Western Canada Poetry Tour part 3: Saskatoon

I write this now from my Sutton Place hotel room in Edmonton overlooking the baccarat casino. It's 8:45 am here and in an hour I have to read my poems to a high school - in other words, to kids who are used to being up at this hour. Anyway... Saskatoon. Okay, the Mcnally robinson reading was, well, not the highlight of the trip. Only two people, and their 8 year old (or so) daughter, who sat in the front row and squirmed the entire time, were in attendance. Oh and another guy who left about half way through. BTW I'm sympathetic to the squirming daughter having been dragged to poetry readings as a child by my mother - although much of the time I was horrified, not bored, as she read poems about me. The Mcnally reading was poorly attended because local poet John Livinstone Clark was having a book launch that night. After the reading, Mari-Lou Rowley, who I was staying with went over to the bar where Clark was launching. First a word on Mari-Lou, not only a terrific poet, but a remarkable host - she barely knew me and let me stay with her for 4 days, showed me around town, cooked me some lovely meals - including crapes for breakfast and even got the mcnally robinson people to pronounce my last name properly, which made me feel like I had my own handler - it was pretty cool.

I enjoyed meeting John Livinstone Clark, but have to say I was a bit intimidated, especially since I'm about half his age, when he was said, "So you're the GG guy," and then persisted that I read him a poem. I could faintly hear gunslinger music in the background. I think I passed - he seemed to genuinely like the poem. I also met there Taylor Leedhal who organizes and hosts the weekly reading series "Tonight's It's Poetry" at the Flint bar in downtown Saskatoon where I read on sunday - to a slightly larger audience than the at Mcnally - (the place was packed).

Taylor and her partner Megan also took me to a concert of a vancouver indie band - Mother, Mother, which I enjoyed. I even bought their CD, which is probably the first CD I have bought in five years.

as I said the Flint bar reading was great. there were about sixty or so people there and many of them weren't even poets it seemed. they just liked poetry - imagine. I read with several other really strong local poets - and in particular enjoyed Bruce Rice's reading.

So, I should probably get ready for this reading (I'm a bit nervous, I have to admit... kids + poetry + 9 am +?.) I will be blogging next about my experience staying in a hermitage in nothern (I think northern) Sasketchewan....