Tomorrow, March 21, is
World Poetry Day and
all are invited by the UN to “reflect on the power of language and the
full development of each person’s creative abilities”
In her
message
for World Poetry Day, Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO states,
“Poetry is one of the purest expressions of linguistic freedom. It is a
component of the identity of peoples and it embodies the creative energy
of culture, for it can be continuously renewed.”
In celebration of World Poetry Day, we are completely honoured to
share with you, “The Language of Poetry” by Bruce Meyer, Poet Laureate
for the
City of Barrie.
Bruce Meyer is the inaugural Poet Laureate of the City of Barrie and
Professor of English at Georgian College. He is the author of 34 books
of poetry, short fiction, non-fiction, literary journalism, and
pedagogy. His broadcasts on the
Great Books for CBC Radio One are the network’s bestselling spoken word cd series.
Poets laureate have an ancient history with traditions dating back to
the first days of classical civilization. They are called upon to
encourage and promote the importance of culture and language in society
and to share their prose for celebration and occasions.
It is with joy that we share with you our poet laureate’s beautiful
words, written for Sunday Crush on the occasion of World Poetry Day. We
invite you to further read his reflections on his role as City of Barrie
Poet Laureate, on celebrating poetry and literature in our community
and on the beauty of this wonderful region we live in.
The Purpose of Public Poetry
As the inaugural Poet Laureate of the City of Barrie, I am delighted
when I am asked to write poems for special occasions. I have written
about the Barrie Farmer’s Market and read that poem to shoppers as they
picked over the best of the fall apple harvest. I wrote one for a
concert of seniors who were playing Christmas carols in the City Hall
Rotunda. I have recently written one for a charity dinner where the
Mayor was celebrated to raise funds for a community of special needs
adults, and another I have just completed to welcome the city’s first
female Chief of Police. These are records of moments when we are simply
living our lives in the collective spirit of citizens who are
sharing the delight of their lives together in the same time and place.
Poems, by their very nature, should make the transitory permanent;
they should record and, if called upon, celebrate what it is they have
to express. I look around my city and around Simcoe County, and I see so
much that we have to celebrate.
What I am realizing is that as a literary entity, Barrie and Simcoe
County are just now getting around to recognizing what we have and how
rich it is. I have the feeling every day that I live in a little piece
of God’s country and I think I owe it to those around me to tell them
how lucky they are to be here. Poetry should open people’s eyes to what
is around them.
Across the street from my home is the city’s botanical garden,
Sunnidale Park. In the winter, I watch as cross-country skiers traverse
the trails that have been cut between the trees and plantings, and in
the summer I witness couples pledge their vows among the beds of bright
flowers. Poetry should be like those vows or those ski trails: it should
join people and things together, connect one point of interest or an
event to another, and lead us somewhere or to some lasting recognition
of how important every moment in our lives can be. The best poetry,
whether happy or sad, is driven by a profound sense of love. Barrie is a
city that is still growing into its artistic potential and the
consciousness that goes with it. If my writing of poetry can do
anything, I hope it would be to point out to readers not only the depth,
mystery, and power of the place we live in but the way we connect with
each other in that place and what binds us together, like a vow, as we
share our moments in time together.
Poetry should also be a public statement. A poem stuffed in a bottom
drawer or scrawled in the unopened pages of a diary doesn’t do anyone
any good. It becomes a lost statement, a wasted breath…a personal
document, yes, but an unfulfilled expression of what deserves to have a
life of its own beyond the page. When a poem needs to be written,
it calls itself into being through the skills of the person who wrote
it. Poems want to be born. They want to live. They want to spread their
wings and enter the world. If they are strong enough to be heard by the
ever-tuned ear of a poet, then they deserve a life of their own. To be
asked to listen for a poem by one’s community is a great honor not only
to poet but to the poem. The vox populi has said to an idea “please live
here. We want you.” That’s where public poetry comes into play. Public
poetry is poetry that wants to be shared, that wants to be heard, and
that wants to have a life of its own.
Practicing poets will know that public poems, those that are
requested by the poet’s community, are often different from the poems
that want to come into the world as something personal for the poet.
Public poetry has to address the many rather than the few. For the art’s
sake, this is something that is extremely important because the often
personal purpose of poetry can blunt the art as something that can be
shared by the many — and the more people that share in the art of
poetry, the more the art thrives. Poetry is like a group cheer. It gains
strength the more people participate in the process.
Many years ago, the League of Canadian Poets (an association of which
I am a long-standing member) distributed window stickers that read
“Poetry Spoken Here.” I think that is a declaration that we have to make
here in Barrie and Simcoe County. The poetry that results from public
dialogue and discussion may not be personal poetry but it is very
important. This kind of public expression is known in the world of
poets as “Occasional Poetry,” poetry that is called into the world not
only by the poem itself but by a social spirit that wants to create
discussion and dialogue. Occasional poetry speaks to the moment; but my
view is that it should also be akin to those still life paintings
crafted by artists such as Vermeer who show us our moments of existence
and record the details of our lives not as overwhelming monuments to
great events but as whispers of the minute glances and small passions
that comprise the memory of our all-too-brief moments in this life. Look
at a Vermeer painting. A woman is playing a harpsichord or standing
beside a window to read a letter in the flood of light as it enters the
room. That’s what true occasional poetry, public poetry, should do. It
should be a kind of light that enters into those unassuming moments of
our days and bathes us in the recognition that for a brief moment we are
who we are as we are caught unawares of ourselves in the process of
doing the things we do in order to live our lives. It should capture us
in that instant when we look up and out from the frame around us, and
are caught in the overlooked dignity that life asks of us.
Bruce Meyer
In more poetry news, April is
National Poetry month and one way you may want to participate is by attending the
L3 Writers Conference
on April 18 at Barrie North Collegiate. Bruce is an advisor to the
writers conference; a fantastic literary event for high school students
during the day and in the evening the doors open at 7:00 pm, inviting
the public to listen to some of Canada’s finest authors, poets,
novelists, journalists and activists. Click
here to see the awesome list of presenters at this year’s conference.
from the blog SUNDAY CRUSH
