed for a little while,then needed to break a new one through thick snow.It was tough going and i felt a little dizzy after a while so headed back. Since i had broken this trail already the way home was easier. I just planted my snowshoes in the same tracks as before until i stopped and realized that i really wasn't making a good trail for anyone else.So then began to pack down more evenly my original single tracks to make it smoother for the next person.
That is when i got the insight that what this poetry festival and ongoing events are breaking new trails of creative possibilities for the next generation of great poet/artists. Without providing venues and opportunities for local poets to perform and be introduced to each other and poetry contests to reward their talent no growth will happen.
Coming together to walk that same trail in solidarity and common fellowship means cross -promoting our strengths. Knowing and honouring our past cultural heroes and learning from them gives us deeper roots to blaze new trails with confidence and clarity. We are not alone on this path of discovery of expression.
On Dec. 28 Spring Pulse Poetry Festival and Smoothwater Ecolodge teamed up to have an afternoon of beer tasting and poetry readings. It was a success with 16 people in attendance and 9 poets reading pieces. To say nothing of the fragrant aromas of the spruce and raspberry beers.To add musical accompaniment we had two young people (Whitney and Alex) poet/songsters guitarists play some of their poem/songs.OK that's the beer and poetry part but what of the snowshoe stuff.
Well i bought new snowshoes and the next day went for a hike in the bush. A small trail had been broken which i followed for a little while,then needed to break a new one through thick snow.It was tough going and i felt a little dizzy after a while so headed back. Since i had broken this trail already the way home was easier. I just planted my snowshoes in the same tracks as before until i stopped and realized that i really wasn't making a good trail for anyone else.So then began to pack down more evenly my original single tracks to make it smoother for the next person.
That is when i got the insight that what this poetry festival and ongoing events are breaking new trails of creative possibilities for the next generation of great poet/artists. Without providing venues and opportunities for local poets to perform and be introduced to each other and poetry contests to reward their talent no growth will happen.
Coming together to walk that same trail in solidarity and common fellowship means cross -promoting our strengths. Knowing and honouring our past cultural heroes and learning from them gives us deeper roots to blaze new trails with confidence and clarity. We are not alone on this path of discovery of expression.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
the begining of...
What would possess someone to start a poetry festival in Northern Ontario?It had something to do with the power of the past acting as mother lode of inspiration. While editing my poems for a upcoming chapbook i heard of a poetry contest. I wrote a poem(calling us home) about growing up in the 50's ,60's in a mining town called Cobalt. Entered it, but found out later the contest had been cancelled.So contacted my sister Sue who is on the library board to ask the Cobalt Public Library to revive it.
The contest was named after Canada's first national poet William Henry Drummond. For 3 years he lived in the Cobalt camp as first doctor, vice president of the Drummond silver mine, and poet.I'd remembered taking him in school and reciting some of his patois dialect poems like "Little Batesse". So i thought i would check out his archives at the library. I noted that he died on April 6 1907 thus 2007 is the 100Th anniversary of his death.A century later another poet had discovered the towns greatest poet.So i began spreading the word. Eventually the library put on a very well attended Drummond Day.Then everything seemed to quiet down. When i returned from working in Alberta i wanted to keep the momentum going with events,ceremonies, etc for the rest of the year.It dawned i had to become a cultural entrepreneur and would plan a festival event next spring for the anniversaries ending.
So i asked the library for permission to manage the poetry contest and teamed up with Deborah Ranchuck of White Mountain Publications(www.wmpub.ca).I would create a 4 day poetry festival integrating the Doctor William Henry Drummond Poetry Contest www.wmpub.ca/95-drummond.htm with an awards ceremony, continue the Drummond Day but at a bigger venue (www.classictheatre.net) and have various poetry performances around town.
One of my missions was to organize and unite the local poets into a community.Last summer when i was in the hinterland of my imagination wondering what might happen i found a quotation by Albert Einstein. He said if your idea is not absurd you will have no chance of succeeding.So that in essence is an indirect answer to the question i presented at the start of this posting.I've always loved the challenge of integrative thinking, pulling together contradictory and divergent persons and organizations into a cohesive, synthesized powerhouse, of passion and collaborative purpose.The ship becomes more than the captain and it's crew.So thus Canada's newest poetry festival is born and will be the first festival of "National Poetry Month" in the spring of 2008.
I envisioned a process of before ,during, and after the festival thus putting poetry on the cultural road map from Temiskaming Shores to Temagami.So many community outreach projects are planned for the coming months. The first is on Friday December 28 from 2-4 p.m. at smoothwater ecolodge(www.smoothwater.com) 14 km. north of Temagami 705-569-3539 a beer tasting and poetry event with readings by 4 local poets and after an open mic.
For information on other events contact Tyna Silver at tynasilver@hotmail.com
dave
mybrydges@yahoo.ca
artistic director
spring pulse poetry festival
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