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"Thanks, Don"

5/31/2017

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Picture
Don Gutteridge, who is currently Professor Emeritus at Western and was our Nov. 2016 featured poet, and who has over 20 volumes of poetry to his credit, sent me a letter last week as follows:
 
“Stan: When I read your biography about your upbringing in Alberta, your years in the flower shop, and your lifelong battle with shyness (and its torture), I was moved to write a little poem about your defiance and persistence and the role that poetry played.”
 
DEFY
 
For Stan Burfield
 
For more than a dozen years
you were surrounded by blooms
in your shop, a long way
from Alberta’s unlyrical
land, and when you tried
your hand at verse, were
your first poems for poppies
and their roaring red, sonnets
for sunflowers a-burst
in lavish light, lyrics
for larkspur and their passionate
purple, or pentameters
for peonies and their kissing cousins?
Did you let them speak
for you, go soaring through the
petrified petal of your fear?
For poetry is both bliss
and consolation, a way of speaking
to the world that subsumes
both shy and defy.
 
--Don Gutteridge
 
 
And only one day earlier, Don had sent me this message:
 
“Stan: I went onto your facebook page and saw that beautiful poem there. Gorgeous imagery and wonderful pace. … Anyway, poetry begets poetry. I sat right down and penned the attached poem, inspired by yours.  I am looking forward to hearing you read on the YouTube video of your performance.”
 
MY TURN
 
Whenever I think of death,
I take a deep breath
and congratulate myself
on being alive, ever
since that day
long ago when I wished
my way out of the womb and uttered
my first articulate cry
and wondered how many
had come before me
in humanity’s slow bloom
all the way back to the
great apes and their generous
genes and the dinosaurs who groomed
the ancient foliage of the Earth
and finally the fish-churned
sea where something
grew anew, a birth
with no antecedent,
a blip in God’s thought,
and here I am against
the odds still living,
waiting patiently for my turn.
 
--Don Gutteridge


This is the poem Mr. Gutteridge had read:
 
CONCERNING OUR GLORIOUS FUTURE
.
As I lift the spoon
from this morning’s coffee
I feel the same long pull of time
that my father did
my mother
that their parents did
and theirs
a chain rattling down
into the well so far
I cannot imagine.
And up, out of that darkness
into this present,
all of it--
the slow ages of our reptilian forebears,
our fearful hominid ancestors,
the entire charging ascent of Man--
comes to a juddering halt
at this drop of coffee
falling
from this
spoon. 

We are stranded here
immovable
at the endpoint
of time, banging
our heads
on the ceiling.
 
--Stan Burfield
 

Suffice it to say, I feel honoured. Thanks, Don!
 

Don has a new book of poetry out, Sands of Canatara, of which he is donating 19 copies to London Open Mic. If any of you who received one of his books from his feature reading would like one of these, gratis, email me and you can pick it up Wednesday. The remaining copies will be given away first-come first-served.
 

BIO:  Don Gutteridge is the author of more than fifty books, including poetry, fiction and scholarly works in educational theory and practice. In 1972 he won the President’s Medal at The University of Western Ontario for his poem "Death At Quebec". Among his best-known poems are the mythic tetralogy: Riel: A Poem For Voices, Coppermine: The Quest For North, Borderlands, and Tecumseh. Gutteridge is best known across Canada for his historical fiction. He has also recently produced a series of mystery novels, The Marc Edwards Mysteries.

Don Gutteridge was born in Sarnia, Ontario in 1937, and was raised in the nearby village of Point Edward, Ontario. His high schooling took place in Sarnia and Chatham, Ontario. He attended the University of Western Ontario (UWO), where he graduated with a BA Honours in English in 1960. Gutteridge then taught high school English for seven years before joining the Faculty of Education at UWO in 1969. He is currently Professor Emeritus. He lives in London, Ontario with his wife Anne. He has two children, John and Kate, and six grandchildren. ​

Read our interview with Don Gutteridge, and three poems.
Read our interview with Stan Burfield, and three poems.
 
 
THE EVENT

WHERE: Mykonos Restaurant at 572 Adelaide St. North, London, Ontario. The restaurant has a large, covered terrace just behind the main restaurant, which comfortably holds 60 poetry lovers. Mediterranean food and drinks are available. Overflow parking is available across the side street and in the large lot one block north, in front of Trad’s Furniture.

WHEN: June 7th, 2017. Poetry begins at 7 pm. Come anytime before that and place your order.

THE FEATURED POET: Stan Burfield opens the event at 7:00, followed by a Q&A.

OPEN MIC: Following the featured poet, 15 open mic poets will read until 9:30 at the latest, with an intermission at about 8:00. Each poet has five minutes (which is about two good pages of poetry, but it should be timed at home). Sign up on the reader`s list, which is on the book table at the back. It's first come, first served.

COVER: Pay What You Can (in jar on back table, or use Donate Button on website Donate Page). Donations are our only source of income to cover expenses.

RAFFLE PRIZES: Anyone who donates at the event receives a ticket for a raffle prize, three of which will be picked after the intermission. The prizes consist of poetry books donated by The Ontario Poetry Society.




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New Don Gutteridge book for free!

12/3/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Of those who attended our last London Open Mic, over 30 people received ao free copy of feature Donald Gutteridge's latest book of poetry, which he was launching. Well, his next book has just come out, The Blue Flow Below, published by Black Moss Press.

Don has kindly donated some copies of it to us. Anyone who received his last book and enjoyed it, and would like one of these, also for free, can reserve a copy by emailing me at burfield@live.com

Oh, you have to come to the open mic Dec. 7th to pick it up.

0 Comments

Affirmed

11/23/2016

0 Comments

 
AFFIRMED
by Donald Gutteridge


After a reading at Mykonos
Restaurant in London, Ontario
​

There is a murmuring in the crowd
at Mykonos, all eyes
upon the ageing poet
as he grasps the lectern
and steadies himself under
the bright stage-light,
and, as those in their seats wait
to be wowed, words
drip off the bard’s lips
in the sheer shape of poems,
rhymed or not, he reads
with surprising alliterative
ease, then nods at the sudden
outbursts of applause,
at the oohs and ahs in just
the right places, he smiles
a septuagenarian smile
in gratitude at something
significant having been affirmed.



From Facebook: likes...11...Linda Eva Williams, Meredith Moeckel and 9 others
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Comments

Stan Burfield Thanks, Donald Gutteridge. Your poem has also affirmed the value of London Open Mic Poetry. I just hope we can find someone to carry it on past this season.
Like · Reply · 22 November at 14:40 · Edited

Heather McIntosh Gutteridge · Friends with Donald Gutteridge
A poem about a poet reading his poems. Very nice Don. Dan
Like · Reply · 22 November at 16:07

Linda Eva Williams I would love to hear the poem being read.
Like · Reply · 22 November at 20:51

Stan Burfield Yeah, me too.
Like · Reply · 1 · 22 November at 20:53

Meredith Moeckel Me three!
Like · Reply · 1 · 23 November at 01:10
Write a reply...

Stan Burfield He's the easiest poet to listen to I can remember:https://youtu.be/KfJgQdhnBRw...

Don Gutteridge (Feature Poet) | Open Mic Poetry November 2,…
YOUTUBE.COM
Like · Reply · Remove Preview · 2 · 

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FEATURED POETS LIST

3/3/2014

1 Comment

 
PictureJohn Tyndall featuring at the Jan. 3, 2013 event.
After more than a season and a half of London Open Mic Poetry Night events, over half of the local poets who satisfy our original criteria -- having had at least one book of poetry published --have read as featured poets. 

The following list (in alphabetical order) includes most of the remaining poets who fit that category. Most will read during Seasons 3 and 4. Only two have yet been booked into actual event dates for Season 3. 


Madeline Bassnett

Julie Berry
Patricia Black
Don Gutteridge
- National Poetry Month, Season 3, April 2015
Martin Hayter
David Hickey
Debbie Okun Hill
Penn Kemp - National Poetry Month, Season 2, April 2014
John B. Lee
Monika Lee - June 4th, 2014 (2nd season ender)
Gloria Alvernaz Mulcahy
Roy MacDonald - Oct. 1st, 2015 (kicking off 3rd season)
Dorothy Neilsen
Erik Martinez Richards
Peggy Roffey

If I’m missing anyone, please tell me. 

Obviously there are not enough poets in this list to feature for more than two seasons. Assuming we will be enjoying an existence beyond that, and there seems to be no reason why we won’t, then we have a problem. 

I knew from the beginning this would have to be solved somehow, at some point, and so by December of Season 2 I began to loosen up the criteria for featuring, letting the occasional poet from elsewhere read, the first being UWO’s then Writer-in-Residence NourbeSe Philip Soon I had a few more poets from outside the area booked in, all for seemingly good reasons.  However, it is becoming obvious that this is threatening to erode away our ideal of supporting and promoting the local community. So in future this will only happen if it’s not possible to get a local poet to feature for an event. 

Where will local features come from when all the poets on the above list have read? 

Some will feature a second time, especially if they have a new book out. Frank Davey will be the first to do this early in Season 3. Anyone who publishes a new book and wants to re-feature, just ask. 

We will be widening our local area somewhat. The list above includes the first two from this enlarged region: John B. Lee of Brantford and Debbie Okun Hill from Sarnia. Others will follow.

Also we will begin featuring poets who don’t have any books published, some of whom are very good. As the number of poets has increased and the number of publishers of poetry books has decreased recently, many of our best poets have given up on publication, or are paying for it themselves. We haven’t decided yet how to select which of these poets to feature. 

Occasionally we will feature something different than a single poet. For instance, in February we had four senior UWO English students with something written for the occasion. If anyone has a good idea for a special feature, something locally oriented, there’s no harm in asking. 

Stan
burfield@live.com

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