Poetry and coffee: a perfect combination
Poetry has been gaining popularity over the past few years with so-called Instagram poets like Rupi Kair. Still, some people prefer their poetry in person and read aloud.
A crowd of about 30 gathered in the Tipsy Muse Café on Oct. 20 for Odd Sunday’s poetry and literature reading series.
The gathering featured two published poets: Matthew Gwathmey and Anne Simpson.
Listen to a snippet of Anne Simpson reading from her poem, “Courage Is a Chair:”
Although many in attendance were established authors, some were emerging writers.
Spencer Folkins, a fourth-year STU student honoring in English, admired Gwathmey’s poem titled, “Fish the fish.”
“I really liked ‘Fish the fish.’ I can’t tell you why, but I think there’s a childish innocence in the way that it’s titled,” Folkins said. “Titles are always something that I’ve struggled with as a poet myself, and I just like the way that it’s like: what are we going to title this poem? Fish the Fish. Good enough.”
Folkins came for a class project, but said he would have come for personal reasons even if it was not required by his professor.
“Fredericton has a very vibrant literary community and so everyone kind of supports each other in that way – there’s a lot of familiar faces in the crowd. Some of them I work with, and some of them I’ve heard before or read before,” Folkins said.
Coffee and poetry made a perfect combination for the reading series, as there was a lineup during most of the readings. Each scheduled poet read for about 20 minutes, then an open mic session invited anyone to the stage to recite poetry. Some read original works while others recited well-known poems, like William Henley’s “Invictus.”
Sherry Coffey, one of the organizers, has been involved with Odd Sundays for about four or five years. As a published author herself, Coffey enjoys attending and organizing the bi-weekly event.
“There’s three of us that co-organize Odd Sundays. My role is the scheduling – so I’m emailing the writers and authors and inviting them to read for us,” Coffey said. “I think it’s important to create community because writing is a journey and we’re not all going to get published the first time we sit and write something. So, I think it’s important that we support each other no matter where we are in our writing journey.”
