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Thresholds: chatting with poet and organizer Stephen T. Berg

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The poetry community in Edmonton is warm, welcoming and teeming with talent. There are many great readings, workshops and events for poets all year round, but if you’re a poetry lover, the arrival of April, and the Edmonton Poetry Festival, is the most wonderful time of year. The fest is known for bringing in top-notch national and international talent, but part of its mandate has always been to celebrate the work of artists living and creating right here in Edmonton. The festivities begin April 17, with six events featuring local poets. I’m excited to be a part of one of those events, Thresholds, organized and hosted by Edmonton writer Stephen T. Berg. I asked Stephen to tell me a little more about Thresholds, and why poetry is a part of his life.

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KM: I believe last year (2015) was the first year the Edmonton Poetry Festival decided to hold Bring Your Own Venue (BYOV) events for local poets. You and I actually ended up reading at the same event on the first evening of the fest, and I’m so excited to hear you, and all the other artists you’ve lined up this year. Can you tell me about why you decided to organize your own event and  how you came up with the idea for Thresholds?

SB: Simply put, I thought organizing a BYOV would be interesting and fun. I’m part of a small, loosely defined, art/faith group, and so thought to float the idea there first; everyone was on board. The theme came out of our first discussion. I think Edward van Vliet first mentioned the word Thresholds.

KM: In addition to being a lovely afternoon of words, art and song, Thresholds will also be a fundraiser for Bleeding Heart Art Space. Can you tell me about that organization and why you decided to partner with them for the event?

SB:  The connection with Bleeding Heart Art Space is natural. Dave Von Bieker, musician/poet, is doing something on 118th Avenue that’s quite wonderful. With support, he’s set up this little gallery that is busy carving out something like a sacred space for art, community, hope, healing, love–I’m all for that.

KM: How long have you been writing poetry? And the follow-up question that all writers just love…why do you write poetry?

SB: I really don’t know when I started writing poetry. What I do know is that creative nonfiction, with a spiritual bent, has interested me for a very long time. I have journals going back to the 80’s full of this kind of writing–most of it woefully pedantic. But what happened is that somewhere along the way poetry showed up. At first, and I’m still careful and hesitant about this, I didn’t see this slow turn as poetry, until it was pointed out to me. The more I played with sentences, trying to make them say more than they’re capable of saying–trying, I suppose, to touch mystery, in the original sense of that word–the more I went hunting for images. The more I hunted for images, the more I listened, the more I listened, the more I was lost to presence, beauty, mercy. Today, for me, poetry seems the natural and appropriate vehicle for the spiritual quest. I write poetry because I have yet to truly hear what I’m listening to.

KM: Are there any other events in this year’s Edmonton Poetry Festival schedule that you’re excited about?

SB:  I love hearing local poets, so I always look forward to the Café Readings. The beauty of the festival is that we also get a chance to hear national and international poets. Just check out the Authors Page on the festival’s website. Three quick “spiritual” picks? “Poetry Becomes Spirit”, “Wine and Wild Women Wordsmiths”, “Poetry Among the Pines”. But of course, every event will contain stellar moments. Hats off to Rayanne Doucet and the staff, directors and volunteers of Edmonton Poetry Fest!

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Thresholds happens Sunday, April 17, 2:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.,  at St. Faith’s Anglican Church, 11725 – 93 Street. Seven poets, two musicians, and one visual artist will ask you to pause, consider, linger in the spaces between the seen and unseen, the telluric and transcendent – the between, between being and Being. Admission is by donation: Proceeds will go to the Bleeding Heart Art Space. For more info visit https://www.facebook.com/events/1662808630649670/

April is the poemiest month!

/ mannixk / 3 Comments

Hooray! It’s April, and the start of National Poetry Month! I love April for many reasons, like more hours of sunshine, the promising sight of tulips pushing out of the brown earth, and the fabulous Edmonton Poetry Festival. While I adore T.S. Eliot **, I just can’t agree that April is the cruelest month…not when so many poets come together to celebrate words.

Last year I approached the April poem-a-day challenge with gusto, and managed to squeak something out every morning. Some of those poems will always remain the unseen wordblurt of a first draft, but several have become poems I’ve felt confident enough to share at readings, or to include in my manuscript-in-progress. What I really took away from last year was a kind of discipline to write every day, and the realization that there are no wasted words. I also learned so much by reading the work of other poets.

This year I’m trying to use the prompts at both the Poetic Asides poem a day challenge, and the NaPoWriMo prompts posted at This Is Not A Literary Journal.  I’m not sure I’ll manage to write two poems every day, but I’ll see where the ideas from each site take me.

Some days I will post my own poems here, and some days I will post a link to beloved poems by others. Whenever possible, I will try to post links to works by Canadian poets.

So hooray for April, the wordiest month!

Oh, and here’s the quick bit I wrote for today’s Poetic Asides prompt to write a “fool” poem:

daffodils

sheathed in snow

April Fool

** And do click here to read the beautiful poem The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot

I go to work (here, at my computer)

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If my writing had to talk about itself, it’d probably tear up a little, then confess that it often feels lonely and neglected.  I always want to spend time with it, but it usually gets the shaft in favour of family and other job obligations. But I really do love it, I love who I am when I’m with it, and I make time for it when I can. In the past year I’ve realized if I want it to thrive, I have to give it extra special attention.

Last fall, I applied as an apprentice in the Writers’ Guild of Alberta Mentorship Program  and was surprised and excited to find out that I’d been chosen .  I was even more delighted to find out that I’d been matched with Sue Sinclair, an accomplished Canadian poet that I admire very much.

In those unseasonably warm October days, January seemed really far away. Oh, the plans I had to get a jump on my project! The words I would write, revise, and even polish to a shine. Then I blinked, or sneezed, or something, and here it is — the first day of the program.  Unfortunately, some of the poems I’ve written are still looking a bit dull. And many others are just chilling out in my head, waiting their turn to see the light.

No jump start, but heaps of enthusiasm. I have a plan, a schedule and motivation. I have a mentor that I am thrilled to work with, and am part of a Guild that had enough faith in my writing to give me this opportunity.  Over the next four months, my writing will get the attention it’s been craving.  Now, in the immortal words. of Kool Moe Dee, “I go to work.”

Monet poems featured on Ekphrastic

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I’m thrilled that the online literary and art journal Ekphrastic will feature two of my Monet poems this week, “Camille, at the end” and “Monet, in colour”.

Ekphrastic is an interesting new venture from Canadian writer and visual artist Lorette C. Luzajic. Take some time to check it out, and consider contributing. Great art breeds more great art!

Gettin’ Gritty, Inner City at the Edmonton Poetry Festival

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It’s Edmonton Poetry Festival time. SuperYay!
If you’re in town this Sunday eve and feel like taking in some poetry, how about Gettin’ Gritty, Inner City? I was excited and surprised to receive an honourable mention for this contest, as well as an invitation to read two poems. But there will be great poets there too, all of whom are much more worthy of a listen than me. It’s at a cool flower shop/cafe in Little Italy, in a neighbourhood full of character (see title of event). It’s free! And just one of many awesome things going on during Po-Fest. Check it out!