poetry day - dawson creek - 16 may 07

Poetry in the Peace Country came out alive on May 16 during Poetry Day, which centered around readings at the city's art gallery.
Throughout the afternoon, students, the media and Frontenac House authors Dymphny Dronyk and Alexis Kienlen shared work.
The event peaked with a reading by acclaimed Canadian poets Patrick Lane and Lorna Crozier.
The day ended in pints at the rural Rolla Pub, and ended under a black prairie sky laughing.
Those are some details, visit www.donnakane.com for more.

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good work

th way Patrick Lane came to th'old grain elevator
& workd his poems through wind & muscled
those words over hard work. his tongue shaped
but from his stomach still th push of meaning by
deep hits of rhythm. it was then clear that his poems
are not done until he reads them to you.

& in th'art gallery th walkway that climbd round
& behind the glass high school students who
cld not get a seat sat on th floor beneath th bright
paintings, lined up around th'edge like sunglasses
in a gas station listening.

& Lane was reading breaths full of Peace honey
& rusty nails & memories. working w/water
beside him he read from Go Leaving Strange --
"Everyone is quiet / in the stone of thier lives."
(from Match Stick); "His was a long story that came
slowly out of silence / and told without his
eyes looking at me, but staring instead / out
the window at the stubborn apples ripening,
a pale brush of fire / flaring under the hard green."
(from The War); "I learned
when I was young to leave things wrong."
(from Bent).

How he worked on his poems as he read
in th grain elevetor that night was as good
to hear as a man waking up at dawn to go
to work.

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from the May 18 edition of the Alaska Highway Daily News
by Hardy Friedrich

The hardened media of the Peace revealed a softer side in Dawson Creek on Wednesday – instead of barking questions, we let slip poems.
In the grain-elevator-turned-art-gallery, the Media Poetry Slam brought together 17 unsuspecting poets and admirers of the craft in a day devoted to poetry.
Some read writing of our own, including myself and CJDC’s April Parker. Others brought a favorite piece to the podium (CKNL’s Ogho Ikhalo read Maya Angelou), while Peace FM’s Hugh Headley rapped the lyrics to Kool Moe Dee’s “Go See The Doctor.”
It was interesting to see that people who spend much of their lives in front of cameras, on-air, and in interviews were so nervous when it came time to share something other than the news.
Not everyone was shy – the booming Grizz Michaels, for instance – but there was a fair amount of trembling white pages, soft unsure voices and “I can’t believe how nervous I was” comments afterwards.
For it is, most often, easier to talk and write about other people and events than it is to reveal something personal in front of an audience.
We do it every day – get in people’s faces, get the story, block sentiment to stay impartial – while from everyone else we expect emotions and pry into personal lives.
So the tables were turned on Wednesday, and it was refreshing to see and feel. Humans being human, sifting through the hypertext, reading poems and songs that have a personal significance. It can be a vulnerable feeling to be up there alone at the edge of a risk, like a skydiver about to jump out of a plane.
But, like the skydiver, who has hopefully landed safely on the ground by now, a sense of relief and exhilaration rushes forth.
Having purged emotions and shared a laugh, the readers emerged from the art gallery and into a prairie wind lighter – smiling – and in most cases went back to the daily grind.
One of the featured poets of the day, Governor General Award winner Patrick Lane, told me after his evening reading that poets and journalists share much in common.
They both tell a story; they both sift through the details of daily life to create something for other people to experience. They take the facts and have the power to choose what other people read.
So, as unlikely as Poetry Day organizer Donna Kane’s idea seemed at first, it was a successful experiment that garnered many compliments afterwards. Perhaps every profession should have a Poetry Day, from the oilpatch to the post office. Even Dawson Creek mayor Calvin Kruk joined in later that evening with an uplifting Dr. Seuss poem – “Green Eggs and Ham.”
The events of Poetry Day – which included everyone from high school students to media to two of Canada’s most acclaimed poets Lane and Lorna Crozier – wrapped tightly around an art that is often overlooked. But its power could be felt through the Peace on Wednesday.