|
past Blue Moon Readings
2009
April 14/09: Featured poet & New Anthology
 Violet Nesdoly lives in Surrey with her husband Ernie. She is the mother of two adult children. She works as a freelance writer. She has won many prizes for her poetry and short stories and her work can be found in Time of Singing, M.B. Herald, Prairie Messenger, Birds and Blooms, utmostchristianwriters.com, and others. Her first book of poetry was called ‘Calendar’. Her second book of poems, Family Reunion, was released in February 2007 in conjunction with her appointment as the first Utmost International Christian Poet Laureate in the spring of 2006.
More About Poets Potpourri
Our membership is eclectic ranging from novice to published poets.
Throughout the year we participate in a variety of community events with the goal of raising awareness of our Society.
In 2006 we published an anthology, Poetic Spirits of The Valley, to mark the 25th anniversary of our Society. We have a second anthology pending, due for publication in spring, 2009. It will include poetry written by our members as well as poems written by winners of our first (2008) poetry contest, River of Words.
Winners All
For a small club such as Poets Potpourri Society, we have done very well in receiving awards.
Shelley Haggard, in 2002, received a 2nd place $5000 Poetry.com award. She has been published in Down in the Valley (Fraser Valley University) in 2004 and The Rag (Penny-a-line Promotions, Abbotsford) in 2005. In 2008-2009 she expects to be published in three anthologies: Ascent Aspirations Magazine Anthology 6 Fall 2008: Erotica Issue (Nanoose Bay, BC), 3 poems in a Copeland Books Anthology (United Kingdom) due in February 2009 and this anthology.
 Her poem from The South Delta Poets and Painters Show featuring many artists is to be put in an up-coming coffee table book. The Backroom Theatre Club, in collaboration with World Poetry Reading Series and the Arts Council of New Westminster, put out a booklet Performing Arts and Peace that featured two of her poems. Her poem “The Tap” was performed by the Abbotsford Children’s Theatre for various Opening Nites at The Reach, the new arts centre in Abbotsford.
In 2008, also, she won several writing awards:
Elora Writers’ Festival (Elora, Ontario) – Poetry – 2nd
West End (Vancouver) – Honourable Mention (HM)
Eden Mills (Ontario) – HM
Clem Battye Legacy Award Writing Contest (Penticton Writers) – 2nd
Lucidity Journal (Houston, Texas) – HM
 Violet Nesdoly has been very active in writing circles. In the 2000’s she won to become the Christian Poet Laureatte at Utmost Christian Writers (2006-2008) and is a regular columnist for Fellowscript (Inscribe Writers) and for Utmost (Edmonton). She has won awards for poetry and prose in Utmost, Inscribe and The Word Guild Canada:
Utmost Canadian - Landscape, 2007 –Honourable Mention
Utmost Canadian - Flag, 2008 – 1st
Utmost – Canadian - Where Is God? 2008 - HM
Utmost International, 2004 & 2005 – HM
Utmost International, 2006, 2007, & 2008 – Merit Award
Christian Publishers Poetry Prize, 2008 - HM
Inscribe Christian Writers' Fellowship awards for poetry – Spring,
2004 and Fall, 2005 – lst, Fall, 2008 – 3rd
Inscribe Christian Writers’ Fellowship awards for devotionals --
Spring 2004 – 2nd, Fall 2008 – 3rd
The Word Guild Canadian Writing Awards: Children & Young
Adult Article or Short Story category, 2003, 2004, 2007 & 2008
– 1st, Children & Young Adult Article or Short Story category,
2006 – Merit Award, Personal Experience Article category, 2004
– lst, Review category, 2007 – 1st
Violet has her own web page (http://www.violetnesdoly.com) and blog (Promptings at http://vnesdoly.blogspot.com).
 Alvin Ens has entered some of the same contests as Shelley and Violet and has won or placed in the following:
Utmost Landscape, 2007 – lst (Violet got an HM)
Utmost Rhyming, 2007 – lst
Utmost Flag, 2008 – 2nd (Violet won lst)
Clem Battye Short Story (Penticton Writers), 2007 – lst
Clem Battye Poetry, 2008 – lst (Shelley got a 2nd)
Eden Mills, Ontario, Writing Awards, 2008 – 3rd (Shelley got an HM)
Grit Lit, 2008 (Hamilton Arts) – short listed
Word Guild Canada Book Awards, 2006 (short listed also in 2003,
2008) (Violet wins in article categories)
He has items published in many anthologies, magazines and web pages:
Down in the Valley (University College of the Fraser Valley) – 2004
(as does Shelley)
Event (Douglas College) – 2004
To Hope and Beyond (Penticton Writers) – 2004 (Violet was also
featured)
Choices (Canadian Writers’ Journal) – 2005
Ascent Aspirations (Nanoose Bay) – 2007 (Shelley is listed in 2008)
Canadian Mennonite, Mennonite Brethren Herald, Canadian
Christian News
He is a freelance contributor for Utmost (Edmonton, Canadian), Fellowscript (Canadian), Canadian Stories (Fergus, Ontario), and The News (Abbotsford)
He has won an Abbotsford Arts Award for Outstanding Literary Artist (2005) and was nominated again in 2007 and in 2008.
In 2009 he sponsors and will judge a Canadian Stories poetry contest.
Our society has many writers who have published books and entered writing contests and many more who read at PPS open mikes, and some who travel further afield to other clubs and venues. All are winners.
2008
With thanks to the Abbotsford Neighbourhood Bugel our group brought back Slam Poetry. Slam in the Valley: Round 2 held in conjunction with the Festival of Arts and Creative Expression-FACE was June 15/08 from 1-4 PM at the Matsqui Centennial Auditorium
AND THE WINNERS ARE!
BILL McNAMARA
JULIAN BENTLEY
CLINTON JOHN LEON
1ST PLACE AND $150 WENT TO JULIAN BENTLEY
2ND PLACE AND $100 WENT TO CLINTON JOHN LEON
3RD PLACE AND $75 WENT TO BILL McNAMARA
MARION QUEDNAU PLACED FOURTH
If you don’t know or have not been to a poetry slam, it is a competition in which poets perform their pieces (3 minute time limit) without aid of costume or props, and members of the audience judge them in two rounds.
It is a youth-oriented, fast paced and intense program and slammers like the 2008 Vancouver Slam Team http://www.myspace.com/vancouverpoetryslam go on to travel the world to compete.
Each individual writes and performs their own material and there is no limit on what content or material they use. These individuals use words in the manner they see fit (may include some profanity). It’s a high energy program!
Audience participation is key and audience members were judges as well as a scorekeeper.
We were pleased that Randy Jacobs aka: RC Weslowski hosted this event. He is originally from Abbotsford and is quite a mover and shaker in the Vancouver Poetry Slam scene.
Randy has a natural voice and face for Radio (haha) and works at CKNW Radio and co-hosts a Co-op radio show, Wax Poetic and can be heard periodically on C-Fox. Randy continues to put heart and soul into spoken word
and made the event fun for all the newcomers (a large portion of the audience) and those lucky enough to be seeing him in action again.
Thanks to all the members of the MSA PPS for their support of this event; take a bow for selling tickets and bringing in the audience. Thanks to everyone that attended and made the event the success that it was. And thanks to the amazing performers that had enough fearlessness to get up and share their work,
and hence themselves, with all of us.
MSA PPS would also like to thank the following :STAR FM and CIVL Radio, The Abbotsford/Mission Times, the Abbotsord News and The Post, Abbotsford Arts Council, Abbotsford Parks, Recreation and Culture, Tourism Abbotsford, and the Abbotsford Spirit of BC for their assistance in promoting this event.
All the Slammers and host Randy Jacobs
The top 5 Slammers
MOSAIC: An International Women's Day Event
The MSA Poets Potpourri Society will be in attendance at the March 8/08 International Women's Day Event being hosted by the Women's Resource Society of the Fraser Valley. MOSAIC is a celebration of women's contributions to local arts and culture.
Our Vice-President Karen Belix Moore will be a reader at the coffee house at 7PM.
The following article appeared in The Post News and Entertainment Magazine, Friday, February 29/08, under Feature, page 8.
Poet Karen Belix Moore
A poem often ruminates in Karen Belix Moore’s mind for a while before she actually puts pen to paper. A member of the MSA Poets Potpourri Society, Moore loves the spontaneity in writing poetry; sometimes one will just come to her based onthings she sees around her.
“I don’t write like three poems a week,” says Moore, who had a few of her pieces published recently in thePotpourri Society’s Poetic Spirits of the Valley Anthology. “I have to
be in the right space. I get a poem percolating in my brain beforeI write it.”
Her inspiration isn’t typical poetry fare like nature; Moore, infact, writes about serious social issues. “I can look at a flower garden and think it’s pretty, but it doesn’t inspire me to write,”she says. The poems she will be reading at the MOSAIC event
will be focused on women, particularly as mothers. She herself is a mother of three.
Before moving to Abbotsford, Moore grew up in North Vancouver,dabbling in poetry as a teenager. “I often wrote when I
had troubles in my life; it helped me to express myself.”Moore eventually became a nurse, a role she held for 35 years,
working in palliative care for many years. She currently volunteers for Abbotsford Hospice Society, and wrote a book called
Seasons of Grief, which is available at the hospice society. The book draws from her experiences as a hospice nurse.
Much of her inspiration for her poetry also comes from things she witnessed in her years as a nurse, before she had to leave her career after a serious illness in 2000. “I find I am very moved by social issues, such as homelessness and abuse, and having practised
many years as a nurse, some of my poetry and my book draw from those images,” she says, adding that her work is often filled with words and expressions that have a particular meaning to her years in health care, such as “feel the pulse.”
Since her career was cut short, Moore has also spent time expressing herself through painting, and is working in the mosaic style now. She also loves to work in acrylics, painting mostly bold abstracts, which have been shown and sold in some of the galleries around town.
As for poetry, Moore says that the artform overall is well received locally. I think there is good interest in the Valley,” she says. “The response to the Potpourri Society’s anthology to commemorate our 25th anniversary has been good. We also hosted
an evening of slam poetry with guests from the Lower Mainland. Slam poetry is very contemporary and combines poetry with performance art.”
|
Winners Ben Nixon, Kevan Cameron and Fernando Reguerro.
