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April 28, 2011

Ottawa Creative Writers’ Group
launches poetry collection

A unique poetry reading evening was held on April 23rd at the Ottawa Bahá'í Centre on McArthur Rd., hosted by the members of the Ottawa Creative Writers’ Group. The evening served to commemorate the launch of a volume of poetry by the group in a collection titled ‘Markings’.

From 1993 the group’s members have gathered once a month to share their work with each other. The results of their disciplined efforts were apparent in the quality of the poetry reading on Saturday night.

The audience, listening with rapt attention to more than thirty poems, was not disappointed. From haiku to ballad, from intellectual form to free flowing blank verse, the poets arranged themselves in order to share their works with the assembled guests. Topics such as war, love, life and death, common material for the written word, were presented alongside “Fat,” ”Desolation of E-Love,” and one curious title, “Like Night and Day Fish Go By.”

Damian Firth has been a positive influence on the group from the first day he joined many years ago. He writes brilliant verse, full of vivid imagery and sensitive rhythms. One poem entitled Meditation on Death at first draws and then locks the reader with words chosen for their gentle grace and their truth in the reality that we all must face at some point in our lives.  One feels, however, that passing into the next world on the arm of such a poet, would be easy if not enjoyable.

down the long grey wave
of the wind
sacramental in its
simplicity
I bear the immensity
of memory
and the slow demise
of budding flowers

Bravo! Poets! Both your products and the process you used to create these wonderful poems are exemplary. Carry On!
Ottawa Creative Writers’ Group

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