Tag: books

Sunset at Thunder Cove

Never think Japanese Poetry doesn’t get you anywhere…I offer proof that it can offer glorious unexpected gifts.

If I hadn’t been a Japanese-form poet I would not be part of a most amazing family: Haiku Canada, with sisters, brothers, and cousins one with the aim of writing the best of Japanese forms.

Deep connections allow for the most elegant challenges available in any poetry, along with all the help one needs to learn to write it and/or enjoy it.

It’s like Graphis scripta, the lichen that is like the secret writing of trees. You have to know about it. Getting to know Haiku Canada people, well, it’s the best secret ever, but one we love to share.

Things happen to make this happen. Every year there is a ‘conference’ held somewhere in Canada, and everyone is invited. But this current year has offered even more opportunities to experience, learn, and/or share these forms. It’s like having access to magic. The coffee, for instance, was magical when some of us met afterwards at Yukon’s Bean North.

Haiku Canada this year was in Lennoxville, Quebec, at Bishop’s University. The presentations were interesting even to long-time poets. For personal reasons, I left early, so I won’t say much about it here, but I would say that you should come to the next one which will be held in Kingston, Ontario. I’ll add a tag to this post.

This year further invitations were extended to join a Maritime Haiku Getaway at St. Stephen’s University in St. Stephen, New Brunswick, and to a Haiku Day in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. I was grieving but the best place for me at this time would be with my poetry family. With poets, you mean? Not only poets, I say, but haiku poets.

Mike Montreuil and I would fly to Saint John, rent a car, drive to St. Stephen, planning to drive on to Prince Edward Island for the second event.

Some of us got there early. We just had to go to the local diner, Carman’s. Loved the juke box on the table and the billboard at the parking lot. The food was pretty good and the service wonderful!

At the University there would be some planned presentations but most of us went into the weekend with open minds as we know that events involving Japanese forms are always stimulating no matter what happens. Participants ranged from long-experienced poets to newer writers. We were offered choices of zeroing in on haiku, tanka or haibun. It gave us the chance to go deeper into a form, spend three or four hours on it, or move around to check out a different form.

The building itself was so beautiful to work in, and the town so beautiful for casual roaming as well as for a gingko walk. A dynamic presentation by Angela on haiga, a combination of haiku and Art, encouraged us all to try it.

Some of our best poets and organizers were also the best cooks, dishwashers, and servers as this particular weekend was a communal affair, with lots of time for getting to know the other participants, whether over a meal, or hanging out in one of several comfortable nooks. So What if the stove took an hour to cook pasta, So What if I had to wing my presentation because I’d left the PowerPoint file at home. We laughed a lot and discovered each other.

haiku poets at lunch/ an enthusiastic discussion/ of Winnie the Pooh

A few of us let down our hair after hours, joining Hans, with guitar, Rob, Sandra, Brendan, and others with flute, drum and tambourine, to belt out hilarious renditions of songs like Ob la Di Ob La Da.

Mike and I then drove through the autumn beauty of Southern New Brunswick, stopping by the water at Grand Manan.

Mike, and some Xanthoria parietina on the rocks at Grand Manan.

We crossed the Confederation Bridge to Prince Edward Island. It was nostalgic for Mike as he’d worked on that construction. Nostalgic for me as I was last there crossing on a ferry more than fifty years ago with my little boy.

This is where the ‘coming close to Nirvana’ kicks in. Nancy and Peter Richards hosted Angela, Caroline and Carole in their home and offered me and Mike a chance to stay in their cottage at Thunder Cove.

They had collaborated with Angela, Caroline, Carole, Mike and me to present haiku for a day to mostly new writers of the genre. As the only two known haiku poets in the province, Nancy and Peter had organized space at the historical Coach House in Charlottetown, another beautiful building. Expecting a few participants, they had to keep adding tables and chairs as early on, the room started to fill up with people INTERESTED IN HAIKU! Sessions on haiku, haibun and tan-renga were presented. It seems these poets plan future meetings in person or on Zoom. A Win-Win situation!

You see, this is the kind of unexpected gift, the Nirvana that Japanese poetry might offer! Thunder Cove was a magic place, the beach long and red with only a few people exploring it. Mike worked a lot on The Haiku Canada Review; we both wrote for hours. I spent hours on the beach in all kinds of weather, even before and after sunrise, and at sunset. 

Sunrise and sunset and lichens (Ramaline dilacerata) …there’s nothing more to ask.

From this post you may gather that I am interested in lichens. The identifications may not be perfect. But lichens are similar to the organisers mentioned throughout this post, the participants of these two events, and the haiku world of poetry itself: perfect jewels that continue to surprise with gifts.  

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A Reading in Montreal

Look at this terrific mural at Café 92 degrés on rue Sherbrooke in Montreal! It was the setting for a reading on August 14th. This post has been a long time coming, as life tends to get in the way. Since then I’ve been at the Maritime Haiku Getaway in St. Stephen’s, NB, and a Haiku Workshop in Charlottetown, PEI.

More on those in the next post.

But the four of us poets who were lucky enough to read together Café 92 degrés on rue Sherbrooke in Montreal can warm ourselves with the memory of our Turret House Press reading on August 14th. I was late. It had been many years since I last faced traffic in Montreal at rush hour. Let that be a lesson if I am ever fortunate enough to be at this café again for any reason. And there are many.

The reading was part of NDG Arts Week, which made me wish I lived in that area as so many cultural events were happening. Four of us read that night. The audience graciously and vigorously applauded poems by Cora Siré, Sarah Wolfson, James Hawes and me from these collections:

Well I am not lying when I say how excited I was to be part of this reading. I regret being late. I would have enjoyed more conversation with people who were in the room. I enjoyed talking with Sarah’s son, and the excitement when a woman came up with a photo on her camera of a bee heavy with pollen just after I’d read about bees sonicating. One of the best parts of the evening was meeting the poets I read with. I’d love to talk about their poetry with them. They seemed to have forgiven me for being so late and stayed afterwards for what I hope was the start of longer conversations. On anything.

My niece Jessica had just been to her first reading and enjoyed the experience. Perhaps I’ve discovered another poetry lover in the family. That would be wonderful. We all waved from the patio in front of Café 92 degrés as James took off on his shiny red moped. He claimed it was his company ‘car’.

Without a place to stay and be fed, I wouldn’t have been able to make the reading at all. Lynn and her poet husband Marco Fraticelli are champions for putting up with me, for putting up with hours of traffic that evening.

Hosts Lynn and Marco had bought several portions of Tres Leches cake at the cafe! None of us had ever tasted it. A treat for after hours of traffic! On the way back to Pointe Claire Marco tossed something over his shoulder to where I was sitting behind him, something I’ve treasured ever since: a black cap from the Café 92 degrés with its logo. The cap and I have travelled to New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island since then; I wear it every day.

I shout out a huge ‘thank you’ to everyone who came that night, such an attentive audience of poetry lovers. Thank you James Hawes, and the Café 92 degrés people who were such gracious hosts. Thank you city councillor Peter McQueen for your comments afterward, and, though I’ve never met you, thank you Olivia Domingues Johnson and Notre Dames des Arts for organizing the evening.

The Tres Leches cake was amazing. I’d return to the Café 92 degrés just for that!!!

How I would love to do it all again.

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