Poetry Parlour

in-soaked timber with a lone stairwell and emergency exit ladder dropping to seaside rocks, in the unlikely event of a fire, to please ensure we’ve made the most of the evening! And with an uncomfortable laugh and glances at each other (Surely I can reach the ladder before the septuagenarian with a dodgy hip) we got on with the show.

(Next issue, Part 2: Through Pandemic …)

Bill Arnott is the bestselling author of Gone Viking: A Travel Saga and The Gamble novellas. His work is published in Canada, the US, UK, Europe, Asia and Australia. He’s been awarded for poetry, prose, songwriting and is a Whistler Book Awards Finalist for Gone Viking. When not trekking the globe with a small pack and journal, Bill can be found on Canada’s west coast, making friends and misbehaving. To join Bill’s Artist Showcase newsletter, click here.

See what Leaguers have to say about their “darlings”, writing communities, and finding new books.

Thank you to everyone who responded to the most recent Poetry Pause questions! Check out our new batch of questions.

We often hear “kill your darlings” when writing. What is a memorable “darling” for you, killed or otherwise preserved?

Amanda Earl: the word “crimson.” another piece of advice i received was to go through my poems and see which words i repeated a lot. one of these was crimson. i love this darling red. it was everywhere. i have removed it from my poems, but not my lips or nails.

Anne Burke: “Kill Your Darlings” is loosely based on the life of poet Allen Ginsberg. The film tells the story of the 1944 untold murder bringing together a young Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William S. Magie

Dominic knew Ginsberg personally. I come to him only second-handedly. My “Howl” has always been feminist and broken-hearted. “Murder your darlings,” is a popular piece of writing advice that is often attributed to William Faulkner, but which can actually be traced back to the English writer and surname collector Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. My favourite Faulkner has always been “As I Lay Dying” which is a 1930 Southern Gothic novel. Dickens’ darling was “Little Dorrit” whom he did fictionally “kill”. I am more interested in his young secret actress Ellen Ternan and want to write from her point of view and in her voice.

Kamal Parmar: My memorable ‘darlings’ have been my cliche’s, that I used to invariably cling on to. All my poems were ‘trashed’ by most magazines and anthologies. I was lucky to get a ‘break’ by my mentor, who told me to ‘delete’ those so-called ‘darlings ie the cliche’s that were making my poems so dull and lifeless. Today, my poems are getting wonderful reviews, just because there is a ‘breath of fresh air’ and no cliche’s! Brevity is one of the main tools in writing a poem, as it makes it rich in thought and leaves a deeper impact on the reader. When I started writing poetry, as a novice, I clung to my “darlings” such as throwing in a lot of similes , which were actually redundant and the reader got ‘’switched off.” I quickly learnt the knack of getting rid of my so-called ‘darlings’ which were actually cliches’ and made my poems lusterless. All thanks to my mentors. Micheline Maylor: My whole first book. John B. Lee. looked at it, told me start again, and then I cried and worked at being better. Shit happens in poetry, and that lesson about phrasing and energy was an important one. Thanks, John. Wherever you are.

Crystal Hurdle: What is keeping me sane while writing my first novel whose first draft clocked in at over 400 pages is having a whole file of “recent cuts.” As I delete something, I move it to the Cut file, now about 100 pages, and I’m trying for more. I know I’m guilty of overwriting, but how all those deletions hurt! Having them “saved” for God knows what eases the pain. And I’m getting a bit competitive with myself about making the cut file longer… I suspect that by the time the actual novel and the cut file are the same length, I’ll be done.

Bill Arnott: I stupidly lost a hundred-thousand word (travelogue) manuscript, with no back up, notes or journals (we’d moved and were living minimally). Going through photos and starting from scratch, while heartbreaking, DID result in a tighter, vastly improved MS. So while I hadn’t intended to kill my darling, it really was for the best.

Joan Shillington: Many ‘darlings’ have worked their way into my writing over my writing career in the form of stanzas, lines and whole poems that have had to be left behind; never included in a book

(in the instance of a poem), or in a poem as they distract from a poem’s meaning or do not fit into a collection’s theme. However, I keep these ‘darlings’ in my mind, in a file and every now and again they ‘pop’ into a free write or poem stronger than ever. Patience is the key, sometimes it takes years before they enter into my writing muse again.

Penn Kemp (above): My computer is full of darlings preserved in hidden, lost and to-be-recovered files of poems and phrases and prompts that didn’t fit the work in process. Sometimes, lines like these leftovers spring to mind and are pasted into new work. More often they wait patiently in the shade. Will they ever be used? I live in hope. My epitaph will read, “Just one more thing!”

Dianne Joyce: My mother. Killed her on a mountain. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

Vanessa Shields: I’m a pretty consistent murderer of poems...by slashing full lines or stabbing single words. I lose a lot of poetry because I don’t things down as quickly as they come to me! I could fill a ship with tattered poems...One that stands out is a collection called ‘Things I’m afraid Of’...I’ve only shared a tiny bit of this...then I got too afraid and hid it away.

Jessica Moore: I had a poem long ago with the lines “I love you as one foot loves the other / when it hollows solemnly / in the arch of its mate” and someone rightly told me to strike “hollows solemnly” - I think all kinds of matchy sound darlings like that have needed to be killed, in my work

Do you have a writing group or community of writers you share your work with? Who are they?

Vanessa Shields: I own a small creative writing school in Windsor, ON, called Gertrude’s Writing Room. There is a strong family of writers that is growing through this small business. Writers connect via virtual classes, workshops and one-to-one creative writing sessions (during the pandemic - otherwise, we meet at the school!). But, every day I connect with Charis Cotter, award-winning children’s writer, from Western Bay, Newfoundland. We text, talk on the phone, email and/or Facetime. We have done several writing retreats together (virtual and live). I also talk to writer Erinn Banting (Toronto), Vanessa Taylour (Pelee Island), Catherine Hagey (Saskatchewan), Margo Wheaton (Halifax),

and Dorothy Mahoney (Windsor) on a regular basis. We discuss our writing lives, inspirations and challenges.

Penn Kemp: In the past, I have organized poetry reading series (in Toronto, London and Victoria) in order to meet the poets I most admired! Many, like Robert Creeley and Phyllis Webb, became friends. Here in London, I’ve organized readings for Allan Briesmaster, Katerina Fretwell, Patricia Keeney, Daphne Marlatt, Susan McCaslin, Susan McMaster and others, sharing work. Touring in NPM is another way I connect with fellow poets as we criss-cross the country in April!, visiting or hosting for late-night discussions of writing. I collaborate over emails with Harold Rhenisch and Sharon Thesen, in particular.

Micheline Maylor: I have a multitude of writing friends spanning from England to the Caribbean to tiny towns in B.C. But once a week I work with a group in Calgary made up of multi-genre short form writers. People that heavily influence me that I only see rarely are: John Wall Barger, Susan Musgrave, George Elliott Clarke, Tom Wayman, Jan Zwicky, Pat Lane, A.F. Moritz, Russell Thornton, Jeffrey Donaldson, Steven Heighton, Richard Harrison Richard Osler, Rosemary Griebel, Basma Kavanagh.

Kamal Parmar: I am part of a local poetry organization by the name of Wordstorm Society of the Arts that meets monthly to have poetry readings as well as book launches. I also belong to the Federation of BC writers which is an excellent media of networking with writers.

Amanda Earl: Not these days, but for many years, i took rob mclennan’s workshops and after that was a member of a group of poets who had also taken his workshops and were sympatico.

Anne Burke: No one living. Eli Mandel convinced me that that our peers do not have to come from this century or in your lifetime. That approach solved my dilemma for many years. I can glimpse the ancient, emulate the “contemporary” (in my academic career this term ended at 1920), and still embrace the avant garde.

Dianne Joyce: At the moment, I do not. Though I do have an opportunity to join one. Think I’m too much of a loner.

Joan Shillington: Yes, I have two writing communities that I share my work with. One is a Thursday night group lead by Richard Harrison and the other a west coast group that is mostly online.

Where do you get your books from? Is there a reason for your preference?

Linda Crosfield: Otter Books in Nelson or directly from the publisher (for chapbooks). And I leave lit mags in Little Free Libraries—no more than three and I add new ones to them when they’re gone.

Kamal Parmar: I get my books from a local library which is an invaluable resource and treasure chest of knowledge. Books , old as well as new, are available, literally at my doorstep. The library also organizes book launches and readings (ZOOM) so as to help me in networking with other writers. My second choice is Chapters.

Dianne Joyce: Wherever I can: on line, used bookstores, through the library, from friends.

Crystal Hurdle (above): I am a library lover. I use my husband’s card as well as my own, which allows 30 holds on each. Today, as usual, I’m maxed out at 60 holds. I love to get books, more than I can ever peruse (hoarding?), and I love to be able to return them when I’m finished. Decluttering of anything is difficult, so due dates make things easy. Well, easier. Books I especially love and wish to have in my collection I then purchase. And visiting second-hand bookshops is soooo much more delightful than new ones. One of the things I missed about this pandemic Christmas, as well as not seeing family and friends in Victoria (travel restrictions), was being unable to look in Sidney’s The Haunted Bookshop and Victoria’s Russell books. But, soon!

Anne Burke: My books (which I write) come from contemplation and spontaneous utterances. Those I read are the classics, although I remember when my father gave my a gift card to buy poetry in downtown Montreal. I read Louis Dudek, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Raymond Souster, and many others. I suppose you mean in print (dead trees) or online. I regard much of social media as anti-social because it seems to draw the dark and even vicious from some inner well of wickedness. Having said that, I do appreciate Project Gutenberg and most poets have discovered how long poems and long form writing are accommodated electronically.

Micheline Maylor: Shelf Life in Calgary is my favourite, Owl’s Nest in Calgary. Cafe Books in Canmore. Or I order direct from the publisher, that ensures the highest margins for them, and it’s important that we think of these things, especially now. Jeff Bezos has enough money.

Penn Kemp: The Library is where most of my books come from. If the book isn’t available, I order it, and sometimes that works! Many of my poetry books have accumulated in exchanges with other poets, and these are my most treasured! After collecting books for 60 years,

my shelves are over-laden... but if I’m going to buy a book, it will be from a local indie store. I can’t afford many!

Amanda Earl (above): everywhere. i’ll try to support authors and publishers if i can, but i also get ebooks for my Kindle, and random surprises in bookstores when i can walk through a store and browse. i’ve also ordered books from local bookstores as well. small press fairs for indie and small run books and chapbooks. libraries when i need more books than i can afford, which is always.

Joan Shillington: I usually buy my books from an independent book store. In Calgary, where I live, we have four independent books stores. These days with the pandemic raging, I order online and they either deliver or have curtsied pickup.

Vanessa Shields: I get them from Biblioasis Bookstore, mainly. But I’ve also ordered from other local bookstores. I do my best to support local, independent bookstores. They are eager to help, they always find what I’m looking for...even when I’m not sure what I want, and I can say: do you know any books about Paris in the 1920s that are love stories? And they find one for me! There is so much knowledge and respect for books that lives and breathes in independent bookstores. We need to cultivate this in our communities as much as we can!

JUST FOR FUN: Which poet/ writer would you most like to have a drink with, and why?

Penn Kemp: PK Page leaps to mind, as we often had drinks together when possible. I’d be curious to meet Sappho, not sure of wine of the period :)

Crystal Hurdle: I have been in love with Sylvia Plath for over forty years (longer than she was alive) since first encountering “Tulips” and “Lady Lazarus” on blue mimeographed paper in university. Neurosis? Passion? Obsession? Not a clear dividing line. A highlight of my professional, pedagogical (until recently, I taught English and Creative Writing at Capilano University), poetic and personal life was seeing, in 2000, her house, Court Green, in North Tawton, that she’d shared with her then-husband Ted Hughes, and getting dressed down by his widow, Carol Orchard, for near trespass. I delighted in touching Plath’s archived hair at the Lilly Library in 2002 when I was a featured poet at the Sylvia Plath 70th Year Symposium. The tactility of realia! She remains my muse even after the 2003 publication of After Ted & Sylvia: poems. One might think that she should be out of my sys-

tem, but no. I require ever more frequent hits. The recent publication of her collected Letters (edited by Peter Steinberg and Karen Kukil) in two volumes (2017, 2018), each over one thousand pages, has given me accessible, rich fodder with so many piquant details. And a new gigantic bio by Heather Clark has me tingling. Coffee with Sylvia? Hell, yes! She drank Nescafe, and I’d like to introduce her to a full-throated latte with a double shot of espresso.

Joan Shillington: Lorna Crozier. That’s an easy answer. First of all, having read most of her books from cover to cover, I admire her work and how it’s developed over the years, her insight and the variety of her poetry. Second is that over the years I have attended numerous retreats with Patrick Lane and, of course, love and admire his work. I think it would be an interesting conversation.

Amanda Earl: that’s awkward. i would make a big pot of tea for Djuna Barnes, Beatrice Wood, Kiki, Leonora Carrington and just listen in on the sidelines, a ghost from the future in “the twilight of the illicit.” [The Book of Repulsive Women - Djuna Barnes]

Anne Burke: That depends (a drink of what?) Maybe coffee with Irving Layton (Eli’s brother from another mother). Best to keep your wits about you. Probably steeped tea with Jay Macpherson whom I was planning to interview before her untimely death. I wanted to ask her all about Northrop Frye and if she knew why he never produced a poem. My father was a raging alcoholic so I generally avoid imbibing. Enough said.

Vanessa Shields: Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I can’t get enough of his literary masterpieces. We’d have to meet in Barcelona, of course. We’d have to drink coffee...and wine. I think I’d have to just stare at him for the first little while...just stare in admiration and awe. Then - talk about the soul.

Kamal Parmar: I would like to draw back the curtain of time and have a drink with the great Victorian poet--William Wordsworth, in order to hear him read his poem-’The solitary reaper’ and what inspired his Muse.

Dianne Joyce: Dead? Sylvia Plath. I’d like to know why she couldn’t bring herself to write the next poem.

Micheline Maylor: Patrick Lane, just one more time. He was the most monk-like person I ever met who used the word fuck like ground pepper.

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