Gary Barwin is a musician, writer, and artist whose work spans multiple genres, such as poetry, music composition, fiction, visual art, and multimedia. 

The London Public Library has partnered with Western's Writer-in-Residence program to bring  Gary to London for the academic year.  He will be holding office hours at both the university and the Central library and will be facilitating free writing workshops throughout the year.

There will be a reading and reception on Thurs. Sept. 25th at the Central Library (Stevenson and Hunt) at 7 pm.  All are welcome to come and meet Gary! 

The following link provides further Information about office hours and events:
http://www.londonpubliclibrary.ca/blog/writer-residence-gary-barwin

Poet/scholar/London-Open-Mic blogger Frank Davey has been elected to the Royal Society of Canada. 

Davey is one of six scholars at London's University of Western Ontario to be named among 90 new fellows of the Royal Society of Canada who have been elected by their peers in recognition of outstanding scholarly, scientific and artistic achievement. Election to the academies of the Royal Society of Canada is the highest honour a scholar can achieve in the arts, humanities and sciences. 

Frank Davey, Faculty of Arts & Humanities, is an internationally recognized scholar and a leading figure in exploring alternative and experimental theories of Canadian literature. His critical studies have transformed our understanding of language and discourse in the study of Canadian texts. Professor Davey’s sustained efforts – as critic, theorist, editor and poet – to enlarge and redirect Canadian literature studies have been essential contributions to its contemporary diversity and self awareness.

Davey currently has a blog on the website of London Open Mic Poetry Night.

The other newly-elected fellows from Western.

Fellows of the Royal Society, the most eminent scientists, engineers and technologists from the UK and Commonwealth, are elected for life through a peer review process on the basis of excellence in science. Founded in 1660, there are approximately 1,450 Fellows and Foreign Members, including more than 80 Nobel Laureates.

The fundamental purpose of the Royal Society is to recognize, promote, and support excellence in science and to encourage the development and use of science for the benefit of humanity. The Society has played a part in some of the most fundamental, significant, and life-changing discoveries in scientific history and Royal Society scientists continue to make outstanding contributions to science in many research areas.

This year’s new fellows will be inducted on Saturday, Nov. 22, in Quebec City.

Photo of Davey by Paul Mayne//Western News

Join Poetry London in 2014-15 for another season with some of Canada's finest poets:

Gary Geddes   Karen Connelly   Sadiqua de Meijer   Adrienne Barrett   Gillian Sze   Yvonne Blomer   James Arthur
Jane Munro   Sandra Ridley   David Seymour   Mathew Henderson   Gregory Betts   Laurie Graham   Steven Heighton

See www.poetrylondon.ca for details.

First off: Wednesday, September 24 at 7:30: Karen Connelly & Gary Geddes. All welcome for the 6:30 workshop.

London Open Mic will have two hosts for the first time, with Joan Clayton opening Season 3 on Oct. 1st and London Open Mic Poetry Night organizer Stan Burfield hosting the 2nd event on Nov. 5th.  Clayton and Burfield will take turns hosting throughout the season. 

Having two hosts will add variety to the reading series, but the main reason for Burfield taking on half of the hosting is that,“It’s time to take my shyness therapy to the next level.”

I recently began wondering if I could zip up the open mic website with some art of some kind, and wondered if James Wood, one of our regular attendees, could help us out. So I send him this email:

“Hi James, 

“I have a proposal for you regarding your drawings.

“I`m always trying to make the home page of our website as attractive as possible. I view it as the front page of a newspaper. It`s in two columns, with the top stories at the top with the largest headlines, and the lesser and older ones further down with smaller headlines. When I put a new story at the top, an old one comes off the bottom. And I try to have them illustrated with photos so that the page isn`t just boring words. The only little problem I have is that sometimes I get the body of two articles side by side, with no photos, only words. Well, I was thinking about you and your art the other day and it occurred to me that a drawing would be the perfect thing to insert there.

"Stan"

Four months have passed now and, as you can see, James has agreed! Just as I had hoped, his wonderful poem-like drawings do indeed add visual variety to the homepage. A new drawing appears there each mid-month. Following James’ stipulation, the drawings only appear on the website homepage, not on our Facebook page as well. Also, when each is posted, the old one disappears. And there is no page where the old drawings can be found. Check out his latest while it’s still there, athttp://www.londonpoetryopenmic.com/

London Open Mic Poetry Night needs a still photographer. If you love to take photos, this is for you. You will get to practice your portraiture. And refine your technique. For every monthly event, we need good photos of the musicians, the featured poets and the open mic poets, plus a couple of the audience enjoying the evening. 

Your duties would include not only taking several photos of each person (to choose a good one from), but also editing them (cropping, getting the exposure and colour right, and eliminating red eye), and entering them as galleries in the open mic website and Facebook page. 

What would you earn for all this work? The excitement of being an integral part of the local poetry scene, meeting people, taking part in decision making as a member of the London Open Mic organizing committee, having your own blog on the well-read London Open Mic website if you want one, and getting a good letter of reference if you should need it. 

Contact Stan at burfield@live.com

London Open Mic Poetry Night will open it’s third season with a new host, Joan Clayton, who was familiar during the first two seasons as a regular open mic reader.  

Dr. Clayton is a clinical psychologist in private practice. She began writing creatively ten years ago. She has had seven plays produced, and several poems and articles published. Joan thinks of herself as a story teller and enjoys the research behind many of her productions, the most recent being ‘The Power of Work’ for Goodwill Industries which told the history and future vision of Goodwill International. 

She received the Kobzar Scholarship to attend the Humber Summer Writers Conference in 2012, and last fall received funding from the Shevchenko Foundation in Winnipeg to publish a children’s book on the Ukrainian Genocide of 1933, the Holodomor.

Joan is currently working on a one act play about Frida Kahlo for a Festival in November, as well as an erotic collection of poems called CHOCOLATE CAPPUCCINO MORNINGS, and a series called ‘When Smoking Was Still Sexy’.

Joan Clayton’s first shot at hosting London Open Mic will be Oct. 1st, when Roy MacDonald will be featured. MacDonald will be introduced by London Town Crier Bill Paul and warmed up by the music of Jef-something Brian Thomas Ormston.

Previous host, Dawna Perry, who pulled London Open Mic through it’s crucial and difficult first two seasons, is now putting her time and energy into a full load of post-graduate studies. 

After seven years of facilitating his monthly poetry workshop at London’s Landon Library, Ron Stewart is stepping down to put more time into his own poetry. He and wife Jan will continue to support local literary events, partly through the now-traditional announcements on his extensive email list, which many Londoners have long depended upon. 

Stewart, a retired airline pilot, began the workshop as an essential finishing touch to the group of ingredients already supplied to the local poetry scene by the Poetry London Reading Series, also held at Landon Library. Since then, many poets have benefitted from his initiative and hard work.

Following are expressions of thanks by Poetry London and some of the local poets who have attended the workshop:

Ron and his wife Jan continue to embody the creative energy, hard work, and congenial spirit that has come to define the London poetry community.   We offer our congratulations and appreciation to Ron for initiating and nurturing such a successful workshop - one that has meant so much to so many writers in London over the past several years.  We wish him continued success with his own writing and all of his future endeavours in our poetry community. 
~ the Poetry London Reading Series

To the other sentiments expressed here by others, all of which are true, I would like to add that if not for Ron’s workshop there would be no London Open Mic Poetry Night, which is simply a spinoff of his workshop.  
~ Stan Burfield, organizer, London Open Mic

Ron-
I want to thank you so much for making the London (especially winter) nights seem so much more welcoming for your generous hosting of those wonderful poetry gatherings.
With much appreciation and warmth,
~ Cheryl Cashman

I think Ron is a wonderful poet, and a great supporter of other poets. His way of summarizing other’s poetry and encouraging them to write, is remarkable, heartfelt and full of spirit!!! 
~ Joan Clayton

Thanks, Ron. I haven't been to any workshops recently, but I have good memories of those flights of fancy. Arriving to find you at the end of the table ready for take off. Orienting us to the program. Apprehensive as to what this flight would be like. Excited about reaching for the upper ether of poetry. Hearing your calm confident gentle voice reassuring us it would always be a good flight (which it always was) and landing us safely at the end (which you always did). They were quite the trips. I miss them. Good luck with your solo flights. Bon voyage.
~ Martin Hayter

When I think of Ron, I see, when entering the clean, well-lighted room in the Landon Library underground, at the head of the long, peopled table strewn with poems, the welcoming smile, the articulate, white goatee, the glimmering eyes and freckled dome which I have come to know and trust. If there is any one secret to the endurance of his workshop, I think it is that trustworthiness which has compelled each of us to uncloak the vulnerability which in daily life we habitually deny, to communicate in all its shifty-eyed, anxious humanity a wish to express ourselves and be heard. Ron - thank you for listening. And thank you for having tenderly impressed upon each of us those four simple words which unfailingly conclude your summations: Live Life, Love Poetry.  
~ Kevin Heslop

The poet Muriel Rukeyser said, "Breathe-in experience, breathe-out poetry."  Ron Stewart helped us add a third dimension, share poetry.  He did so by creating a non-threatening, congenial poetry workshop.  Thank you for that, Ron.
~ Louisa Howerow

Ron’s workshop was unique and will be missed. It was one of a kind. 
~ Carl Lapp

A bit lost at the Poetry London Events, it was really Ron's Workshop that helped me feel at home in the London poetry scene. His gentle and positive leadership developed my confidence and introduced me to friends I hope will be in my life for a long time to come.  Thanks, Ron (and Jan)
~ Janice M. McDonald

For Ron-
Ron is an enthusiastic and talented poet whose presence enhances many events in London’s poetry community. His dedicated work has fostered and supported the growth of various venues. Particularly important is the monthly workshop (held at the Landon library) organized by Ron. This workshop series has provided London poets an opportunity to share and discuss their poems. Many thanks, Ron!
~ O. Nowosad

For Ron, who has, in the Open Poetry Workshop at Landon Library, created a safe and encouraging atmosphere for poems finding their perfection, a place of meaningful, good-humoured discussion, an evening from which we come away with both wits pencils sharpened. For Ron, who has faithfully and with such generosity led the workshop 10 months of the year, for so many years. To Ron, I offer my deep gratitude.
~ Christine Thorpe

 ED. NOTE:  I'm excited. At least for me, this is a whole new territory to think about, and at my age I don't come across very much that's really new any more.  I expect this goes for a lot of people. We've been busying ourselves looking in the opposite direction.  S.B.

Ripening Time: Inside Stories for Aging with Grace 
by Sherry Ruth Anderson. Changemakers Books, 2013. ISBN 978-1-78099-963-0

Rilke, in Letters to a Young Poet: 
“…have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”

Demographically, baby boomers have already lived much longer than most of our great-grandparents. Thanks to modern medicine, we have survived childbirth and childhood diseasesthat would have killed off many of us in earlier eras. Now, suddenly, baby boomers are facing enmasse a new longevity that few survivors previously attained. 

Since those born after World War 11 are now in their sixties; many are reclaiming The 60’s as their own, in some resonant echo with the 60’s in which they came of age. The sixties are the new forties, I hear. But I think of grandmothers, worn out and surrendered to old age at forty. My mother at seventy thought of herself as thirty-five, despite longstanding aches and pains. Nearly seventy, I think of myself as seventy, with few aches and pains, at present. (Thanks, Aquafit!)

In approaching my eighth decade, I contemplate the years ahead and behind. So far, so good. To surrender ambition, competitiveness, greed: how freeing. I have spent the allotted lifetime of three score and ten, accumulating, accomplishing, gathering. And now the work is in letting go, shedding, prepared at any point to surrender IT ALL. 

How do we learn letting go, surrendering the unnecessary, the outmoded, that which is not useful? How do we live completely in the moment, so that we no longer live in dread of our spouse’s illness, our own? How do we age creatively? How do we grow up without the wisdom of older guides? How do we mature into elderhood, with so few signposts to guide us? 

Neoteny, the expanded time for growing up that our culture allows, is a word that I have lately been examining. “Neoteny is the retention, by adults in a species, of traits previously seen only in juveniles.” Croning may begin at fifty these days. What new possibilities begin at seventy, at eighty and on? We know all too well what diminishes, and what ends.

How are we to grow into creative aging, with so few pointers? Since we’ve thrown away or lost ancient traditions that might have helped, we need to draw our own maps, our own definitions of maturity. What is an elder? Can we define the term, or do we need to live the question into our own answers, as Rilke suggests in Letters to a Young Poet: 

“…have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”

Sherry Ruth Anderson’s Ripening Time: Inside Stories for Aging with Grace is a remarkable exploration of this new territory of personal growth. Anderson’s book is both her own journey into elderhood and a guidebook that brings the reader along as a friend whom she invites into her garden. Having written such formative books as The Feminine Face of God and The Cultural Creatives, Anderson is well qualified to articulate the first steps toward elderhood. She is adept 
at tracing the social implications of her own investigation as it reflects cultural changes. Her personal is indeed political.

Anderson’s own questions, ponderings and fears remain, but now she begins to live the possibilities of elderhood. P. 83: “Almost always, when I feel my fear open up like this, something unexpected happens… my familiar sense of self has shifted into a deep calm and stability. I feel sober and mature, steady as a mountain and at the same time quite spacious and relaxed. The sensibility is of one ancient and wise.
All of this is quite paradoxical. I feel empty… containing all possibilities— so unformed I’m no longer caught in my yesterdays; so free I’m miles of sky with no clouds.
Will I ever get over how experience changes when I don’t run away from it? Here my fears about getting old and losing my mind have opened to a new sense of maturity… that ancient calm wisdom… the perspective of an elder, I wonder?”

In her inquiry, Anderson quotes some renowned elders. Mary Daly in her seminal Gyn/ecology writes: “‘We knit, knot, interlace, entwine, whirl and twirl…’ And what women found, she said, was a place to develop their integrity and ways to break the spell of the culture’s clocks.” As theologian Nelle Morton mused, “we were hearing ourselves into speech.”

What can we learn from the process of creative aging? What wisdom can we claim? Anderson is never content to keep her own findings to herself. She has developed elder circles across the continent. In group dyads, she poses such questions as “Tell me a way you deny your experience of diminishment.” “What’s it like to feel that denial now?” “What are the gifts reserved for age?” She listens to the responses and invites us into a deeper hearing of one another.

Anderson presents “a new perspective on aging, inviting the reader to engage the aging process through the art of inner inquiry. This work guides beyond our culture's mind traps through stories where elders face into the lies, the losses and endings, the tender and bittersweet and ferocious truths of growing old.”

May we too long continue to explore on all levels, inner and outer. 

May our histories be recalled. May we all remember
the right role of elders: to listen, to be heard, to be held
in respect. To hold on. To let go. To be held.
        Penn Kemp
(From http://creativeagelondon.ca/stories/double-vision-i-and-ii-a-poem-by-penn-kemp/)

For further exploration, see www.sherryruthanderson.com and www.changemakers-books.com. See also Jean Shinoda Bolen’s www.millionthcircle.org/JSB/mc.html. Highly recommended is activist Judy Rebick’s transformative book, Transforming Power: From the Personal to the Political, www.transformingpower.ca/en/about-book.

Please note that here in London, women of all ages have the opportunity to explore their own growth in such organizations as The Circle at Brescia University College: see http://www.brescia.uwo.ca/thecircle/.

“The Circle Women’s Centre is a unique program and resource centre serving women in the London community and beyond…. The Circle focuses on feminist spirituality, its theory and practice by women in contemporary society. We welcome women from diverse experience and backgrounds, and as such maintain a broad based view of spirituality, honouring the riches of all religious traditions and expressions.
Inspired by the feminist perspective “the personal is political,” The Circle also aspires to enlighten and enliven women on a wide range of issues such as activism, social justice, environmentalism, women’s rights, human rights, leadership, feminism and feminist spirituality. The Circle is a part of the vibrant women’s network on campus and in the London area. It links with and supports other women’s groups in the community who work to dismantle unjust structures and to embody life-giving relationship with all that is created.”

This piece is dedicated to Ann Kerr Linden, who at 84 embodies aging creatively beautifully.

Penn Kemp,
writer-in-residence for Creative Aging Festival, London,
May 2014

NOTE: Penn Kemp will be reading the full poem that the three lines above are excerpted from at the Creative Age London Festival Launch at Museum London, May 22 at 1 pm.

Kemp will also be discussing the book she has reviewed here at a free workshop on May 23, 1-2:30 pm, Central Library. Registation details are on http://creativeagelondon.ca/creative-age-festival/.

Beginning with the next interview, that of Monika Lee, Kevin Heslop will take over the role of interviewer for London Open Mic Poetry Night from organizer Stan Burfield. 

Maybe you think interviewing is just a matter of asking standard questions. Well, it has been in the past. But no more. Heslop will bring a whole new dimension to the task, a dimension that results from his talent, his experience, his enthusiasm and his education.  Just wait. You'll see. The difference will be obvious. 

Heslop is currently studying English Literature, creative writing and philosophy at Western and has been on the organizing committee of London Open Mic Poetry Night for most of its two seasons so far.  He is also one of the most popular readers at the open mic.

Check out Kevin's blogs:
On London Open Mic's site, where he puts many of his best poems
On Facebook, where he puts everything as of late. 

Penn Kemp will do one sound poem (out of her six or so poems ... the rest being more typical lyrical poems) in her featured reading at London Open Mic Poetry NIght on April 16th at the Landon Branch Library. Kemp has written and performed many sound poems over her career. They have evolved into a more musical form she now calls "Sound Opera".

For those of you unsure of where sound poetry came from, here is Wikipedia's version of events:

The writing of pure sound texts, that downplay the roles of meaning and structure in poetry, had it's beginning in the early 20th century. The Futurist and Dadaist movements of the beginning of the century were the pioneers in creating the first sound poetry forms. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti discovered that onomatopoeias were useful to describe a battle in Tripoli where he was a soldier, creating a sound text that became a sort of a spoken photograph of the battle. Dadaists were more involved in sound poetry and they invented different categories:

• Bruitist poem is the phonetic poem, not so different from the futurist poem. Invented by Richard Huelsenbeck.
• Simultaneous poem is a poem read in different languages, with different rhythms, tonalities, and by different persons at the same time. Invented by Tristan Tzara.
• Movement poem is the poem accompanied by primitive movements.

Early examples: 

Zang Tumb Tumb (1914) is a sound poem and concrete poem by Italian futurist F. T. Marinetti.

Hugo Ball performed a piece of sound poetry in a reading at Cabaret Voltaire in 1916:
"I created a new species of verse, 'verse without words,' or sound poems....I recited the following:  gadji beri bimbaglandridi lauli lonni cadori..."(Albright, 2004)

For many dadaists, such as Hugo Ball, sound poetry also presented a language of trauma, a cacophony used to protest the sound of the cannons of World War I. It was as T. J. Demos writes, "a telling stutter, a nervous echolalia."[7]

Kurt Schwitters' Ursonate (1922–32, "Primal Sonata") is a particularly well known early example:
The first movement rondo's principal theme being a word, "fmsbwtözäu" pronounced Fümms bö wö tää zää Uu, from a 1918 poem by Raoul Hausmann, apparently also a sound poem. Schwitters also wrote a less well-known sound poem consisting of the sound of the letter W. (Albright, 2004)

Chilean Vicente Huidobro's explores phonetic mutations of words in his book "Altazor"(1931).

In his story The Poet at Home, William Saroyan refers to a character who practices a form of pure poetry, composing verse of her own made up words.

Later evolution:
Sound poetry evolved into visual poetry and concrete poetry, two forms based in visual arts issues although the sound images are always very compelling in them. Later on, with the development of the magnetic tape recorder, sound poetry evolved thanks to the upcoming of the concrete music movement at the end of the 1940s. Some sound poetics were used by later poetry movements like the beat generation in the fifties or the spoken word movement in the 80's, and by other art and music movements that brought up new forms such as text sound art that may be used for sound poems which more closely resemble "fiction or even essays, as traditionally defined, than poetry".

Female practitioners:

It has been argued that “there is a paucity of information on women's involvement in sound poetry, whether as practitioners, theorists, or even simply as listeners.”[2] Among the earliest female practitioners are Berlin poet Else Lasker-Schüler, who experimented in what she called “Ursprache” (Ur-language), and the New York Dada poet and performer Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven. The Baroness’s poem “Klink-Hratzvenga (Death-wail)” was published in The Little Review in March 1920 to great controversy. Written in response to her husband Leopold von Freytag-Loringhoven’s suicide, the sound poem was “a mourning song in nonsense sounds that transcended national boundaries”.[3] The Baroness was also known for her sexually charged sound poetry, as seen in “Teke Heart (Beating of Heart),” only recently published.[4]

The poet Edith Sitwell coined the term Abstract poetry to describe some of her own poems which possessed more aural than literary qualities, rendering them essentially meaningless: "The poems in Façade are abstract poems--that is, they are patterns of sound. They are...virtuoso exercises in technique of extreme difficulty, in the same sense as that in which certain studies by Liszt are studies in transcendental technique in music." (Sitwell, 1949)

Theories of sound poetry: 

In their essay “Harpsichords Metallic Howl—", Irene Gammel and Suzanne Zelazo review the theories of sound by Charles Bernstein, Gerald Bruns, Min-Quian Ma, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Jeffrey McCaffery and others to argue that sonic poetry foregrounds its own corporality. Thus “the Baroness's sound poems let her body speak[;] through her expansive use of sound, the Baroness conveys the fluidity of gender as a constantly changing, polysemous signifier.” In this way, somatic art becomes the poet’s own “space-sound.”[6]

Later prominent sound poets:

include Henri Chopin, Bob Cobbing, Ada Verdun Howell, Allen Ginsberg, bpNichol, William S. Burroughs, Giovanni Fontana,[5] Bernard Heidsieck, Enzo Minarelli, François Dufrene, Mathias Goeritz, Maurizio Nannucci,Andras Petocz, and Jaap Blonk, a Dutch sound poet who often works with improvising musicians.

London's Penn Kemp has created the term "sound opera" for her version of sound poetry. The following is from London Open Mic  Poetry Night's interview with Penn Kemp:

LOMPN:    You refer to your poetry now as “sound opera” instead of “sound poetry”. What do you mean by “sound opera”, and how do you differentiate it from “sound poetry”?

PK:  A sound poem is for me performed by a single voice, even though Canada fostered marvellous sound poetry groups.  I’ve enjoyed pushing textual and aural boundaries, often in participatory performance work, working across a variety of poetic practices to engage the audience.  Since I often work in collaboration with musicians, theatre folks, videographers and other multimedia/ visual artists, I looked for a term that was less focussed on a specific literary tradition, even one like Dada.  So the sound poem naturally developed into “Sound Operas": poetic narratives that weave sound, imagery and music in a contemporary counterpoint of many voices and different forms. My writing life is divided between poetry and theatre: Sound Opera jumps that gap and allows for both.  Seven of my Sound Operas have been performed at London’s glorious Aeolian Hall.  Poetry in performance is the way I spread the word for the arts and inspire action to support them!  It's a great joy to collaborate with artists from different media: they expand my sense of possibility.

Penn Kemp performing her sound poem Heart P'arts, with visuals and audio by Dennis Siren:

Before Penn Kemp surprises everyone with her sound opera, and before Laurence Hutchman conjures the world, Bernie Koenig`s vibraphone will twinkle and burn and resound in the room.

Koenig last entertained London Open Mic`s audiences in our first season. He will repeat that magic at our special National Poetry Month reading on April 16th at the Landon Branch Library.  Koenig`s wands do feel magical, as they spray on listeners the sparkle of wind chimes, the bubble and gurgle of liquid, and, through it all, that reverberation.  Which lingers, resonating in the body.

Bernie Koenig has long taught philosophy and music at Fanshawe and is the author of two books of philosophy, one on the philosophy of art. On April 16th, he will play from 6:30 to 7:00, and again during the intermission. 

We have a new videographer. And what a surprise! Kenny Khoo, the gentleman who will be recording videos of poets reading at our events, is an engineer! Yes, an engineer. Kenny`s day job is strategic analyst for Xylem Inc. But he believes in living a well-rounded life, which means involving himself in the arts community in his spare time. London Open Mic will be his second venture into the city`s creative side.  Khoo is also a board member of Musical Theatre Productions, which produces musicals for the Palace Theatre. He creates their promotional videos.  Welcome aboard, Kenny!

THE EVENT

WHERE:  Because this special event is sponsored by The League of Canadian Poets, it is being held in the large downstairs room at the Landon Branch Library, 167 Wortley Road in Wortley Village, not our usual venue, which is Mykonos Restaurant. 

WHEN: Wed. April 16th, versus our usual 1st-Wednesday-of-the-month schedule. Doors open at 6:00, live music at 6:30, poetry at 7:00.

LIVE MUSIC begins at 6:30. There will also be live music during the intermission. 

THE FEATURED POETS: Penn Kemp will read at 7:00, followed by a Q&A, then intermission. Laurence Hutchman will read after the intermission, followed by a Q&A.

OPEN MIC: There will be some time for a shorter open mic than normal. It will end at 9:10. Instead of first come, first served we will select readers at random. Put your name on a ballot and drop it in the Ballot Bowl. We will pick names from the bowl until the time is up. Each reader will have five minutes, which is enough for two average-length poems. 

RAFFLE PRIZES: Anyone who donates to London Open Mic Poetry Night receives a ticket for a raffle prize, three of which will be picked after the intermission. The prizes consist of poetry books donated by Brick Books and The Ontario Poetry Society. Donations are our only source of income. We still haven't paid off our initial debt.

POST-EVENT REVELRY: Many of us will retire to the Wortley Roadhouse pub across the street for some R&R.

In celebration of National Poetry Month. We acknowledge the support of Canada Council for the Arts and the League of Canadian Poets.

This is about as topical as a poem can get, and about as Canadian as a Canadian poem can get. You can hear Laurence Hutchman (and co-feature Penn Kemp) read at our special National Poetry Month event on April 16th at the Landon Library. 

Waiting for Spring

What is it about it about waiting for spring
as you look at disbelief at the white pages of the calendar
long past the vernal equinox
You’ve been waiting for a long time
looking out into the backyard 
as if it were the frozen form of Pangaea
trying to reshape itself in time-lapse photography.

Yes, you’ve been waiting for the signs for some time now:
that subtle bright change in the afternoon sky in late January,
that moment when you sit in the Escort and feel that momentary
warmth (the first you sensed since late October)
And you fee the belief in a minor meteorological prophecy. 
and feel the assurance of the wavering rays of the sunlight,
but then comes the deep freeze of February, 
and there is the thin hope of the slow lengthening evenings,
count them –two minutes per day, 
but you’re a long way from day light saving’s time.

And then, suddenly in spite of the frozen air,
you see water on the street, 
and the first since God knows when
but you’re grateful….and then you have the pavement
becoming a tabula rasa, white and so dry,
surely spring must come now or soon,
but then the days of blizzards and shovels and sweat…

And then, the change, the thermometer surprisingly climbs
above zero and those glacial snow banks start to slowly melt
and you watch for patterns, the unexpected emergence of
grass, and the slow widening, 
(ever slow diminishing of the snow)
Why don’t you live on the sunny side of the street?

The snow begins to undergo alterations as it moves into old age,
and you see the crystals begin to form, 
and little prisms appear,
and every object now has an identity, an indentention.
The trees have no snow,
and the roofs are finally bare.

And nature becomes lyrical--
the water runs gurgling under little snow glaciers
which have begun to turn brown like tawny animals
(remember on the way home from school when you used to
break them off—sometimes ten feet at a time. 
You were an icebreaker,
(remember when the coming of spring used to be fun.)

But you can see the discontent of winter still in the air
as neighbours go outside and can’t believe that CNN is wrong again,
and the neighbours still scraping of the morning frost
totally frosted off, and like more like refugees.
Some try to fight it.
You seem them out there with the pick axes and choppers
hacking away at their personal glaciers 
as if it were a private personal affront,
and they stand like desperate Shakespearian actors
looking at the enigmatic spring skies
giving their Shakespearean soliloquies
Where art thou now, O Spring?

And you wait and listen for the birds.

©Laurence Hutchman

We need someone to do videos of our poets while they’re reading at the London Open Mic events. Would you like to volunteer?

You wouldn’t need a Hollywood-quality camera. Although something better than a cell phone would be nice. The main thing is it should have reasonably good sound quality. The viewers will be listening as much as watching, if not more. You would also need a small, cheap tripod, one you can set on a table. Point the camera at the poet, push the button and let it go. After the event, the video would go to YouTube. 

Easy stuff, and fun to do. And if you take this on, you don’t have to feel trapped into doing it every single month. If we miss one here and there, so be it. Videos are just an add-on feature to the open mic. 

But a good one. Videos can make up for a lot of the problems caused when poems are presented orally at a reading. They allow people to go over a poem more than once to help them appreciate it, which they could do if reading it in a book. And they give people the opportunity to watch once again a particular poem that they loved when they heard it at the reading. 

This would be a volunteer position, but of course it wouldn’t hurt a resume. There are side benefits as well, like possibly meeting some interesting people, getting more involved in the local poetry scene, and, if you would like, joining our organizing committee (not a very difficult job), and having your own blog on our well-read website. 

Anyone interested in doing this can contact Stan at burfield@live.com

(Jacob Scheier was London Open Mic's featured poet on March 5th. '14.)

Hi all - I will be facilitating a 6 week workshop on writing just poetry about grief beginning May 7 - contact me here or griefwriting@gmail.com to register or if you have any questions. Details below. Please share. Thank you!
Writing Poetry About Grief:
A 6 week workshop on writing poetry about grief with Jacob Scheier. We will read and discuss contemporary elegies (poems of mourning) and craft our own.The workshop is intended for aspiring writers and professional writers — essentially anyone would is interested in giving their experiences of grief and loss poetic expression. Participants will learn about the nature of the elegiac form, as well as how to utilize literary devices and techniques to make our experiences of grief and loss speak to others. Grief, in this context, is not limited to death, but any kind of loss, including, but not restricted to: divorce and separation, the loss of a part of someone or oneself through illness or loss of a wider scale (e.g. ecological loss).
The cost of this workshop is $150/per participant. Materials provided.
Time and Place: Wednesdays, May 7-June 11, 6:30-9 pm. 25 Maitland Street, Toronto (1 block south of Wellesley St. and 1 block east of Yonge St).
About me:
I won a 2008 Governor General's Award for poetry for my first book, More to Keep us Warm (ECW Press). My follow up collection, Letter from Brooklyn (ECW Press), was published last spring. I am also a volunteer peer-facilitator of support groups with Bereaved Families of Ontario since 2008 and I have been facilitating workshops on writing about grief for over three years. I have facilitated these workshops through Ryerson’s School of Continuing Education, at the Centre of Social Innovation, at the Bereavement Ontario Network’s Annual Conference and on the Walpole Island First Nations Reserve.
To register or for further information, please contact me at griefwriting@gmail.com or call 416-949-6003.

Jacob Scheier's interview and batch of poems leading up to his Mar. 5th feature appearance at London Open Mic

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

If, some time ago, you scanned our list of featured poets for this season, and then did so again more recently, you may have wondered what the heck happened in between. Did I, the organizer, go crazy, making changes willy nilly? Might you be losing your memory? Have you entered an alternate universe? Well, no. 

The explanation is simple: The world of people insists on having its fluctuations, and I, not being much of a control freak, tend to roll with them. 

St. Thomas poet Julie Berry was set to be our March 5th feature. But out of the blue someone offered her the use of a small cabin on Hornby Island, on the BC coast, for the first two weeks of March. How could she resist? Especially since she’s been working on a collection of poems for nearly four years, and now has the perfect opportunity to finish it in one go, and surrounded by paradise to boot! (I know how beautiful it is; I used to live on a neighbouring island.) Julie’s withdrawal from our event didn’t bother me because she was nice enough to find her own replacement, Governor General’s Award winner Jacob Scheier. Julie hade gotten to know him in his post as Writer-in-Residence at Algoma University in St. Thomas.

Our May 7th event was going to feature local legend Roy Macdonald, but then I got an email from Carolyn Doyle, the librarian at Landon Library, which hosts many of London’s poetry events. Carolyn said that a famous Canadian poet, Susan McCaslin, was coming to town on the same day, and on that day only, as part of a book launch tour, along with her former professor Lee Johnson. Carolyn had been asked to host McCaslin and Johnson at Landon, but she realized that two events on the same day would compete with each other for London’s relatively small poetry audience. So she wondered if I could resolve the problem by including them in our event.

This was a big problem for me. For one thing, we are a regional event, trying to serve our local poets, and McCaslin and Johnson are outsiders. And I already had a feature for that night. Maybe we could move Macdonald to a different month, but then we would have two featured poets, not just one. Having only McCaslin read would seem to me to be an insult to Johnson. In any case, Carolyn was right. The audience would be seriously split if I did nothing, and everyone would suffer. So I talked to Dawna Perry, our host, about it. We worked through multiple scenarios, finally arriving at one that looked fairly promising. So yes, we will feature both McCaslin and Johnson on May 7th, and we will have our open mic as well. 

And Roy Macdonald will be moved to one of the early months of next season (#3). I say “will be” because it will happen when I bump into him on the street one day. He’s one of those old-timers who doesn’t have a cell phone. Actually, he doesn’t have a phone of any kind. But I’m hopeful I may see him tonight at the Socrates Cafe -- an event held at the Central Library (at 7:00, in case you’re interested). 

If you want to read at the open mic Feb, 5th, I'd advise you to come early. And sign up as soon as you get there. (It's first-come, first serve, with 15 slots. 


(I was tempted when I Googled how to organize an open mic to do it like one in New York, which has no rules at all, and no host. Just the guy who brings the mic. When he puts it on the stage, there's a mad dash by the audience for it. Whoever's fastest or strongest reads first, for as long as he likes. When he gets tired or booed out, there's another mad dash. It's like that all night. Not stressful to organize.)


In our case you make a mad dash, as soon as you enter, to the book table at the back, and hope theres a slot still available, then check off whether you want to give us permission to photograph you, and especially to videotape you (as some journals consider a simple videotape on the internet of a poetry reading as publication, even though they can't search it out (we don't put a title on it). Then you go sit down and listen to the live music, which will be nice this event, to be announced here in a few days. 

Why's it going to be a full house?

Two big reasons.

First, the fairly new street newspaper, The Yodeller, is doing a substantial interview with me (Organizer Stan) and it will hit the curbs and gutters in one week, at the end of the month, which happens to be my birthday, although Jason Dickson, the writer, did now know that.  64 if you're interested. Dickson, is a novelist, poet, journalist, man about town. That interview will, I'm sure , drag a few people off the cold street into our Greek utopia. 

Also, the social media is already going crazy over our February featured poet, which is actually four poets, all senior poetry students from UWO, who will do rounds of poetry, the first one written expressly for this event, a complex and fun feature organized by current UWO Student Writer in Residence Scott Beckett. Each first poem by each author will contain the same three lines, one being the title. How different can they be? Extremely, as we've already noticed in all our readers, be they feature or open mic. 

The students are:

Jilian Baker (3rd year)
Scott Beckett (4th year)
Koral Scott (4th year)
Eric Zadrozny (4th year)

THE EVENT

WHERE:  All of our reading events except the April one are held in the 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.

LIVE MUSIC opens each event, at least by 6:30. There is also an intermission with live music and usually more music at the end of the event. 

THE FEATURED POETS begin their rounds of readings at 7:00, followed by a Q&A.

OPEN MIC: Following the featured poets, there is about 1.5 hours of open mic, ending about 9:00 pm. 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. First come, first served.

RAFFLE PRIZES: Anyone who donates to London Open Mic Poetry Night receives a ticket for a raffle prize, three of which will be picked after the intermission. The prizes consist of poetry books donated by Brick Books and The Ontario Poetry Society. Donations are our only source of income. We still haven't paid off our initial debt.

This Wed. Jan. 22, Poetry London presents poets Gabe Foreman from Montreal and Kingston's Carolyn Smart!

Landon Branch Library
167 Wortley Rd., London, ON
readings at 7:30m

with pre-reading workshop at 6:30pm. (Stan: This is one of my favourite things in London. Workshoppers pore over one poem by each featured reader, a conversation on the depths, the reasons, the feelings, the meanings, the creativity, everything we can get out of the poems. With laughter and a lot of fun. Fascilitated alternatingly by the very sensitive duo of Tom Cull and Ola Novosad. Two of our poems are also workshopped, but out of ten or fifteen, that doesn`t give much of a chance. Those who do make it, however, read their poems at the opening of the big event at 7:30.)

Jan.22, 2014
Gabe Foreman grew up near Thunder Bay, Ontario. He is a founding editor of littlefishcartpress, a small poetry press based in Orono, Ontario. His first collection of poems, A Complete Encyclopedia of Different Types of People (Coach House Books), received the 2011 A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry and was a finalist for the Concordia University First Book Prize. His poems have appeared most recently in The Walrus, and have aired on CBC radio (Daybreak). He lives in Montreal.

Carolyn Smart's fifth collection of poems, Hooked - Seven Poems, was published in 2009 by Brick Books. Her previous collections include The Way to Come Home (Bricks 1993) and Stoning the Moon (Oberon 1986). An excerpt from her memoir, At the End of the Day (Penumbra Press, 2001), won first prize in the 1993 CBC Literary Contest. She has taught poetry at the Banff Centre and participated online for Writers in Electronic Residence. She is the founder of the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers, and since 1989 has been Professor of Creative Writing at Queen's University.

Questions? Email us at poetrylondon at yahoo.ca 
or call the Landon Library at 519-439-6240