Poetry Night’s interviews with its featured poets are finding quite a few readers, considering the modest size of London. 
  
For instance in the roughly 4 days since I posted the interview with John Tyndall on our Facebook page and our website, 121 have read it directly on the Facebook page, and another 223 have found it elsewhere virally. I’m not so sure about the website because I can’t afford to upgrade to see the stats on individual posts, but an average of 70 people have been coming to the site daily. 
 
So now that all these poetry people have had their curiosity satisfied and they are definitely interested, there’s only one way to find that final satisfaction. They have to actually read some of Tyndall’s poems themselves. Or better still listen to him read them out loud. There’s only one place that will happen: at the Mykonos Restaurant on Thursday. Need I say more? Okay. At 6:30.Jennifer White and Robert McMaster are playing Celtic harp with song and percussion before the reading and it is being followed by raffled Tyndall giveaways, raffle tickets being given to everyone who donates to London Open Mic Poetry Night. After Tyndall, comes all the rest of us, roughly 24 open mic readers, reading for five minutes each. If there aren’t enough readers to fill the two hours, we will have a second round for those who brought a second five-minute batch of poems.

The Mykonos is at 752 Adelaide St. N., London, with parking, also overflow parking across the side street, plus one block N. in front of Trad’s Furniture. Cover by donation.

The terrace is enclosed and well-heated from above, but in cold weather there can be cool air at floor level so wear warm footwear.

Everyone who reads at Thursday’s London Open Mic  Poetry Night at the Mykonos Restaurant will have a nice photo of themselves taken at the mic, unless they tell us not to. 

We’ll put them all on our Facebook page and our website, named and tagged. Our staff photographer, Erik Martinez Richards (left), will do his best to eliminate all weird expressions, closed-eye shots, and tongues sticking out. On the contrary, the men will look like Superman and the women Mona Lisa. To some degree.

With two hours of open mic, there is time for roughly 24 readers. If that many don’t show up, we will have a second round for those who brought more poems. That’ll make a nice big album.

Erik is also looking into videotaping our featured poets reading in a studio setting for a CD and our internet sites. 

As well as being handy with a camera, Mr. Martinez Richards is one of Poetry Night's organizers and founders.

The event is from 6:30 to 9:30, with live Celtic harp and vocals for the first half hour, followed by featured poet John Tyndall reading, with Q&A, followed by two hours of open mic. The Mykonos Restaurant is at 572 Adelaide St. N., London, with parking, also overflow parking across the side street, plus one block N. in front of Trad’s Furniture. Cover by donation. 

The terrace is enclosed and well-heated from above, but in cold weather there can be cool air at floor level so wear warm footwear. 

Beginning at the Jan. 3rd open mic, we are increasing our open mic time from one hour to two hours.

At five minutes per reader, that means roughly 24 poets will be able to read. 
  
In the case that there aren't enough readers, we will have a second round of readings. So poets should bring enough poems for two five-minute readings. (On average it takes about five minutes to read two good pages of poetry, but you should time it at home before you come.)

The names of those who bring a second batch (excepting those who exceed their five minutes the first time) will be put back in the bowl for the second go-round, which will end when the two hours are up.

As usual, all readers will be selected randomly from the ballot bowl just before they read.

John Tyndall will be the featured poet at the Jan. 3rd  (Thurs.) 2013 London Open Mic Poetry Night. As usual, it will be held in the terrace of Mykonos Restaurant at 572 Adelaide St. N. London, from 6:30 to 9:30. The first half hour will feature the celtic harp and vocals of Jennifer White and the percussion of Robert McMaster. Tyndall will be followed by one to two hours of open mic. 

A Londoner since 1967, Tyndall has been published in  several anthologies, and many journals. Reflecting an interest in family, love, religion and traditions, his two recent collections, one with poems about the birth and childhood of his son, the second (2006) his family history as well as the illness and death of his mother, have been praised by the University of Toronto Quarterly for the use of "strange and iridescent language". Tyndall also will be reading newer works, both found poems based on an obscure book from 1947 and narratives in various voices, including that of his late father.

SB:   How and why did you get started writing poetry?  

At the 100,000 Poets for Change reading at Landon Library in September, many of
us in the audience were nearly brought to tears by the harp and vocals of Jennifer White.

When she opened with the harp, we were in awe of the beauty of the celtic music, and of her virtuosity, but when she began to sing, her vocals and original, celtic-based songs were even more astonishing. From the murmurings of the crowd, and the huge smiles, it was obvious the rest of the audience was just as affected as I was. She and her partner, percussionist Robert McMaster, received a
standing ovation.

So I was very happy when she and Mr. McMaster agreed to play for our  next, Jan. 3rd (Thursday) London Open Mic Poetry Night event.

Most of Ms White’s pieces are original compositions, both melody and lyrics. They were inspired by Celtic music, myth and story. Her songs and her storytelling (which we may hear at another time) are “woven together with old tales”.

Influences? She “likes hanging out with wyrd people”. A more likely early direction came from her father, jazz cornetist Eddie White, whom she quotes as saying: “I'm just here to play!"
 
 In her own words: “I've been an independent musical artist since 1998, mostly since I never fit nicely into corporate 9 to 5, so I had to figure out a creative way to pay the bills and keep the wolves from the door. I hooked up with an ecclectic percussionist, Robert McMaster, around the same time, who's kept life interesting around my little corner of the world. One of these days I'll get those novels out of my head and onto the page. In the meantime, I'm having fun with my music. I get to meet people I would not normally have met, and venture off to places I wouldn't otherwise have had opportunity to visit.”

Those of us who attended the Poets for Change event remember Robert McMaster as the white-bearded, beret-wearing gentleman behind the huge assortment of drums, cymbals and some kind of plate from which dangled a
multitude of spoons, one of many instruments he puts in the category of ‘Found Sound’ (which, by coincidence, is very suitable for our Jan 3rd event which he will be playing at, because its featured poet, John Tyndall, focusses to some degree on ‘found poetry’). Mr. McMaster is not only a full-time musician (percussion, 'Lacota flute, guitar), but is also an activist, having “seen more and more changes around me that are not good for the Earth or it's Peoples." In the past, he has been a photographer and body/enery worker (Kripalu massage).

A favourite quote: "Think outside of the box... but try not to fall off of the shelf." (I said that - Robert McMaster).

White and McMaster perform original music in concerts, music festivals, corporate events etc. They have one CD out ‘Jennifer White - Clarsach the Celtic harp’. A second CD is in production. A vocal track of a traditional song and three of Ms White’s original instrumentals have been featured on a number of world release compilation CDs.

Jennifer White’s website: www.Knockgrafton.com  Samples of White/McMaster music here: http://www.knockgrafton.com/contents.html

 My original idea, when I was first struggling with the idea of creating a series of poetry events, was that it would be a terrible waste if, at the end of each event, everyone just filed out the door and went their separate ways. On the other hand, what a great opportunity to help create some sense of community amongst the London area’s poets and poetry lovers, especially since the featured poets were all to be from here. 

My first idea wasto use the mic when the open mic was over for poetry-related comments and ideas. People could come up and express themselves, and others could respond to their ideas. And so on. In the process we would get to know each other. 

But as the first event drew closer, it occured to me that everyone may just sit there staring at the mic, and then get up and go home. 

I couldn’t solve this problem, so I presented it to our group at one of our first meetings, along with another one I was trying to solve which was what to do about the disappointed people who wanted to read at the open mic but who weren’t selected. Do they have to go home frustrated?

It was only seconds after I finished talking that Elliot Sapp said, “table readings”. He solved both problems with one little stroke of genius, getting the idea from a technique used in producing stage plays. When actors are beginning a new play, they sit around a table reading the script together, in a ‘table reading’. In those few seconds, it had occured to Elliot that everyone at the open mic could sit in small table groups, read their poems to each other, discuss them, and thereby get to know each other, as well as go home having read their poems. Better yet, having discussed them as well. 
 
Well, a lot of people tried it during the first event, but the second and third weren’t as successful. We’ve been trying to figure out why. Well, the table readings were at the end of the event, so some took advantage of the lull after the open mic to go home a bit early. Wednesday is in the middle of the work week. Others liked the idea of the featured reader and the open mic but maybe didn’t want to take part in something that sounded more intimate, and which they weren’t familiar with. Others came just for the featured poet. And yet others, after concentrating on so may poems for so long, just wanted to relax and not be told what to do. Enough rules and social pressure. That would probably be me, if I wasn’t the organizer. And therefore officially excited about it. 

So here’s our new thing: After the open mic, we’re just going to hang around and talk poetry with each other. Converse. Relax. Have fun. And if anyone wants to read a poem to the people at their table, for discussion or not, they can, providing the others agree to listen to it.   

Stan

Revisit 100,000 Poets for Change on the Radio

If you read a poem at the Sept. 29th 100,000 Poets for Change event, hosted by Penn Kemp (or wanted to but missed it) you may want to tune in to Kemp’s radio show on Tuesday. She is airing  recorded selections from it, from 6:30 - 7:00 pm. 

Kemp’s show, ‘Gathering Voices’, which she has hosted for five years, will take a second look at the theme of change that so many poets in many locations around the world focussed on that evening, as we did at Landon Library, celebrating our Culture Days as well.  

‘Gathering Voices’ will be on CHRW FM 94.9 FM (to be re-aired December 25, 6:30-7:00 am). Listen live on www.chrwradio.com/listen Some photos from the London event are at http://www.100tpcmedia.org/100TPC2012/2012/05/london-ontario-canada/

The following interview was published Tuesday Dec. 3rd by Open Book Ontario. RL Raymond will be launching his 3rd book this evening (Wed. Dec. 5th) at London Open Mic Poetry Night at Mykonos Restaurant, 572 Adelaide St. N., at 7:00 pm. 

 In R.L. Raymond's latest collection of poetry, Half Myths and
Quarter Legends (Epic Rites Press), Raymond creates an intense atmosphere of horror that will grip and terrify readers, yet leave them wanting more. If you're in the area, Raymond will be launching Half myths & Quarter Legends in London on December 5th at Mykonos Greek Restaurant. In his edition of the Poets in Profile series, Raymond tells us about why metal (music) is one source of inspiration for him, why he wouldn't exactly call himself a poet and what two poems, merged together, would create the über poem.

Open Book:
Can you describe an experience that you believe contributed to your becoming a poet?

 R.L. Raymond:
Telling stories — be it jokes or weaving yarns — has always been a passion of mine. Just wanting to share those is really the only impetus. There was no  epiphany, no moment of awe. I just started writing when I thought I had something

I just shared an article here from Kathryn Mockler’s page that has been read by more people than anything else we’ve had here.

True, it has one of those emotional hooks that are hard to ignore, being it’s a list of things NOT to do. We all enjoy comparing nots. 

Nevertheless, it made me realize that there must be a lot of blogs and pages out there run by local poets which contain very interesting content that I could share here. So I’m starting to comb through them. But it’s an awful lot of work, since interesting content has been posted for years, not just NOW. I won’t be able to find much of that. 

So I have a request: If you have something on your page that you think might be of interest to a lot of us London-area poets, please tell me about it. Also if you see something somewhere else, likewise. My only constraints are that the sources be in the London area, and that they be of general interest to poets and/or poetry enthusiasts.

I’ll make sure to thank your page or blog if I can’t actually link to it. That will bring more readers your way, and all in all it will help London poets and poetry enthusiasts get to know each other. 

By Kathryn Mockler (UWO poetry prof.)
 
Below is a list that I compiled with students in my poetry class.

Obviously there are great poems that include elements  on this list; however, these are words, phrases,  rhyme-patterns, metaphors, etc  that I've found are overused by writers new to poetry, and the use of these  elements or words can and, most often do, result in one-dimensional, cliché  poetry.

• centre justification
• capping first letter of every line
• overly dramatic or overused words such as tears, soul, quivering, being,  yearning, pain, existence 
• hearts/heartbroken/hearts beating/bleeding hearts
• love poems (I love my parents, my boyfriend, my grandparents)
• poems about homeless people (unless you’ve been homeless)
• excessive use of abstract words like hope, joy, love, alienation, loneliness
• predictable hard end-rhymes, sing-songy rhymes
• referring to the sky as inky
• using the description blue-black
• using different font sizes or types
• cliché phrases or dead metaphors as in “cherry red lips” or “out like a  light” or her "sea blue eyes"
• references to stars in the sky
• excessive use of adjectives
• excessive use of “ing” words – climbing, falling, pumping, yearning, glinting
• using sound effects: crunch, crunch, crunch
• antiquated language – thou or shall or wanton
• avoid vast generalizations or general language
• pat poems - poems that are closed because the poet directly explains the  theme of the poem to reader or the metaphor is so obvious that the poem becomes  one-dimensional 
• trick poems - poems that trick the reader to thinking that he or she is  reading a poem about a person and then we find out that the subject of the poem  is really a dog or bird 

One of the most effective ways to learn how to write contemporary, publishable literary poetry is to read poetry that was published, in say, that last ten or twenty years.

This is the hard part because there's a lot of stuff out there that you won't like.

But go  to your local bookstore or library and start pulling books off the shelves.  Read  a few lines from each poet and ask yourself--what draws you in, what makes you  stop reading?

Buy the books of the poets you like and read them over and  over. Underline favourite passages and try to figure out what these writers are  doing that has had such an impact on you.

Then go back and look at your  own poems from the point of view of a reader.

How-to books are okay for  learning the elements of poetry, but your teachers should be other poets.  
 

Ed. Kathryn Mockler was the featured reader at the November 2012 London Open Mic Poetry Night. She has an MFA in creative writing from UBC, has been published in many journals, has two collections in print, has had her work screened several times on television and screened at a number of festivals. Currently she teaches creative writing at UWO and co-edits the UWO online journal ‘The Rusty Toque” at www.therustytoque.com.