On Sunday, I joined with other writers in honouring poets no longer on earth in an event that takes place on a bi-monthly basis, the Dead Poets Reading Series. It was my distinct pleasure to be the one to celebrate Nelson.
The little pile of books in the photo above were the ones I read from. What a joy to be able to share some of his poems with an audience who seemed eager to listen.
The one on top, In This Thin Rain (apt for this quietly raining day here in BC) accounts for the happenstance of my meeting him. I wrote a review of it for a now-defunct online magazine and somehow Nelson tracked me down so he could say thank you. Not an experience a reviewer often has!
As I noted in my presentation, Nelson's wife Barbara Caruso was hugely important to him. An abstract artist who adored colour, she clearly influenced a great deal of his writing. The poems he dedicated to her were always filled with visual imagery and a lot of colour. I did my best to read a range of his work, poems that always seemed to be the result of close observation, both visually and sound-based.
I closed with a poem that seemed appropriate for an ending to such a joyous presentation. Here, in its entirety (from a collection with the hopeful-sounding title, Almost Spring) is a poem called "Infinity" -- a little bit philosophical, I suppose. Somthing to think about...
There is
no infinity--
only large numbers
growing
larger
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