by Lorraine Payette, written August 24, 2013, modified September 20, 2013
(BROCKVILLE, ON) – Just as life itself is the true food of the gods, poetry is the sound of the soul singing its enthusiasm. And Brockville is finding itself to be vibrating with this music almost everywhere it turns.
An intimate gathering of poetry lovers draped itself around the shop on August 21 as the first public Poetry Evening was held at the “From Here to Infinity” Gallery located at 213 King Street West. This was the first in a new series of monthly presentations to be held on the third Wednesday of each month by the co-owners of the business.
Poets in attendance were Michael Casteels, Deborah Dunleavy, Paul Chaput and Nel Coloma-Moya, with featured artist for the evening Bruce Kauffman. All were from Kingston except for Dunleavy, who hails from Brockville.
Billed as “In To ‘Texts’”, it featured poetry and prose “from all media”, and gave the attendees far more than they had been expecting. Each poet presented something completely new and different, giving a variety and vibrancy unexpected in such an intimate setting.
“The hope is to develop a creative movement in the area, allowing for an interchange between artists and the community,” said Coloma-Moya.
This was only the first gathering of the programme. The goal is to bring in poets from the area every month to have a chance to get to know each other, learn from each other and truly blossom in their art. It doesn’t matter if this is the first time a poet has made an attempt and steps forward, or if the room is filled with seasoned professionals. All have something to contribute, and all can learn from the others.
Paul Chaput used song as well as spoken verse, while Michael Casteels revised Sudoku to work with words instead of numbers, creating a poetic line generator. Deborah Dunleavy presented her poems in a style resembling storytelling, while Nel Coloma-Moya read her works and talked about starting first as an observer, then moving up to be a participant and finally branching out with her poetry.
Bruce Kauffman read from several of his published works.
Various workshops may be held in the future to help those who wish to dive in and try their hand at new and different things in poetry. Each is to focus on a different area, helping poets develop skills they never knew they had.
The next poetry reading is to be held October 16 from 7:00 – 9:00 pm at the gallery.
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