The Book Band

Heightened Awareness: a Kaleidoscope of Colourful Poetry – where the themes and styles are as varied as the leaves of autumn

When: Sunday, October 18, from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Where? The meeting room in the Valley Park Branch of the Hamilton Public Library (in the Valley Park Community Centre, 970 Paramount Drive, Stoney Creek, Ontario [https://www.hpl.ca/valley-park).

What to Expect? Four accomplished Ontario-based poets reading from published collections, as well as recent poems from collections in progress.

Our featured poet James Deahl will launch Awareness: Poems, his collection of more recent works that explore the relationship between humans and the world around us, and the joys that relationship can bring to those who become fully aware of the grandeur of nature. Deahl’s personal reflections focus on many Canadian artists of note, as well as paintings and places to which we can all relate. Whether speaking of birds, natural areas or his grandson, his poems often segue to a comment on current or past historical events or people. These poems help us to  see, feel, smell and touch the natural world that is all around us which, in our haste, we often ignored. Deahl writes in tight free verse where the cadence of the spoken words reveals startling mental images.

  Originally from Pittsburgh, James Deahl has lived and worked in Canada since 1970, and currently lives in Sarnia. For the past eighteen years, he has been a full-time writer, editor, and translator. He is the author or editor of over thirty books, and has had fifteen books of poetry published. He is a well-respected writer of critiques on Canadian poets Milton Acorn, Raymond Souster and Bruce Myer, and has lectured at universities on Canadian Postmodernism and the People’s Poetry tradition. Most recently, he has explored the works and impact on the Canadian literary scene of the early Canadian poets in two books: The Confederation Poets, The Founding Of a Canadian Poetry, 1880 To The First World War, and To Possess The Land: An Anthology of Confederation Poetry.

Fran Figge, a highly-regarded Hamilton-area poet, will be reading from Hope and Despair in the Ark, along with other works. A prolific poet who experiments with many different literary styles, Figge explores a wide variety of topics and themes, from first love, to life experiences and nature; she frequently employs humour or whimsy in her work. Figge has been published in a number of anthologies including Verse Afire (TOPS), Tower Poetry (TPS), Aborealis and Tamaracks. She is an untiring supporter and promoter of poetry and the spoken word through workshops, compiling anthologies, open microphone events, editing and judging. Figge is the current President of both the Tower Poetry Society (TPS), and The Ontario Poetry Society (TOPS). She lives in Stoney Creek.

Hamilton-born G.W. Down has been writing poetry since childhood. His poetry has been published in Canadian anthologies, as well as in general interest magazines and newspapers. No topic or theme can evade his poetic pen – from satire, comedy, and politics, to love and the natural world. He makes use of a wide variety of formats including rhyming couplets, classic sonnets and villanelles. Down will read from Sonnets For Sahara Nights, a collection of poems that trace the longings of a love that is at first ambivalent, then successful, then lost but not forgotten.

Gertrude Olga Down is honoured to have been published over the years in Tower Poetry, the biannual chapbook of the Tower Poetry Society, with over 65 poems accepted. She strives to write short pieces that focus on one particular scene or experience, using free verse style, with end or slant rhymes, and vivid imagery. Her favourite themes are travel, nature, and love.

Heightened Awareness: a Kaleidoscope of Colourful Poetry takes place on Sunday, October 18, from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Valley Park Branch of the Hamilton Public Library. This is a free public event and all are welcome. Please feel free to bring a guest – perhaps a poetry lover, or someone who writes poetry, or a person interested in meeting four Ontario poets! In addition to the readings, the afternoon will feature book sales, book signings and refreshments.

The Community Centre and Library are fully accessible, with accessibility parking at the front door off Paramount Dr. There is ample free parking on the site. In addition, there is a lovely outdoor garden patio off the meeting room which, weather permitting, will be available for our enjoyment.