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We hosted The Ontario Poetry Society's "Sultry Summer Gathering" Aug. 16th at Mykonos

8/20/2015

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The Sultry Summer Poetry Gathering at London’s beautiful Mykonos Restaurant on Aug. 16th, 2015, was enjoyed by everyone in spite of it being one of the hottest days of the summer in a terrace room with no air conditioning. Twenty hardy poets read to an audience totaling about thirty at the annual gathering of The Ontario Poetry Society (TOPS). 
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The normal London reading series at Mykonos, London Open Mic Poetry Night, regularly turns out substantially larger audiences, but the weather reports had predicted a very hot day, so it was no surprise that many people decided to stay home. The London Branch Manager had tried to obtain folding paper fans for everybody in advance, but none were available anywhere in the city, so free rental and real-estate magazines were supplied in their place and seemed to do the job for most of the audience
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Thirteen TOPS members read: Carmen Falconi, Wayne Ray, Stan Burfield (London Chapter Manager), Fran Figge (TOPS President), Debbie Okun Hill, I. B. (Bunny) Iskov (TOPS founder), Keith Inman, Leona Harris, John Ambury, Nancy Walden, Roy James, Dunlaith O'Heron, and Carmen, a holocaust survivor. Carl Lapp was present but didn't read. 
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Additionally, seven non-members read at the open mic: Martin Hayter, Joan Clayton, Lorna Pominville, Kevin Heslop, John Nyman, Dorothy Mahoney, Laurie Smith.
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Readers drove into London from all over SW Ontario just for this event, from Toronto, Newmarket, Windsor, Sarnia, Thorold and more. 


A Personal Note from Stan Burfield, London TOPS Chapter Manager & organizer of London Open Mic Poetry Night: WOW!!!

From my point of view as co-host (with Bunny Iskov, TOPS founder), the afternoon certainly was a success. In fact it was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. 

After a long life of serious shyness, this was the first time I have ever been totally calm in a gathering largely of strangers. It was the culmination of five years of self-therapy. Initially, I forced myself out into the community to attend Ron Stewart's great monthly poetry workshop, and when that became easy I tried to read to an audience, and, finally, for lack of a regular reading venue, I created one by organizing London Open Mic Poetry Night. That idea was sparked by a TOPS reading/open mic I attended in Sarnia. Moreso than attending workshops and reading in public, It was the organizing itself that did most of the work of ridding me of shyness. 

So, after three seasons of London Open Mic, here I am actually co-hosting this year’s version of the TOPS event I had attended in Sarnia that got me going on this course in the first place. And, by lovely coincidence, this event happens to be the first one at which I’ve ever been totally calm. It felt so good I had to keep myself from constantly grinning. Everything I said as co-host was warm and relaxed, the polar opposite of my tight fear at the first few events of London Open Mic three years ago. It feels like some huge coin has finally settled down on its opposite face. 

I definitely have Bunny Iskov, and the rest of the executive of TOPS, to thank for this, because I would never have thought of becoming a social organizer (“Are you insane!?!?”) had it not been for TOPS.


A possible "Shy Poets Club"

Preparing for the Sultry Summer TOPS reading, I thought of starting a Shy Poets Club. Socializing worked to rid me of my shyness; why wouldn’t it also for others? It would probably be a poem sharing club, but light on critiquing and heavy on socializing. In a group of shy people, no one is going to be judging other shy people negatively. Only supporting each other.


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IF NOT FOR TOPS, a note of gratitude from London Open Mic organizer Stan Burfield

8/15/2015

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Having suffered from a bad case of shyness all my life, I finally decided, on semi-retirement at 62, to try to reverse it by forcing myself out with others. I began by attending Ron Stewart's excellent poetry workshop, and eventually worked up the courage to read poetry before an audience, which I did twice at Poetry London events, a reward for having the poems workshopped there.

With no other reading events in London (except the Slam performance contests), a couple friends and I drove to Sarnia for a reading/open mic event put on by The Ontario Poetry Society (TOPS). On the road home, we mulled over the fact that there was no similar monthly open mic in the much larger city of London. I decided to give it a shot myself. And it worked.


So I'm grateful to TOPS for giving me the idea. Even though the organizing initially drove my stress through the roof, 


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A Non-Mykonos Summer's Night Poetry Reading and Open Mic

8/10/2015

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Here are digital photos and a covetous little vignette intended to affirm and articulate the location of our 2nd open mic event this month. The event’s being hosted by Allen Cook on August 19th at 6:30PM at Summer’s Dream*, a stunningly furbished backyard/stage area at 244 Hyman Street. The evening’s layout and a lineup of musicians/featured readers follow, if time is feral. 
So inside there’s a large open square centered by a high willow whose fronds hang a few meters above the dun-coloured floorboards which run to the edge of each of four adjoining, thematically-distinct alcoves. (It’s actually more of a rhombus inside one of the obtuse angles of which you’d find yourself standing at the entrance, across from the other obtuse side where the alcoves are, but you get the idea.) There’s a statue of Shakespeare’s Shylock to your left; its back is to the pale pine fence which abuts the house’s rear façade of gray brick bedecked with candleabra, an enscribed mahogany panel, and shelving upon which stand bronze statuettes so polished and liquescent you’d think 


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What is event success? A new idea.

8/7/2015

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To someone with a long retail background, which consisted of the day-to-day attempt, over 18 years, to make a flower shop successful, it’s second nature to see ever-larger numbers as the big goal. And that’s a hard rut to get out of. So if 40 come to a event, it’s twice as successful as one that only attracts 20. 

However, people keep telling me that the open mic’s success has nothing to do with size, but more with art, ideas, poets appreciating each other’s work, liveliness, life expressed, expression itself, a breakthrough of expressing one’s self, to others, being part of a community. 

And those are all good points. 

But this summer I’ve discovered a new guage of success. So far I’ve taken part in (organizing and/or reading) three very small open mics. Two of them consisted of a small number of poets essentially reading to each other. But in each case, something good happened. For instance, a young lady who was very anxious and initially afraid to read a poem she considered too “dark” was encouraged to read it anyway, and applauded afterwards for her courage. In these small events, unexpected communication can happen, at least with me the organizer. I and others have more time to help each other with unusual problems that might not otherwise be expressed. And so on. 

I came home from these tiny, supposedly unsuccessful events very satisfied. And with this new idea: If one good thing happens at an event, then not only was it a success but I could go one step further and say that the event had a purpose and now its purpose was fulfilled. For me, everything else that happened at the event became simply the things that were required for that good thing to happen. And that makes strong sense to me because when everyone goes home, most will go back to their carry-on lives, to some degree as if the event hadn’t happened at all. But that one person will be changed.

From now on, I’m not going to worry so much about numbers, and instead try to become more sensitive to what’s happening, and maybe what needs to happen. 

Stan


The next small event to look forward to is this Saturday morning, a poetry reading at the Mantis Eco and Arts Festival at Boler Mountain. We read at 11:00 am. If you’re into nature, as I am, you should enjoy it.   http://mantisfestival.blogspot.ca/

Then, the last summer event I’m working on (organizing and hosting) will be Aug. 16 at Mykonos Restaurant, The Sultry Summer Poetry Gathering, put together by London Open Mic and sponsored by The Ontario Poetry Society TOPS, at 12:30 pm. There’s an open mic to read at, and you can get the idea of what TOPS is, and if joining would be of any benefit to you. http://www.theontariopoetrysociety.ca/Poetry%20London%2015.htm

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The Sultry Summer Poetry  Gathering -- Mykonos

8/2/2015

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From The Ontario Poetry Society
& London Open Mic Poetry Night


THE SULTRY SUMMER POETRY GATHERING

Sunday August 16, 2015
12:30 p.m.
Mykonos Restaurant
572 Adelaide St. North, London

OPEN MIC will follow readings by society members

Attendance: free

Featuring Th


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