November 26, 2003
Night Out poetry in motion
Poets' Night Out features 25 works chosen from 300 entries
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
There's a poem lurking in the evolution of Poets' Night Out.
Stir together a great idea with passion and devotion, enthusiastic participants with an appreciative audience and you have community poetry in the making.
Marking its seventh year, Poets' Night Out this year drew more than 150 attendees to hear the poems by writers, dabblers and serious poets, by novice poets, senior scribes and every one in between. Topics spanned the spectrum, ranging from love, angst and nature to the travails of a high-tech child marooned in an Internet-less library. This latter poem, by Marcine Branski, entitled "Unlocking a Mind" won the coveted audience appreciation award.
Held this year at the Oleson Center at Northwestern Michigan College, the poetry reading and contest featured 25 works chosen from more than 300 entries received for the juried event. The Traverse Area District Library sponsored the event.
"I think there was a lot of good work this year and it says something to get into this chapbook," said Todd Mercer, one of the event's organizers and a poet who also read some of his works.
Ana Blum-Gillman read the first poem she had ever written in English, a short, evocative piece entitled "Chimes." A veteran poet with a book of poems published in Spanish, the native of Ecuador gave her first reading of a work written in her second language. In her previous appearance at Poets' Night Out, she read one of her works originally written in Spanish that she translated into English.
"Writing in English is totally different and the meanings are totally different and change the whole concept," said Blum-Gillman, a freelance journalist whose husband, Steve Gillman, also read one of his poems that night. "The rhythm is different."
Poets' Night Out began as the brainchild of Sandy Robey and Jody Clark, geared to celebrating and encouraging poets in the area. The event is put on thanks to a dedicated group of volunteer judges and organizers, who have helped shape the evening to better showcase the poets.
"We had round tables for a reason this year, to make it more like a nightclub" said Robey of the room's format, a contrast to the rows of chairs the previous few years when the event was held at the library.
As it does every year, Poets' Night Out encourages young poets and more than 100 student entries were evaluated this year. From that, seven young people were chosen to share their work with the audience, including a trio of aspiring poets from Traverse City East Junior High: Will Simescu, Josie Ballast and Liz Norton.
Ballast and Norton, both ninth-grade students, were prompted to enter by their Language Arts teacher, who made it a class assignment. Both were already writing songs and poems, so the assignment was gracefully accepted.
"I'm a songwriter for the most part and songwriting is a little different than poetry because you start with a tune in mind and work from that," Norton said. "With regular poetry, you just let it flow and don't have to worry about making it rhyme."
Simescu, an eighth-grade student, uses his poetry to delve into his emotions - the words expressing and processing life's events.
"I write a fair amount of the time when I'm particularly emotional," said Simescu, who also writes songs. "It's therapeutic."
A new feature of the event this year was a workshop held for writers of the winning entries. Held Saturday afternoon, the workshop's 16 attendees received feedback from the event's judges on what they liked about each piece as well as suggestions for improvement.
"I think this is going to be an institution," Robey noted.