Inciteful Moment

Some time in the early fall last year, the Globe & Mail published an article that decried the impending season of literary readings. Who can endure another mind-numbing, death by droning performance, by a writer who should never be allowed near a microphone, the article’s author asked? You’d be right if you assumed that my initial reaction was defensive, not surprising given that my job is to program readings and convince audiences that attending them is worth their time and money. On the other hand, I have sat through literally thousands of readings and I know they can also be moving, provocative, hilarious and not to be too grandiose about it, soul-enriching.

A week ago the VIWF hosted an Incite event with the Canadian writer Merilyn Simonds and the American poet Tess Gallagher. Merilyn’s new book, A New Leaf, is a gentle evocation of her relationship with her garden. Tess asked me the night before the event if I could bring her a copy of Merilyn’s book. She took it back to the hotel with her and started reading right away. The next morning she selected some of her poems with Merilyn’s tone and sensibility in mind. At the event Merilyn was up first and read a section about pruning an apple orchard that had been neglected by the previous owners of her centuries-old house. When Tess took the stage she read a poem about going into her garden to prune a tree to improve her view of the mountains. Upon discovering a bird’s nest on one of the limbs, she decided to leave it. Then she imagined all the unseen nests that might populate the tree and decided that leaving a home for the birds was more important than her view.

It wasn’t just the thoughtfulness of one writer choosing a poem based on reading a fellow performer’s work (without making a big deal about it) that impressed me, it was the way their respective readings built on one another to create an overall mood and wrapped the audience in a carefully observed exploration of the world. Every word in the readings mattered, carried weight. During the question and answer session I asked Merilyn how much the rhythm of her prose matters to her. It means everything to me she said, it is why I write, to feel the words rub up against one another, to use them not just to describe a scene or create meaning, but to make a melody. Two great writers brought their work to life, talked generously and insightfully about their craft, and left us with much to think about. Boring, it was not.

By Hal Wake

 Photo source: Doubleday Dashboard