Laureates gather for poetry-palooza
Event draws overflow crowd
They packed them in for poetry at Willistead Manor Tuesday, Sept. 25, with more than 100 attending the inaugural Poetry at the Manor.
“This is great,” said Windsor’s poet laureate Marty Gervais, who brought together five poets laureate from four Ontario cities and Prince Edward Island, in addition to himself.
“What a great turnout. It’s the perfect place for a reading.”
Poetry fans filled the arranged seating in the main hall of the venerable old mansion, and the overflow crowd filled doorways and several sat and stood on the grand staircase.
The event, Gervais’ brainchild, was the first of its kind to bring poets laureate together from a number of Canadian cities to read their work.
“The thing about this event is it’s a first, not just for Windsor but for the country,” said Gervais.
“There have been poets laureate galore across the country and they’ve all read their work in their own cities or towns, but this is the first time we’ve had poets laureate come together in this kind of number, and we’ve got six of them. That was my idea when I was offered the job to bring other poets laureate from across the country to Windsor and to share their story about their cities with Windsor. And so it’s happening tonight.”
After Gervais organized Tuesday’s poetry-palooza, Edmonton followed suit with one planned for next spring and Ottawa is planning another in the fall.
Poets laureate Bruce Meyer from Barrie, John B. Lee from Brantford, Elizabeth Zetlin from Owen Sound, Roger Nash from Sudbury and Hugh MacDonald from Prince Edward Island took turns explaining the stories behind their work and reciting poems from their catalogues.
“I’ve gained 20 pounds since I arrived in Windsor,” joked Meyer. “They really treat poets well in this city.”
In the crowd were famed author Alistair MacLeod and city councillors Percy Hatfield and Jo-Anne Gignac.
Gervais said that poetry is far from past its heyday, and is enjoying a rebirth in the digital age. “I think it fits in perfectly,” said Gervais.
“Who wants to read a novel anymore? I mean our DNA today is to get something quick, we’re delivering news like that. Poetry fits in nicely with that because it’s small, it’s packaged, it gives you the message very quickly and it can be a funny message, a sad message, and it can be serious. So it’s the perfect genre for this age. It’s the perfect literary genre for the digital age. That’s the way I look at it, anyway.”
The poets will visit the University of Windsor and Walkerville high school today to speak with aspiring writers and will do the same at Catholic Central on Thursday.
Gervais, who was appointed to a two-year term as the city’s first poet laureate in November, hopes to make Poetry at the Manor an annual event.