Poetry Meeting: different languages, same feelings

A gathering for poetry lovers took place at the Grad House, at UNB. Opened to the public, the meeting was created by Irish language professor Dean Farrell.

People of all ages and cultures gathered at the bar, allowing everyone to share poems in a variety of idioms, such as English, Irish, Spanish and Arabic.

Diana Chavez was one of the few people who stood up and read both a poem she likes and one she wrote herself.

“This is the first time I’ve seen that they organized something like this. I thought it was very powerful, very enriching. I thought that, even if I didn’t understand some of the languages, I could feel the vulnerability that the poet was trying to portray.”

The main goal of the night was for people to share feelings in different languages and still feel like the others understood their message without necessarily understanding their actual words.

“My aim for tonight was to try and get people to come and speak in their language whether it is English, one of the Indigenous-Canadian languages, Spanish or French, and I wanted to share some of my language with the people of Fredericton,” said Dean Farrell, organizer of the event.  “I’m also a huge poetry fan, and I think that if, through poetry we can achieve such a language and cultural exchange, I thought why not do it all on the same event?”

The occasion happened at the end of a September night, and both Farrell and Chavez hope there will be more in the upcoming months.