“My life is like the lotus/swelling in copper light of morning/undisturbed by torrents of falling water”* – Joan Sutcliffe
I could listen to the voice of Canadian poet Joan Sutcliffe all day! Originally from Yorkshire, Sutcliffe captivates the audience and her accent adds another dimension to her casual reading style. On Sunday, she launched her poetry book From Time to Time during The Ontario Poetry Society’s The Spring into Poetry Party at Meet at 66 King East in Cobourg, Ontario.
One of the beauties of spring and the ease of safely travelling to out-of-town launches and poetry readings is that one often collects precious memories to take home to treasure. Sutcliffe’s reading was one of those memories. The other was the featured reading by Life Member Allan Briesmaster who has been spotlighted on this blog before. I also enjoyed meeting for the first time Greer Roberts, a Durham region resident who launched his self-published chapbook The Slaughters.
Featured guest reader and TOPS life member Allan Briesmaster read from his recent books while Joan Sutcliffe launched her second book and Greer Roberts introduced his self-published chapbook during The Spring into Poetry Party in Cobourg.
Of course, it was nice to be in a room filled with other writers: from first time readers to veteran performers. All of the members, the open mic readers, and the appreciative audience made the afternoon special.
The Ontario Poetry Society held a members’ reading and open mic on May 5, 2018 at Meet at 66 King East in Cobourg, Ontario.
Below is a report by Joan Sutcliffe that will appear in the next issue of Verse Afire, TOPS membership newsletter. It is printed here with permission from the author and The Ontario Poetry Society:
Reported by Joan Sutcliffe:
With first blossoms of May, members and friends of The Ontario Poetry Society enjoyed the bohemian charm of our favourite tea house in Cobourg, with its exquisite décor and china tea cups.
T.O.P.S. ever-active creator and organizer, Bunny Iskov, opened the afternoon with a warm welcome drawing attention to the attractive packages of book prizes, donated by our sponsors and raffled off throughout the event.
First to read was Glenna Hall with an intriguing piece called Looking Glass which conjured up ethereal personifications of starlight and the dream weaver posing mystical questions. Then John Ambury paid tribute to the intuitive insight of women as the shamanic holders of the fabric of civilization in an interesting poem on the roles of men and women in traditional societies. President Fran Figge, using the metaphor of the juicy apple and the slithering serpentine male seduced by white innocence of the female, gave us a poem rich in sensual imagery, and followed with an ekphrastic poem on a painting titled Panspermia. Acknowledging his technical skill in setting up T.O.P.S. publications & webmaster skills, Bunny introduced Mark Clement, whose first reading brought to life old experiences at the high school dance, with following pieces depicting the throaty croak of the crow and fallen leaves.
Members’ reading with Glenna Hall, John Ambury, Fran Figge, Mark Clement, Debbie Okun Hill, I. B. (Bunny) Iskov, and Joanna Gale.
Next came a book launch by Joan Sutcliffe, presenting her new book From Time to Time (In Our Words, 2017), in which she followed the cycle from Beltane to Gemini, then touched on long-lost memories, finishing with a poem on Impermanence which suggests it is the briefness of all passing things that makes life so precious.
Featured reader and TOPS Life member Allan Briesmaster launched his chapbook Pod and Berry (Aeolus House, 2017).
During the break, poets and audience mingled and got to know each other. To start the second half of the readings, feature poet, Allan Briesmaster began with a poem from the latest Verse Afire which had previously enjoyed its initial reading at Cobourg. This was followed by the launch of his new book Pod and Berry which is the product of a writers’ retreat in Bermuda and contains art by his wife, Holly. One of the poems came into being through a workshop on dreams, and after amusing us with dreaming experiences he gave us an Office Dream. Then came a descriptive piece suggestive of a parkland’s healing quality, where images of goldfinches and red cardinals emerged life-like from the lines. A moving poem on trees plummeted the depths of ideas from the book The Hidden Life of Trees. His final offering portrayed the poignant sweetness of the last day in Bermuda.
Debbie Okun Hill then presented her two prize winning chapbooks, where in one poem from Drawing from Experience she describes the touching joy of drawing with her father-in-law in the nursing home. From her other chapbook, in her poem Pencil Crayons: Sharpened a companion theme with her father-in-law demonstrates the power of crayons as a medium of expression. Then, from an unpublished manuscript, her poem Turning a Corner was inspired by the loss of four ash trees in her garden which captures in similar vein the loss of some of the Sarnia writers.
Greer Roberts read from his new chapbook, and began with the light shining in the forest and blue moon bliss, before masterfully depicting the buildup of terror approaching a school massacre.
Open mic readers Donna Wooton, Liz Hammond, and Walley Keller.
Bunny Iskov, first read her poem, Air Show, in which a host of starlings dazzled everyone with acrobatic flights of fancy over the corner of Finch and Yonge. In a stark contrast to this, she informed us poetically as a near witness, of Toronto’s recent van attack at Mel Lastman Square, and then changed to a lighter mode with a rhyming poem on Ontario in the Spring. Last T.O.P.S. member to read was Joanna Gale, first winding her way through a disappointment by a walk near the water’s edge and the exhilaration of sun-blown kisses through clouds. Her final poem, a lyrical evocation of spring, introduced a delightful vocabulary of willow-bough-willow complex words.
The afternoon culminated in readings at the open mike by three talented poets from the Cobourg area. Lots of poems and lots of prizes were acquired by all.
Thank you Joan for sharing your observations!
The Ontario Poetry Society’s next members’ reading and open mic will be held this August in London, Ontario. For more information about this and other literary events taking place in Ontario, check out the 2018 Event Section of this blog.
Kites Without Strings 