April is National Poetry Month in Canada. with the theme of Joy this year.
We’re all definitely in need of and ready for joy. Nanaimo, happily, is a poetry city. We have a poet laureate, Kamal Pamar, and there are always poetry events taking place at the libraries; accompanied by a symphony orchestra in a theatre; in cafes; at salons; and often on the street. And hopefully in classrooms too.
Last Fall, two women in the Writing Life women’s writing circle I lead, and I, decided we would put some poems together and create chapbooks to launch in April 2023. We kept to a proposed timeline and hired Sarah Clark to design them for us. Sarah is a graphic designer and my partner. As she was designing three books she thought she ought to have her own imprint which she named house of appleton. You can read about her new venture named for her maternal grandfather Franklin Fletcher Appleton here.
You can also order copies of the chapbooks at the link above.
I called my book Mending after one of the poems included in it. I wrote the poem last April at a poetry retreat with Lorna Crozier in Honeymoon Bay, on Lake Cowichan, Vancouver Island, B.C. The theme for our poem was “love” and I felt full of love and gratitude for my partner Sarah, and the new home we found ourselves in. (We moved to our current home on February 29, 2022.)
There are all sorts of definitions for the word “mending” while the poems in Mending, my book, are about emotional mending such as a refection on “My Mother’s Hands” and about having a hysterectomy in “A Ceremony in the Forest.” I actually refer to a hysterectomy in both of those poems!
“My Mothers Asks Me Questions form the Afterlife” contains questions from my mother with my answers having to do with a goddess pilgrimage I was part of on the Greek island of Crete. “Forsaken Things” is about things given away and “Small Victories” is about facilitating a circle at a drop-in for the mental health community in Nanaimo, B.C. where I live.
“Whenever I’m disappointed” is about my daughter and special times we spent together in the past and there are some poems that refer to the COVID-19 pandemic such as “I wonder what we will talk about” which continues:
when we get together in person again,
having not done much except hang a new feeder
for the hummingbirds, so busy at the buffet
. . .
MJ Burrows, Marlene Dean and I began the celebrations of our new chapbooks with a salon at Sarah’s and my home which we call The Literary Hummingbird Ranch. Women from the Writing Life circle attended and MJ, Marlene and I were happy to share our poems with women we had spent time writing with and with whom we have shared encouragement and support.
The photo above was taken by Sarah Clark. I’m in the back and Marlene Dean and MJ Burrows are in the front. We’re all holding our new chapbooks. Marlene’s is Because Things Are and MJ’s is Sea-Washed Stones.
It was a good idea to have a “dress rehearsal” before heading to the library in Nanaimo. We launched our books at the North Nanaimo branch of the Vancouver Island Regional Library on Monday, April 3rd which was a great kick-off to poetry month. The space at the North Nanaimo branch is an inviting one with lots of light, plenty of seating, and three microphones. Thank you to Darby Love, Adult Services Librarian, for all her help.
We three poets read our poems in sets of three on a theme, each of us taking a turn, weaving our poems and our voices.
The picture of me above was taken by my poet friend Diana Hayes from Salt Spring Island, B.C.
If you happen to live in Victoria, we three poets will be reading at Planet Earth Poetry which takes place at Russell Books, 747 Fort Street at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, April 21st. The open mic is first and we will follow around 8 p.m. So you have a chance to read a poem of your own and to mingle with other poets.
The reading will also be on Zoom and recorded. If you get in touch by emailing me at creativity@maryannmoore.ca, I can send you the Zoom link when I have it or the link to the recording later which will be on the Planet Earth Poetry You Tube channel.
Enjoy National Poetry Month!