Locally, National Poetry Month started with a celebratory proclamation by Mayor Lyn Hall. Public Library employees, Jillian Wigmore and Darcie Smith organized numerous events to encourage members of the community to learn about and maybe even write some poetry.
Poetry Parlour sessions were planned for every Wednesday until the 19th. Wigmore read a poem to city council and she posted a video on the library Facebook page of her reading about being offered drugs in Prince George.
There was a poetry walk in the downtown core where the peripatetic audience could visit literary landmarks. Wigmore and Smith talked about various poets and the relationship between a poet's chosen setting and the poem.
Verses written by local poets about these settings were posted on the library's Facebook page.
According to arts journalist Frank Peebles, some of these local poets include Wigmore herself as well as the principal of Dreamland School of the Arts, Jeremy Stewart, and UNBC professors Rob Budde and Si Transkin.
The most familiar names were those of Jackie Baldwin and Ken Belford. Baldwin's Threadbare Like Lace was reprinted numerous times and Belford is the Nass River ex-hunting guide, now living in P.G., whose poems are included in the New Oxford Book of Canadian Verse, edited by Margaret Atwood.
The final Poetry Parlour event to be held on April 28 will be the culmination of the month's celebrations where Michael V. Smith, Kara-Lee MacDonald and Kayla Czaga will be reading.
Glaringly obvious to me is the absence from these rosters of Prince George's most famous poet, Barry McKinnon, who is also present in Atwood's prestigious anthology. From the time I arrived in P.G. in 1970, I was aware of Barry's poems about the town. I heard him read Astoria, In the Face Of It No One Would Touch Her, and Ooga Booga, set in the Astoria, MacDonald and Croft Hotels respectively.
I remember too, Bay Day and Headache, poems that feature promotions popular in the '70s and broadcast endlessly on CKPG.
It Is is a poem about the cut-banks and dedicated to Belford.
Mrs. Snowdon talks about the last years of a long-time resident of the Millar Addition.
Then there are the poem-sequences, especially Pulp Log for which McKinnon won the B.C. Poetry Prize. This book includes settings such as the old caf in Sears, CNC where Barry worked for 35 years, The Coliseum where one year it was used for Octoberfest, Woodward's Caf in Parkwood Mall and the Yellowhead Hotel with the $3.33 breakfast.
Since I missed the walk, I'd like to assume that Wigmore or Budde read or mentioned some of these poems during the walk.
It likely would have been Budde who at the 2006 UNBC convocation introduced Barry as the latest recipient of an honourary doctorate.
Budde's introduction at that ceremony was excellent: "Over the course of nearly four decades, he (McKinnon) has inspired generations of northern writers and added his own poetic voice to the nation's literary culture. He has authored 15 books of poetry and numerous journal and anthology publications. He has also organized more than 100 readings in Prince George, attracting the likes of Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, and former Prince George writer Brian Fawcett. He is a past recipient of a B.C. book award and been short-listed for the Governor-General's Award for Poetry."
Vivien Lougheed
Prince George
