(Pear By Dylan Hackett lanes of poets landed in Van City Pe: week to share their souls in written and spoken word at the Vancouver 125 Poetry Conference. Their discussion of careers in poetry was set to the rhythm of our city’s inconsistent shuffling between cloud- speckled blue skies and stifling grey storm clouds delivering less-than- pleasant late October drizzle. Whether or not it was clear enough to see the North Shore from conference room windows was irrelevant on the four days of October 19-22, as the focus was on the many published notables visiting to commemorate the 125" anniversary of our often-puddled rainy city. Organized by Vancouver Poet Laureate, Brad Cran, as his final act before the next Poet Laureate’s three- year term begins, the event was funded largely by the City of Vancouver and the federal government’s Cultural Capital of Canada fund. The Conference was a chance for the community to enjoy some of the most-renowned poets within literature communities and to see the poets interact with each other in banter and through the political discourse running through heated conversations. Some topics provoked disagreements providing spontaneous, honest entertainment for both panellists and audience alike—a kind of feeling which — you don’t get from reading a poem in the comfort of your bed sheets. The Conference’s events were arranged so you could see most poets 12 Sr ge ot Vancouver 125 Poetry Conference of your choice either taking the role - of reader or moderator. The first day’s readings took place at the Segal Graduate School of Business building (not a comfortable spot for poets, really), and were set one at a time as so there were no overlaps and each event could be attended. The fifth panel of the first day included the next Poet Laureate, Evelyn Lau, who was officially titled at the final ceremony which featured Coast Salish musicians and Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson. The second and third days took place down the road at SFU’s Harbour Centre campus and ran two different panels presenting simultaneously at each of the two rooms. Deciding which to choose was almost as difficult as clapping instead of snapping after a reading of a poem (a tradition that seemed absent at V125PC). The first of day three’s keynote speakers, Martin Espada, was especially passionate in his reading employing liberal use of hand gestures (Espada also visited Douglas College this week for a small reading at the New Westminster campus, see page 8). The diversity of the crowd grew over the time of the convention. On the first two days, the convention halls were largely occupied by what seemed to be the inner poet’s circle. On the final day, there was a middle- aged working-class man in a sleeveless Umbro shirt and track pants—a standout sight in a sharp room of flannel and corduroy. When he went up to talk to the poets on panel, Shane Rhodes, Jeramy Dodds, Suzanne Buffam, and Warren Heiti, he spoke rather courtly, name-dropping poets such as Sylvia Plath and Jean Cocteau and expressing acute awareness of the poetry of both now and yesteryears. Many residents of the Downtown Eastside were also invited to the conference, and were a bright part of the audience. Their inclusion was essential in counteracting the kind of concerns held by one man that “the community in this room is like an artistic gated community.” Brad Cran’s work with his partner, poet Gillian Jerome, on their book Hope in Shadows: Stories and Photographs of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside reflects his concerns with the treatment of the city’s too-often forgotten residents. The book has raised over $50,000 for people of the Downtown Eastside. Many of the poets who spoke were from the far east of our continent, including Canadian notable and one of the three keynote speakers, Don McKay, who is a member of the Order of Canada. He digressed quite a bit with interesting tidbits of geological anomalies (he needed to explain the metaphors for his poem involving Snowball Earth theory) and used his anecdotes and explorations from his bird-watching hobby to write what he brands as “nature poetry in a time of ecological crisis.” Environmental issues were a hot topic amongst the panellists, especially on the fourth evening when poet Jen Currin gave a well-needed bollocking to the namesake of the building the final day was held in: SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts. Her derision of the Goldcorp’s flagellant disregard for the slave-miners they “employ” in South America and further disregard for the environment was met with chorus of applause. The political turn of discussion didn’t seem to settle well with poet Sachiko Murakami, who expressed discomfort with the final panel’s political heat and her dislike of her fellow panellists’ mocking of the surrounding “Vancouver: 125 years” banners which represented, for many “125 years of colonial occupation.” One audience member described them as “complicity guilt on banners.” Poet Ken Babstock sharply replied to her discomfort with the quip, “if you haven’t already thought about late- Western capitalism you’ re probably in a coma” and, “Canada’s extraction is the worst for human rights abuses.” Strong political convictions from the audience coloured the evening, with one man lauding Brad Cran’s strong anti- Olympic views which gave him much attention during the 2010 games. Witnessing poets in conversation was unlike any other thing I had experienced. The boundlessness of their sly humour and witty willingness to self-deprecate with steady- handed vocabulary has led me to believe that all poets may be good conversationalists. Poet Stephen Collis spoke words which stuck to me. “If this were a dentist convention would we have this same conversation?”