Local Scene

Bywords Warms the Night . . . ice crystals, dusky skies and sparkling stars. Those images describe the January nights in Ottawa. And I was looking forward to hearing some wonderful music and poetry to warm up a cold January night. Hmmmm, I thought, but the event is taking place in the afternoon . . . I’ll have to ask the organizers about that.

Bywords Warms the Night took place at 2 p.m., on Sunday, January 25, 2004, at the downtown location of Chapters, second floor, right beside the escalator. And although it was not an evening event, the day could still use some warmth; in fact, the afternoon of January 25, 2004, was a frosty minus 22 degrees – a cold snap, one could say. I intended to ask Amanda Earl, member of the Bywords team, about the ambiguous name. Was it an error? Had the event been rescheduled from evening to afternoon? But, once I arrived at Chapters, Amanda and I began to talk about other things, until I forgot about my question.

Bywords Warms the Night was billed as an afternoon of poetry and music, including the launching of the hot pink winter issue of the Bywords quarterly journal of poetry. As well, there was a box for donations of warm clothing to the Cornerstone Women’s Shelter, an organization that provides emergency shelter and support for homeless women in Ottawa. The shelter’s director, Sue Garvey, was in attendance; she graciously thanked the artists for their participation and gave an informative overview of the critical services provided by Cornerstone Women’s Shelter.

The two-part event was framed by musical interludes by flutist Rozalind MacPhail, who has performed in orchestras as well as in pop and instrumental bands. Ms. MacPhail’s repertoire included a moving rendition of Syrinx, Claude DeBussy’s haunting tribute to unrequited love as well as Honneger’s merry “Danse de la Chevre.” Seymour -- the “sage of Sandy Hill” -- Mayne, co-founder and member of the Bywords team, hosted the first half of the program with enthusiasm and alacrity. And the chosen readings certainly warmed the blood and (often) heated the passions. Poet K.L. McKay, editor of Spire and host of the weekly poetry stage at Café Nostalgica on the University of Ottawa campus, gave the first reading. Ms. McKay’s theme of “trying to be warm,” so well brought forward in “Heat” was both mediated by the cool diamonds featured in “mining” and “for my 22nd birthday he gave me/diamonds,” and complemented by the northern landscape of “Agawa Indian pictographs.”

Next on the program was the first public performance by poet, short story writer, and Ottawa native, Jean Van Loon. In the whimsical “Winter Garden,” a lively lady bug -- “a pilgrim on her way” -- evoked more temperate climes. And the catalogue of exotic fruit in “He Finds Me in the Fruit Section” was a dream come true on the frigid January afternoon.

Warmth and sunshine spilled into the room as poet Joanne Hughes, formerly of British Columbia, spoke to the bond between parent and child in “Binoculars” and “pregnant with Tegwyn.” Not coincidentally, the presence of Enid and Tegwyn, the subjects of Hughes’ poems, gave immediacy to the joy of life with two young daughters.

The sacred, ecclesiastical imagery in “Letter to Halifax,” by award-winning poet and novelist, Asoka Weerasinghe, was superceded by the subtle eroticism (which certainly imparted a glow to the afternoon) of “Kiss” and “Dandelion Seed.” Then, Seymour Mayne’s Robbie Burns’ Day tribute was an unexpected and fun addition to the program. Burns’ homage to the warm, golden nectar of “John Barleycorn” warmed their way through their ears to my brain like fine single malt.

The second half of the poetry section, exuberantly led by Amanda Earl, opened with public servant, and dormant literature grad, Michelle Tracy, reading “Io’s Feet.” The poem, which is the cover feature of the latest edition of Bywords, gave a startling twist to the parent-child relationship -- the child cradles her aging mother’s feet, which have transmuted into bovine appendages “sour and peppery, / horny with yellow callous.” And the listeners could certainly empathize with the poet’s frustration when the ink in her pen froze while writing “Cold Snap at the Experimental Farm.”

Then followed a change of pace with Carleton University student Michael Meagher’s melding of subtle violence with the outsider’s perspective in “Transvestites Roam Around” and “They Call You Mentally Ill.” The two poems frankly handle some uncomfortable themes that society would rather leave unexamined. I kept wondering whether the depicted landscape was universal or more local.

Published poet, Daniel Boland, read several winter poems, including “Early Snow,” “Sisyphus,” “Solstice Haiku” and “Blizzard at Christmas.” The suite featured some familiar Canadian icons and themes; the audience nodded its collective head while the poet evoked such images as the crimson cardinal, the white shroud of the winter landscape, and the “saviour with bumper cables.”

Stephanie Farrington began the final poetry set with the very personal “Waiting for My Father,” a poignant piece about the anguish of a daughter separated from her dying father, while the “snow whirled like dust devils.” “The View from January” taught us that the west coast, with its plethora of muddy shoes and “walking on water,” can be as inclement in January as any other Canadian region. Then, after one last perfomance by Rozalind MacPhail, the spirited Allegro from C.P. E. Bach’s Sonata in A Minor, the event concluded.

With its mix of humour, pathos, remembrance, reverence and eroticism, the event provided a warm corner in a busy space, right beside the main escalator at Chapters. For one-and-one-half hours, the 30 or so people gathered on a cold Sunday in January, certainly shared in some warmth. And, as the warmth generated by the event carried through into the evening, I finally understood the significance of Bywords Warms the Night.

© Catharine Carroll
St. Brigid’s Day, 2004
Ottawa native, Catharine Carroll, has a keen interest in the local arts scene. She has written several articles of local interest, many of which deal with Irish-Canadian culture in the National Capital Region. Catharine appreciates having had the opportunity to work on Bywords Warms the Night.