Featured poet Ron Stewart's admirers packed Mykonos
Scroll down for slide show
Long-time workshop facilitator Ron Stewart was honoured at the Feb. 1st, 2017 London Open Mic. A packed house of fifty-eight listened to his featured reading from his new book, “A Boy Growing Up in London and Other Poems”.
The reading was notable for the smiles and laughter it elicited as Ron recalled poetic incidents from his career as a pilot, his childhood in London and his life in general. Ron is a very local poet; few in the audience knew he was raised only one block away from that room in Mykonos Restaurant--in his grandparent’s house at 490 Adelaide Street (the title of one of the poems).
Several executive members of Poetry London, including director Karen Schindler and London Poet Laureate Tom Cull, were in the audience to honour Ron for the workshop he founded and had facilitated continuously for five years until his recent retirement. His workshop was a response to the monthly Poetry London version that only workshopped two local poets each month.
Many of the poets who regularly attended the workshop, and who appreciated his remarkable facilitating ability, were on hand to add their applause to the boisterous warmth of the evening. As co-host Joan Clayton said, “What I love about Ron is the truly infectious joy of poetry that he exudes and shares with us all.”
Debbie Okun Hill, who regularly drove to London from Sarnia to attend Ron’s workshops, put it this way: “Supportive and kind! As a workshop leader, Ron Stewart made newcomers and guests feel welcome and part of a greater poetry community. He listened attentively and always found the right words to encourage an emerging poet.”
For me (London Open Mic Poetry organizer Stan Burfield), attending Ron’s workshop was a life-changing adventure. When my wife and I retired, I decided to finally deal with my shyness by venturing out into society, which I did by attending Ron’s workshops. His natural friendliness and sense of equality alone would have worked wonders, but his facilitation techniques were also meant to make people feel unjudged, comfortable and open. It was an amazing and powerful treatment for my shyness, to such a degree that I soon began looking for the next most difficult way of confronting my fears. This turned out to be the founding of London Open Mic Poetry. After five seasons of organizing it, I am no longer shy and London has a new poetry institution. So, if not for Ron Stewart and his sensitive facilitation, both I and London would be worse off.
At his reading, Ron’s poems were so enjoyed that he sold a record number of books, fifteen in all, far more than any other featured poet has sold in our five-year history. He donated $5.00 from each sale to help pay the costs of a nine-year-old London girl named Keanna who has kidney disease and is on dialysis while waiting for a kidney transplant.
In appreciation, Ron says: “Thank you to everyone who attended Open Mic on Wed Feb 1st. I felt humbled and honoured by the numbers attending and the applause, smiles and giggles I received from you, my Open Mic Friends. And thank you for buying my book. As a result of the book sales $175 will be going to “A Kidney for Keanna”. I know this will be very much appreciated by Keanna and her family.”
The second half of the event was, as usual, a series of open mic readings, with the poems as wildly varied as the poets themselves. Joan Clayton, who hosts the open mic readers, was having one of her best, most lively days. Her introductions to the poets and her perceptive and often humourous remarks after the readings were so apt and seemed to come to her so easily that at some point I remarked to fellow committee member Brittany Renaud that Joan seemed to be in a flow. Brittany, who obviously was in a flow herself, immediately said, “You’re the rock and Joan is the river.” As hard as it was for me to imagine myself as a rock, I finally did see that in one sense it’s true: The open mic was built around me, and Joan runs the river of life through it. Nice image.
When Joan introduced me for my own open mic reading, I decided it was time the audience knew a little about her: “For those of you who don’t know what Joan does during the day, she’s not referred to as Miss Clayton, or Ms Clayton, or even Mrs. Clayton. It’s Dr. Clayton, psychotherapist.” She has raised five children, is a very good poet in her own right, is also a playwright, and is currently working on her second novel. How she manages all that and the rest of her busy life as well is beyond me. But I have tremendous respect for her ability to do it and always keep her positive attitude at the same time
Long-time workshop facilitator Ron Stewart was honoured at the Feb. 1st, 2017 London Open Mic. A packed house of fifty-eight listened to his featured reading from his new book, “A Boy Growing Up in London and Other Poems”.
The reading was notable for the smiles and laughter it elicited as Ron recalled poetic incidents from his career as a pilot, his childhood in London and his life in general. Ron is a very local poet; few in the audience knew he was raised only one block away from that room in Mykonos Restaurant--in his grandparent’s house at 490 Adelaide Street (the title of one of the poems).
Several executive members of Poetry London, including director Karen Schindler and London Poet Laureate Tom Cull, were in the audience to honour Ron for the workshop he founded and had facilitated continuously for five years until his recent retirement. His workshop was a response to the monthly Poetry London version that only workshopped two local poets each month.
Many of the poets who regularly attended the workshop, and who appreciated his remarkable facilitating ability, were on hand to add their applause to the boisterous warmth of the evening. As co-host Joan Clayton said, “What I love about Ron is the truly infectious joy of poetry that he exudes and shares with us all.”
Debbie Okun Hill, who regularly drove to London from Sarnia to attend Ron’s workshops, put it this way: “Supportive and kind! As a workshop leader, Ron Stewart made newcomers and guests feel welcome and part of a greater poetry community. He listened attentively and always found the right words to encourage an emerging poet.”
For me (London Open Mic Poetry organizer Stan Burfield), attending Ron’s workshop was a life-changing adventure. When my wife and I retired, I decided to finally deal with my shyness by venturing out into society, which I did by attending Ron’s workshops. His natural friendliness and sense of equality alone would have worked wonders, but his facilitation techniques were also meant to make people feel unjudged, comfortable and open. It was an amazing and powerful treatment for my shyness, to such a degree that I soon began looking for the next most difficult way of confronting my fears. This turned out to be the founding of London Open Mic Poetry. After five seasons of organizing it, I am no longer shy and London has a new poetry institution. So, if not for Ron Stewart and his sensitive facilitation, both I and London would be worse off.
At his reading, Ron’s poems were so enjoyed that he sold a record number of books, fifteen in all, far more than any other featured poet has sold in our five-year history. He donated $5.00 from each sale to help pay the costs of a nine-year-old London girl named Keanna who has kidney disease and is on dialysis while waiting for a kidney transplant.
In appreciation, Ron says: “Thank you to everyone who attended Open Mic on Wed Feb 1st. I felt humbled and honoured by the numbers attending and the applause, smiles and giggles I received from you, my Open Mic Friends. And thank you for buying my book. As a result of the book sales $175 will be going to “A Kidney for Keanna”. I know this will be very much appreciated by Keanna and her family.”
The second half of the event was, as usual, a series of open mic readings, with the poems as wildly varied as the poets themselves. Joan Clayton, who hosts the open mic readers, was having one of her best, most lively days. Her introductions to the poets and her perceptive and often humourous remarks after the readings were so apt and seemed to come to her so easily that at some point I remarked to fellow committee member Brittany Renaud that Joan seemed to be in a flow. Brittany, who obviously was in a flow herself, immediately said, “You’re the rock and Joan is the river.” As hard as it was for me to imagine myself as a rock, I finally did see that in one sense it’s true: The open mic was built around me, and Joan runs the river of life through it. Nice image.
When Joan introduced me for my own open mic reading, I decided it was time the audience knew a little about her: “For those of you who don’t know what Joan does during the day, she’s not referred to as Miss Clayton, or Ms Clayton, or even Mrs. Clayton. It’s Dr. Clayton, psychotherapist.” She has raised five children, is a very good poet in her own right, is also a playwright, and is currently working on her second novel. How she manages all that and the rest of her busy life as well is beyond me. But I have tremendous respect for her ability to do it and always keep her positive attitude at the same time