Last Friday, October 27th, I arrived at the tent set up outside the Carnegie Centre at the corner of Main and Hastings Streets and plunked down my second-hand, manual Smith Corona typewriter on a checkered tablecloth. Festival workers John and Quinn set up a sandwich board with a poster for the Heart of the City Festival. Quinn stayed on to offer any ongoing assistance. Poetry booth coordinator, Gilles Cyrenne encouraged folks passing by to consider participating. We waited to see who would come by to take us up on the offer of a poem.
Inspired by the book, Writing Down the Bones by US writer Nathalie Goldberg, Gilles initiated the Spontaneous Poetry Booth event at last year’s festival, and hosted it on both Saturday and Sunday again this year. Gilles is a committed community activist, local poet, Carnegie Centre Board Member and coordinator of the DTES Writers’ Collective whose enthusiasm is infectious. He convinced me to join him at last year’s festival, my first time ever doing anything like this. Usually it takes me weeks, if not months, or even longer, to painstakingly draft, craft and hone a single poem. But this was an opportunity to try something that I had heard about other poets doing at Farmers’ Markets and hospitals in other cities. Toronto poet and psychotherapist, Ronna Bloom has written and prescribed poems on the spot in hospital and other settings. New Westminster’s Poet Laureate, Elliott Slinn is also renowned for typing spontaneous verse.
Twelve people had a turn to sit down at the poetry table to share memories, ideas, themes or prompts with me. The very first person was the festival’s artistic director, Savannah Walling, who requested a poem that dealt with the to-and-fro of ancestral grudges. A wide range of folks of varying ages and backgrounds followed over the next hour and a half. I listened carefully and tried to draft poems that integrated their thoughts and feelings, grateful for their trust in me and their openness. The poems that emerged ranged in length from half a dozen to a dozen lines, but each poem was unique, tailored to the person seeking the poem.
One man wanted a poem to honour his deceased parents. A young woman wanted a poem about the multiple questions she faces daily from her four-year-old child. There were requests for poems about identity, transitions to a new city and the loss of a previous home, a favourite ring encircled by carved hieroglyphics, a dialogue between poets, and even about a doughnut (is a poem like doughnut, is a doughnut like a poem?). One of the last poems requested by a cyclist (see the photo above of the cyclist in red beside Gilles and a bicycle) was a blessing for the entire world. Of course, I was pleased to oblige!
Whether or not these were “literary” poems, they felt “true”–meaningful words I could assemble on the page (albeit with more than a few typos) and offer as a kind of gift. It felt in a way like trying to conjure rabbits from a hat!
Just like last year, Gilles was extremely busy concocting poems for the Spontaneous Poetry Booth over two days. He told me of memorable poems he was asked to write for a woman who had left the war in Ukraine, and for another woman whose daughter had died of a drug overdose, leaving behind her daughter’s two young children.
It was an honour to work with Gilles again, and to be part of the over 100 diverse cultural events at the Heart of the City Festival. It’s a wonderful festival with something for everyone. Kudos to the hard-working organizers, coordinators, artists, performers, and volunteers!
