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Poetics

Glennis Hobbs

Poetry Reading Held North Of 54th Parallel

Ask a stranger what Flin Flon is synonymous with and you’ll either get the answer hockey or more lately legal marijuana. Add some enthusiastic poets and what do you get? The answer: a celebration of Canadian poetry.

This past February, a colleague of the Senior Poets’ Workshop (P123) asked what our group was doing to celebrate National Poetry Month. The Poetry Panel of T-Zero decided to do a two part feature on National Poetry Month (March and April issues). My part in this was to research the Canadian angle.

I started researching, not knowing what to expect, and was surprised to learn that not only was April was National Poetry month in Canada but that a great many events were planned to celebrate poetry. One of the panel members suggested that we include what was happening in our own area.

As far as I knew, nothing had planned for our city. Harry, my husband and fellow WVU member, and I discussed my research. We both agreed that it would be great to have some positive publicity about our city, rather than all the negative reports in out of town papers about marijuana, hockey or our isolation and lack of a Macdonald’s. We discussed the feasibility of holding a poetry reading in Flin Flon.

We then took the idea to the Flin Flon Writers Guild and received enthusiastic support. Guild members were not only willing but eager to read. We decided it to make it a celebration of Canadian poetry and to ask people to read either their own or other well-known Canadian poems.

We then approached Gretta Redahl, Library Administrator of the Flin Flon Public Library. She immediately offered the facilities at the library plus coffee and dainties. The reading date was set for April 25th.

Harry is a member of the local Toastmasters Club and approached the club. Their response was also enthusiastic. They agreed to supply not only readers, but also an MC.

With this commitment from three organizations, we contacted various members of the community to see if they would participate. Gerard Jennisen, our local Member of the Legislative Assembly was approached and he not only agreed to participate but had his poems picked out by the time he returned our call. Only the fact that the Legislature was discussing the provincial budget prevented him from attending. In all, we had representatives from ten different community organizations including the Norman Health Authority, the Community Choir, the Adult Literacy Center, the Ham Sandwich Drama Group, the Ministerial Association as well as members of the Writers Guild, Toastmasters and the Library Board.

As the date of the reading drew closer, we began contacting the media with our story. The Flin Flon Reminder ran a story on the reading and our local radio station CFAR also conducted an interview with Harry.

Mark Szyslo from CBC North agreed to interview us for his morning radio program. The day he phoned to tape the interview, things were proceeding beautifully. In the middle of the taping, our home renovator started up his power saw in the basement and drowned out the phone conversations. Luckily, all background noise was edited out.

Seventeen people took part in the reading. Over two-thirds of the readers chose to read their own work or the work of local poets. Flin Flon‘s Mayor Dennis Ballard and Saskatchewan poet Brenda Schmidt headed the list of local celebrities. Brenda read from her book A Haunting Sun. Toastmaster Bob Frazer, also Chairman of the Library Board, acted as MC and recited Robert Service’s "The Cremation of Sam McGee" to thunderous applause. MWG member Glenda Walker-Hobbs read from her forthcoming book City on the Rocks.

Glennis read from her forthcoming book City on the Rocks. A radio listener from The Pas heard Glennis being interviewed on the radio and liked the sound of her voice. She took her poem to The Pas Library and had it faxed to Flin Flon with the request that Glennis read her poem.

On behalf of the Writers Guild, Harry Hobbs presented Gretta Redahl with three books of Canadian poetry for the library in honour of National Poetry Month.

The whole evening was a testament to how cooperation between three different community organizations can bring about a successful celebration of poetry and National Poetry Month.

Mayor Dennis Ballard said that he always knew there was a lot of artistic talent in our community, but was amazed at the number of people who write poetry as well as the quality of the poetry read. People are already asking when the next reading will be held.

WVU’s philosophy is about writers helping other writers. WVU has given us an opportunity to meet with other writers all around the world and to share our love of writing. National Poetry Month not only gave us an opportunity to share our love of writing but to have fun doing it.