Loose Leaf Notes

Jack Callan is a prolific ekphrastic poet who put together Points of Agreement, an ensemble poetry program for the Society of Virginia’s First Saturday Series, a Christmas reading at the Ford Colony Country Club in Colonial Williamsburg. Jack, who is the co-founder of The Little River Poetry Festival in Floyd, wrote a poem the night before the readings, incorporating images and pieces from the poems, which he read as part of the introduction to an audience of poets.

“We’re going to slaughter some authors / Say goodbye to our friend Nancy / Find love at the Grocery Store / We’ll look hard on this bank of a river / We’ll look at our scars / We’ll ask ‘where did our life go?’ / By looking through a rear-view mirror / We might sound like James Taylor / At a full moon, bring me rum / Let’s be clear about our hypocrisy / We’re nearing Christmas, heading / to the bananas for far-flung frippery / And in the end not a birthmark / We’ll have a gun fight.”

The poets participating in the collective performance were Jack Callan and Judith Stevens (Little River Poetry Festival founders), Dave Lego, Colleen Redman (me) and Lisa Kendrick.

Each poet’s voice grew in their own right with every poem they read, and each added to the whole.

Hard-edged truth-telling poems were balanced with emotionally personal ones.

Many were highlighted with the musical accompaniment of Jim Best on hang drum and Brian McGill on clarinet and a Javanese instrument that resembled a large xylophone.

The reading concluded with Jack’s The Keeping Room, an ensemble piece with active dialogue, based on the movie of the same name, which was about two sisters and a female slave during the Civil War, who banded together to do what was needed in order to survive Sherman’s invading soldiers.

We were warmly received and the feedback was great.

After the reading, we had a festive meal.  I hung out with these guys.

There was also an open mic where the performers and audience members took turns reading.

Even Dave’s mother Jane was taller than me.  She said “na na na” when she told me that. She also made a joke before her Open Mic reading about LOL, saying it meant “little old lady.”

Joe, who took more than a dozen 4-6-minute video clips, was very impressed and thinks we should take the show on the road. Jack says we might perform it again at this year’s Little River Poetry Festival in Floyd, the 5^th annual, June 12-14. Read about last year’s Little River Poetry Festival HERE.