11:54 a.m. — San Antonio
Okay, so I said this column (?) would be down for the summer, but I wanted to thank a couple of people and not tack it onto the roundup, or Tuesday’s Tryouts.
Many of you are aware that I spent the past weekend in Rhode Island [a wonderful state with the friendliest people], celebrating the Origami Poems Project 3rd anniversary with the two women responsible for the continuation of this unusual Press, and honouring Jack Penha, best friend, mentor, author, editor of The New Verse News, and much, much more, and Tom Chandler, Poet Laureate Emeritus of Rhode Island.
The two women who set up the event, and who take care of all of their poets as they would a family, Jan Keough and Lynnie Gobeille, deserve their own celebrating and honouring for bringing off such a successful event and for all they do to send free poetry out into the world.
Jan and Lynnie, along with all the other events they sponsor, the reading of poetry, the selecting of poets and poems, the printing of the micro chapbooks, the folding of the chapbooks and then, the disseminating of the chapbooks all over Rhode Island, have been working on this event for months, making sure everything would run perfectly and everyone be happy.
It did and we were. The venue was the Wickford Art Gallery, a small square building on the water. Inside all is light-filled and the walls covered with gorgeous photographs and paintings. In the centre, roughly forty chairs were set up, facing a lectern with a mic. Behind the chairs, stood a table serving wine and chocolate, throughout [I ask you: what could be better?]. To one side stood a table where the two honourees signed books afterwards.
Listening to seven poets read is a magical way to spend an afternoon.
Everything was wonderful, from first to last. Not a hitch, although I know Jan and Lynnie worried until the last person left. Their care of and for us and for poetry is one of the things that made the afternoon so special.
I point you in the direction of the Origami Poems Project every now and then. I will keep nudging. This is a special project. Check it out. Read some of the micro-chapbooks. They are all there, online. Learn how the chapbooks are folded from a single sheet of A4 paper. Consider submitting your own poems.
Thank you, Jan and Lynnie, for the magic.
The Happy Amateur
28/06/2012 at 1:19 pm
Sounds like a very special event, thank you for sharing, Margo. It’s so nice you got to see your friends, too.
margo roby
28/06/2012 at 1:23 pm
Thank you, Sasha. It was. I felt a little odd doing the post because it is both poetry and personal and I don’t usually do personal, but I thought it needed doing!
The Happy Amateur
28/06/2012 at 1:38 pm
I thought it was very appropriate for Thursday Thoughts. I believe when you really want to share something and be heard, the only way to do it effectively is to get personal. Personal doesn’t have to mean unprofessional. You are always personal, Margo, whether you like it or not
margo roby
28/06/2012 at 2:16 pm
Good point, Sasha. I am
vivinfrance
28/06/2012 at 5:55 pm
Lucky you, Margo, and lucky me, as I have spent every evening this week reading and listening to 5 wonderful poets reading their poetry including poems written during the week, and favourite poems, of many eras. It wasn’t a workshop as such but a series of exercises which have wrought miracles on our thinking, plus hour-long one-to-one tutorials for each of us in the afternoons.
A tiring but wonderfully enlightening week.
margo roby
28/06/2012 at 6:10 pm
Nothing quite like it, ViV. I do like the sound of the workshops you have, especially this one. I haven’t nailed down one that sounds quite the same, but I am looking.
Veronica Roth
28/06/2012 at 7:15 pm
I just looked at the directions for the folding, what a fantastically great idea! Now I want to push it (yeah…it’s me) and find some origami folds where the poem is still readable but not as a chapbook…you know, like an elephant poem folded into an origami elephant…Ooo, cranes, a whole sting of cranes each saying one word forming a linear poem. Stars, I can fold stars. Oh god…there I go.
margo roby
28/06/2012 at 7:49 pm
Oooooh. You go, girl. I am all for you, Veronica. Take pictures when you’re there and then post how you did it.
Joseph Harker
28/06/2012 at 11:21 pm
It all sounds very cool, and I am jealous, and I wish they weren’t taking you away from your blogging, but I suppose it’s okay.
margo roby
29/06/2012 at 5:06 am
Joseph, I’m back
I would love to have had you meet Jack; you would like him. Do check out Origami. I know your stuff is usually longer [excuse me, poems, not stuff -- it's four in the morning.], but some of the micro- chapbooks are a single poem.
I’m glad you also had a great weekend, the Fellow plus a wedding!
Hannah Gosselin
29/06/2012 at 5:24 pm
Very nice!! Sounds like a wonderful event and I’m thankful for your sharing, Margo!!
’s to you!