Loose Leaf Notes

-The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on May 13, 2021

The Little River Poetry Festival (LRPF) is about to kick off its sixth year (June 4 -6) under the big poetry tent at On the Water Outfitters (2053 Thunderstruck Road). Along with featured readers from all over Virginia and some from out of state, there will be writing workshops, open mics, gentle yoga, live music and poetry-writing nature excursions, including an optional kayak trip down the Little River.

A special feature on Saturday (1:30) will be an encore performance of “Courage to Speak,” a dramatic poetry ensemble curated by festival co-founder Jack Callan and first performed in Norfolk. It features five poets reading in turn with each poet’s voice adding the whole of the performance.  Readings are accompanied by music provided by poet/musicians Brian Magill of Yorktown and Jim Best of Meadows of Dan.

This year festival founders, Callan and Judith Stevens, are hosting a Floyd Family Day on Sunday, inviting Floyd Countians to attend free of charge to enjoy poetry, live music and storytelling. The Floyd Poetry and Music Sunday will begin at 10 a.m. with the poetic duo of Floyd poets, Katherine Chantal and Colleen Redman, reading back-and-forth from their recent works.

Chantal has three published books. A Tea Poet’s Journey, 2011, The Seven Gateways to Kindness, 2019, and Poetic Memoir of a Nascent Senescent: Poems from My Sixties, 2020. A haiku book in the works. Her most recent poems explore the “Soul of Aging” with wonder, self-awareness and curiosity. “Writing seems to have become synonymous with breathing during these aging years,” said Chantal, who will also be reading with the “Courage to Speak” ensemble on Saturday.

“Each symptom, new sensation / A call to spirit / Knees hurting / as I rise from meditation /sparks of knowing / It’s okay to go slower now… The door of youth now swings the other way…What might be the gift / The place of transformation / To be how I am / To thrive in any moment / cartwheeling into eldering / Being turned upside down… (excerpt from Chantal’s poem Today’s Eldering Thoughts).

Inspired by the poet David Whyte’s term “apprenticing to our own disappearance,” Redman thinks of her recent work as “Poems from the Dark Room,” saying, “It takes time in the dark room to bring lived-experiences into focus and to develop the meaning we’ve made of our lives.” She will be reading from her 2017 poetry collection “Packing a Suitcase for the Afterlife,” published by Finishing Line Press and her manuscript “Objects Appear Closer Than They Are.”

“We dissolve like salt / overwhelmed by water / fade like a photograph / overexposed by air / Every death is a big bang / that blows up our pretense / splits us like atoms in two / Wherever you go / a part of me follows / and I carry a part of you… (excerpt from Redman’s poem Bardo).

Written in the spirit of poetic memoir, Chantal and Redman’s work is varied but evokes a soulful depth that compliments one another. Their readings will be followed by an Open Mic, a 1 p.m. reading by local poet Chelsea Adams and music.

The LRPF will begin at 2 p.m. on Friday June 4th and end at 3 p.m. on Sunday. The cost for the weekend is $45 or $15 a day with walk-ins welcome. The optional kayak trip down the Little River where poets are encouraged to write stream of consciousness poetry is an added $35.  Come to listen or bring notebooks and try your hand at some literary expression. Primitive camping is available and home cooked meals can be purchased on site. Registration and a full schedule outline can be found at littleriverpoetryfest.com.

Photos: 1. Billed as “The Four Floyd Maidens,” Katherine Chantal and Colleen Redman are pictured (left to right) with Katherine Sowers and Mara Robbins at the 3rd annual Little River Festival in 2018. 2. Poet from the Newport News Serena Fusek reads at a festival open mic. Fusek will be a featured reader on Saturday night at 7 p.m. and will be reading from her newest book, Ancient Maps and a Tarot Pack. 3. Festival Founders Jack Callan and Judith Stevens.  Read about last year’s poetry festival HERE.