Isn’t it wonderful how one thing can lead to another? The right foot in front of the left. One synapse firing up the next. I recently received in the mail the winter issue of Geist magazine, which is, cover to cover, one of their finest in years. The art direction is eye-catching and concise and most importantly the content is inimitably Canadian, helping as always to build a sense of our collective quirks while also reaching out to find bohemia and beyond outside our borders. All the articles are thought-provoking, but it was a review on a famous Canadian painter that tipped me in an interesting direction of thought. “The Canadian way of death is death by accident,” quotes Daniel Francis, getting trans-Canada mileage out of this concept from Survival in his review of a book about Tom Thomson, a Canadian painter whose bold work inspired the Group of Seven to formation.
The next day, with Thomson’s name fresh in my memory, a certain podcast on Entitled Opinions grabbed my attention. Last night I finally got around to listening to the first part of Tom Thomson in Purgatory, an interview with the philosophy professor come poet Troy Jollimore. I’m not sure yet if the titular Thomson is the Canadian painter of national renown, but the interview is inspiring with Jollimore reading several of his Occam-razor-sharp poems, which reminded me of the importance of hearing authors read their own work. Then I thought about this upcoming Sunday.
This Sunday afternoon is Dead Poets, an afternoon of poets reading from the works of those who’ve passed before us. As I listened to Troy Jollimore reading his poem Glass, I pondered the differences between him reading his own work and the work of someone else. Then it dawned on me that if you want to find out how writers dig inspiration from the graves of the dead, how one thing has led to another in their poetic imaginations, nothing beats a writer reading from the work of someone who’s influenced them. Listen to the speed, intonation, and rhythms of that author and you’ll have secreted away a writing class for yourself. Writing is part of a large and loud conversation but hearing a writer read from someone is like eavesdropping on a student and teacher taking in private after class. If you’re interested in listening in on such a conversation you can find the following writers at the location below:
Charles Bruce read by Sandy Shreve
Edwin Muir read by Christopher Levenson
R. S. Thomas read by Russell Thornton
Al Purdy read by Rob Taylor
Nazim Hikmet read by Kate Braid
Sunday, January 24, 2:00-4:00 p.m.
The Café for Contemporary Art, 140 East Esplanade, North Vancouver
One block up from the Lonsdale Quay and Seabus
This has been organized by the remarkably talented and friendly wordsmith David Zieroth, who recently won the Governer General’s Literary Award for his poetic connections placed carefully on the page. If you’re free this Sunday afternoon I can’t recommend this highly enough.