A Puddicombe Poetry reading

Puddicombe Estate

We have not heard the music of the spheres,
The song of star to star, but there are sounds
More deep than human joy and human tears,
That Nature uses in her common rounds
                                  (Archibald Lampman)

I've usually hosted my poetry readings at the Erland Lee house in Stoney Creek, in the sturdy red plank two--tiered structure called a 'carriage house'. I chose this particular site not just for its historical importance but because the grounds have remained virtually unchanged for hundreds of years: stretching out around you for miles is the same landscape that inspired the great Confederation poets—I think of poets Isabella Valancy Crawford, Sir Charles G.D. Roberts, Bliss Carman, etc.—: the same gridwork of roads and orchards, same lush verdure of weed, grasses, & the forest wildlife that had called a distinctively Canadian pioneer poetics into being.

The Erland Lee, however, is no longer available, permanently closed because of funding cuts. I've chosen the Puddicombe Estates as my new site, a stately 208 year old family fruit farm and winery located just a few miles east in the town of Winona, in what's probably the most lush region of the Golden Horseshoe. Not quite as rustic-looking as the 'carriage house', & certainly without the spectacular mountain brow scenery and quiet seclusion of the Erland Lee household (perhaps the very things to inspire a poetry reading), Puddicombe looks like its more prosperous cousin. A first glance at the place tells you an old Saltfleet Township family farm's been turned into a pretty successful commercial venue for weddings, wine tasting events, & other community gatherings.

The Puddicombe Poetry reading will take place there on June 19th, and in the week or so since I've advertised the event I've already received about 12-13 confirmed readers. Some of them I will meet for the first time while others I have known only through blog correspondences:  there will be, of course, old friends I've read & written poetry with over the course of a decade now. It's regrettable that the outstanding individuals I've met online live too far away to attend: what a delight it would be to share the poetry podium with Ed Baker, Joseph Hutchison, William Michaelian & Vassilis Zambaras.

I consider myself a 'people's poet' in the tradition of Chris Faiers, James Deahl, Jeff Seffinga & Milt Acorn: and I believe the strongest poetic movements have always arisen primarily as a community of friends and supporters. I'm unabashedly a Canadian poet first, impassioned by this country's magnificent landscape & love of cultural diversity. It is to this uniquely rural-based Canadian poetics that I dedicate my readings.

If anyone reading this post happens to live in the Golden Horseshoe area of Ontario, and would like to attend the Puddicombe Poetry reading, please leave a reply here.