Poetic Cross-Pollination

Yesterday was a very good day for me. Our President of Tower Poetry, Norm Brown, was kind enough to pick me up in downtown Hamilton and then go and pick up Jeff in his area. We then proceeded to drive to Oakville where we spent a very good day discussing the writing process and poetry with poets from that area. Each poet was able to read his/her own work for three minutes before the group.

This was the second year this lovely event has been held at Central Library on Navy and Lakeshore in Oakville.

We were most fortunate in the weather, it was like a summer day but we paid for it later on with a severe thunderstorm.

Happily for our little group, we were home by that time.

This year, we had a very good speaker, Jody Sanderson, who is the Editor of Oakville Today and a lecturer at Sheridan College.

Among the points she offered for our consideration were the following:

1. Who are you writing for?

2. Format: - write a lead, then take out every second work, rework and try and make it tighter.

3. Be concise - choose the best words. Be considerate of the busy editor.

4. Content: What is the editor looking for?

5. Be consistent - when you start one way, continue doing it the same way.

6. Don't take anything personally.

7. Have a peer review - such as a workshop. Your friends won't want to hurt your feelings.

8. If critiquing sounds wrong, it may be that the ones doing it are not correct. It remains your
work.

9. Read your work out loud to yourself at home.

10. Dealing with success or rejection - it is only the editor's opinion, don't take it personally.

11. Know that you won't get rich or famous by your writing.

The group broke for a delicious Boston Pizza lunch which was provided free of charge. In the afternoon, former English language High School teacher, Norm Brown, took us through some thought provoking exercises which offered people the opportunity to get to know each other and to express their opinions, should they wish to.

The event was a success again this year, thanks to the hard work of Elka Enola and Norm Brown.