'Enjoy!' again
repost from June 29, 2023, with a reflection and a video
Back in 2015, when I was a young buck of 56, I had just started to share my poetry with others in the local writing community. A short drive from my home in Richmond, B.C. to New Westminster offered up open mics and workshops run by the wonderful folks at the Royal City Literary Arts Society, helmed by friend and colleague, Janet Kvammen. I tried my luck entering its annual contest and, big surprise to me, won first in the poetry category. The judge was the venerable Bernice Lever, and I will always be grateful to her and everyone at RCLAS for their ongoing friendship and support. The poem, a simple spoken word, reprinted below, recalls a dinner party from quite another era, also a time of encouragement, when I was a somewhat tortured fawn of an English major at the University of British Columbia. Support, in particular, came from some excellent professors, notably Joseph Conrad expert, Andrew Busza, and also from grad student friends, Laura Bain and Colin McIvor. In the case of the latter, they gave me encouragement without which I may not have even graduated and may not be writing today. Going back even further, I remember also my Grade 11 English teacher, Leslie Seabourne, memorable for being one who ignored her subject almost completely, but who was the only teacher I knew who inspired me to crack open the shell I’d spent years forming around myself and be someone I didn’t know I could be. Now, circling back to this current moment, I come to my experience on Substack, which has been as rewarding and encouraging as anything I’ve done, thanks to all the wonderful readers and the chance to discover so much new writing from so many brilliant poets and essayists. And so, to the main event. Enjoy!
a simple spoken word for Murray (English prof and dinner party host) sometimes a word a simple word a spoken word say the word enjoy is said in just such a way that something new unfolds unexpected as if the real the signified had until that moment been an unknown alien quantity never before glimpsed too pure to access too large to be encompassed enjoy he said to all the guests and I saw laid out the spread of the evening enjoy yes enjoy the roast beef the wine the conversation enjoy the view of the lights in the harbour the clusters of expressionistic paintings on the wall enjoy it all and I wondered then if I could—enjoy that is in the way the mere speaking of it—enjoy made me feel the possibility of it—enjoy and I still wonder about it— that very enjoyable evening now past if I ever will reach the realm he told me was there if I ever will live the cunningly simple way of words as they may be spoken and felt and touch through the voice my own voice it
My plate was full and I ate every word prepared to perfection with rhythm and sustenance on the side to know enjoyment can be found within the way friends and food menu meet.
Nice to meet you, Alan!