Tower Poetry Society

Promoting poetry sine 1951

“Here be dragons” — Poetry Parlour — where poems come alive

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This Blog Post is co-written by Rebecca Clifford & Nicola Schneider.

This past Saturday (Feb. 22, 2025), we had 11 poets read their poetry out loud and 1 supporter.

… Where poets are encouraged to read aloud to the group. The general public is welcome to join as listeners or performers. These Saturdays are an opportunity for anyone looking to hone their public performance skills by delivering a dramatic reading in front of an audience without the critique context of the regular meetings. (The next one is Saturday, June 14, 2 – 4 pm @ Westdale Library.)

Rebecca’s Report: The Latin phrase hic sunt dracones means dangerous or unexplored territories, in imitation of a medieval practice of putting illustrations of dragons, sea monsters and other mythological creatures on uncharted areas of maps where potential dangers were thought to exist.

Poets who gathered for the Tower’s Poetry Parlour were not disappointed when it came to unexplored territories, mysteries, mythologies, knights (errant or otherwise) and heroes, dragons and other dangers. The works read stimulated all the senses and took us to worlds beyond our ken.

Myriad “thionic deities” watched as dawn rose, “lovely in awakening”.  Alliteration and imagery were thick on the ground, much to our delight.  Some poets went back to their youth when hearts and spirits were green and tender, where chaos can ensue all “because I sneezed”.  Some railed “against the chains of the sky” and the Damocles politics swinging south of the border with talons and dragon’s breath; some simply went there in the fantasies born of new imaginings; some responded to seminal poems with which we were already familiar; some cited silly works because, well, when things are as bad as they are these days, you just gotta laugh.

In every instance, we valued the words, and the voices we heard.  All in all, an afternoon well spent in good company.

Nicola Says: We welcome poetry lovers & supporters because it can be scary to share poems. I mean, talking in front of an audience can be scary. Period. But, poetry (Eeeeek!) — Because after all, the poems are parts of ourselves, and not always the most flattering parts.

The good news is that practice helps, and that is why Tower Poetry decided to try this out for the 2024-25 season. I have asked some TPS Members to share their tips for reading your poetry out loud… ta daaaa….

Tips from Tower Poet Members:

Jennifer Tan says: Above all, read as if saying it with feeling, like you care and really mean it.

From Rebecca Clifford, TPS Executive, Member-at-large, Ekphrastic Experience Coordinator, co-communications & all-‘round poetry pal…

For reading:

  • choose your pieces knowing your audience will be diverse
  • bring more pieces than you will likely recite; you can choose on the fly (esp. if someone recites something similar before you do)
  • practice reciting your pieces before the event
  • in your reading copy, put in strategic spaces and line breaks that will slow you down.
  • speak as if you’re in a large classroom, auditorium, and you don’t have a mic
    (it’s odd how many open mics don’t have mics)

For simply enjoying the event:

  • enjoy the offerings of other performers/reciters by being fully present for their performances
  • jot down words/phrases that capture your interest; it may spark something new in your own work.

Lisa Borkovich, TPS President advises: Whether my own or another poet’s work, I like to dramatize a reading by connecting emotionally with the words and their perceived meaning and then to convey that feeling by modulating my tone, volume and pacing. If appropriate, I also like to add body language and facial expression to further engage with the audience in order to elicit an emotional response in them.

Ed Woods, TPS Treasurer & Circulation Manager, suggests: Pretend you are at a gathering of friends and treat it as a casual test-drive of reading your poem aloud.

Three tips from the Downs (Trudi & G.W.):

  • Stand up – It’s better for your breathing and delivery; people can hear you better.
  • Slow down – Ears take time to hear what you say and then transmit the sound to the brain for decoding. Slow down your delivery to give your readers a chance to process what you are reading.
  • Speak out – Mumbled talking is most annoying to the listener. If your poem is worth reading, speak up so your audience can hear and enjoy your work. Try to project your voice so that the person farthest away from you can easily hear you.

Do you want extra practice? Here is Poetry Foundation’s “Ten Poems Students Love to Read Out Loud.“

Writer in Residence, Jennifer LoveGrove from Open Book (Ontario)
“A How-To Guide for Your Poetry Reading”

Orange County Poetry Out Loud Series: “Top 5 Poetry Performance Tips (Poetry Out Loud #3)”

Hamilton Public Library, Poems From Home, TPS Poets:

** Lisa Borkovich, This Escarpment

** Jennifer Dunlop

** Bernadette Rule

** Nicola Schneider (Mine are what not to do…. These were my first performances… `

 

The next TPS Poetry Parlour –> Saturday, June 14, 2 – 4 pm @ Westdale Library.

Tower Poet’s Talk is Back — and it didn’t disappoint!!

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Poet’s Talk, February 8, 2025 — with long-time TPS member, Bernadette Rule… “Seminal Poems: Poems that make People into Poets.”

Distinguished poet, Bernadette Rule, gave a brief talk on a poem’s effect on one’s creative spirit. As part of this interactive presentation, poets were invited to share a poem that had such an effect on them.

Bernadette asked, “What was the first (or one of the first) poems that taught you the power of poetry, and perhaps turned you toward writing?”  We were invited to come prepared to talk about a poem that stopped you in your tracks, made you wonder how the writer did that, how s/he created those effects.

“If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?”

― Emily Dickinson, Selected Letters

There were 17 folks in attendance!! — 3 TPS Execs., 8 members (including the Presenting Poet), & 6 non-member friends.

Bernadette’s friend, William Duane Tucker, passed away and left her his treasured book collection. She could tell that he loved his books as he seemed to involve them in his day-to-day rituals. They had notes in the margin and food and drink remnants throughout. The last book she opened ‘took the top of her head right off!!’ And, it sparked the idea for today’s workshop. The book was: “First Loves – Poets Introduce the Essential Poetry that Captivated & Inspired Them” (edited by Cormela Ciuraru).

Bernadette talked about certain poets and poems that had influenced her poetry journey. Then, she invited each participant, going around the room, to talk about what poems or poets had influenced them. Some poets (primarily teachers/professors) were readily able to cite certain portions of their seminal poems; others, read from notes and poems they had brought, and all talked about the effect that poets/poetry had had on them, on art they create, and work that they generated based on making/experiencing art; how events and experiences in their lives had informed their poetry journey.

Some of the works and poets cited through the discussions:

Robert Louis Stevenson 

Child’s Garden of Verses

Child’s Christmas in Wales

Dylan Thomas 

Lewis Carroll   —  Jabberwocky

Juvenile –  I’ve Never Seen a Purple Cow; Ted the Turtle (the origin of this one remains a mystery)

Jean Little – Growing Pains (“This made me feel like I wasn’t alone. It blew the top of my head off!” – N.S.)

Matthew Arnold  — Dover Beach

Nelson Ball

Melissa Allen’s site, veryshortpoetry.com (The Journal of Very Short Poetry – 25 syllables or less)

William Wordsworth  — I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

Homer, in Translation & Virgil in translation

Geothe

Rainer Maria Rilke (in German)

Paul Simon  — Sounds of Silence

What did Paul Simon say about sound of silence?
“The Sound of Silence was the first song I wrote which seemed to come from some place that I didn’t inhabit,” Simon tells The Guardian. “At age 23, it was unusual, well beyond my age and abilities. Then it happened again throughout my writing. Bridge Over Troubled Water was another song that came mysteriously.
From: themusicradar.com — Oct 4, 2024

Samuel Coleridge  —  Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Check out this Metal version by Iron Maiden)

Gerard Manley Hopkins, John McCrae, John Gillespie Magee (High Flight), and other war poets

Rod McKeun‘s poem “Gently, Gently”

World Poetry Café – Co-op Radio Station in Vancouver, BC (thanks to Ed for sharing – an interview will air on Feb. 13, 2025)

*** Bonus Resource: Definitions of Poetry ***

Whether people came to poetry early in life or later, there was always a poetic catalyst that got them started. We appreciate the participant’s eager participation. It was a neat opportunity to share in a way we don’t get to do in regular workshops. Thank you, again, Bernadette:)

Several people made connections afterwards and chatter continued outside the room and into the parking lot.

Upcoming:

  • AGH Ekphrastic poems due by February 10!
  • Poetry Parlour (open mic) — Saturday, February, 22, Westdale Library, 2 – 4 pm
  • TPS Summer 2025 submissions due February 28, 2025
  • next regular workshop — Saturday, March 8, Westdale Library, 2 – 4 pm
  • Come celebrate Poetry Month by visiting the AGH — Saturday, April 5 & 26, 1 – 4 pm — Tower poets will be onsite to read the poetry that the art inspired. (A booklet will be available of the poems for the month of April so you can read the poems at the same time you view the artwork that inspired them.) Note, the Reading Event is free, as the permanent collection (2nd floor) is free access (no admission).

 

AGH-TPS 2025 EXPHRASTIC EXPERIENCE

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What does Ekphrastic mean?

According to Poets.org, ekphrasis is “the use of vivid language to describe or respond to a work of visual art.” Poets.org has a brief history of the origins of ekphrastic poetry on their website, which includes the statement that “early ekphrasis was used as a vivid description of a thing.”

Tower Poetry has arranged with the Art Gallery of Hamilton to have poets view works from their permanent collection and create ekphrastic poetry in response for National Poetry month, April 2025.

There are FIVE galleries of pieces from the AGH Permanent Collection from which to choose:

  • Nova Steel Ltd Gallery
  • Norval Morrisseau (all aboriginal art)
  • Galbreaith Memorial Gallery (contains sculpture)
  • Bob and Maggie Carr Gallery
  • Milton Harris Galley (contains Group of Seven)
  • and the Atrium.

It doesn’t matter if your heart is lured by sculpture more than painting, or if your mind speaks to the modern or classical, there is something to inspire every poet.

For full details, please visit our Ekphrastic Experience page: https://towerpoetry.ca/poartry-2/

APRIL 2025
This is an opportunity to put our poetry into the public forum for the entirety of National Poetry Month.  Tower Poetry will produce a brochure that gallery visitors can take to read your poetry when they reach the permanent collection galleries during April.

Please note: the poetry will not be displayed next to the artworks. The brochure will be the key to the ekphrastic experience.

Saturdays, April 5th & 26, 1 – 4 pm, Tower poets will be stationed at various locations in the permanent collection galleries to read aloud the selections for visitors who wish to share in the experience.

Thank you to Rebecca Clifford, AGH-Tower Event Coordinator, for organizing this event.

++ AGH is free to visit all day on Thursdays; access to Gallery 2 (permanent collection) is always free.

** Although membership in and contributions to the AGH are encouraged, they are by no means a prerequisite for participation in this event.

** if you have a Hamilton Public Library card, you can show it at the entrance for free admission anytime.