Glenn Kletke had a group engage on editing poems with an eye to form in the Tree Seed Workshop. He went into a close read, searching for the heart of the poem and finding out how it ticks.
Kletke sees 3 routes to form – starting with a form and filling in a poem, organic form of what develops from the content and to shape the content into forms. He talked about the possibilities and impacts the choice of stanza size makes on the speed of a poem. Stanza means room and the first impression you have of a poem is not once you scan around inside the walls of the room, but that first glance of shape. It is a closed thing and each room tells you there is something new about to begin. He gave a whack of handouts of examples, things to consider, different samples of what people did with different shapes. He asked us to consider in other poems and in our own practices why the choice of tercet or stepped poem, quatrains, couplets, scattered, etc is made and what it does and how.
There were over a dozen readers at the open mic on Valentines Day after the workshop.
Marilyn Bowering came in from BC to Ottawa to read from various of her books and manuscripts Tuesday night at Tree. Some were of ghosts and ancient greek myths rewritten which aren’t to my tastes but she wrote a rebuke to friends of Nebuchadnezzar when he went mad and was eating grass. How could they call themselves friends and not have the compassion to ask him to find his coat, ask him to get out of that field.
Leslie Vryenhoek came in from Newfoundland to read from Gulf. In Letitia’s Cold Footprints she relates arriving in the rural prairie, and relates to another newcomer to there from 140 years ago:
Letitia and I arrived in this plain
country daughters of someone high
somewhere else, our credentials crammed
into oversized luggage and rounded
vowels, bold outfits and outright attitudes
as if entitlement and piano lessons
would pass as currency here.
Interesting stories, sweet orders of reveal, some depth of significance from a historical calm of appraisal of insight, pleasing music in words and on the page the enjambment make the reading even more rich.
It’s not only what you write, but how you say it. And I must say Vyrenhoek not only composes poems but composes herself. She presents calm, assured, confident. Her voice and presentation is clear. No baffling off-topic preambles. She continues onwards between poems with, at most, a line of set up which serves to make a stream thru the poems. She has it timed out, knows the effect of tone on the audience, doesn’t futz with distractions of light or what page to go to next, but gets on with it. This is remarkably uncommon.
It was announced that open mic semi-regular David Blaikie won the Tree Press chapbook competition, blind judged by Jason Heroux. His manuscript Farewell to Coney Island will have 50 copies printed by Tree Press.
Second place was Janice Tokar, third Jennifer Pederson with honourable mentions to Leslie Strutt and Grant Savage.
The next Tree will be rolled into Versefest.
Normal Tree programming to resume March 13th with feature Jane Munroe and a one hour version of the long poem workshop with Jay MillAR to take place starting at 6:45 pm.