It was articulate, it was original, it was symbolic of larger things. That's what a quality poem typically is, and that's why mayor and council had one read out at the start of their last public meeting.
Expect it to happen again, said Mayor Lyn Hall.
"It's exciting. I've been involved in municipal politics, as many of my colleagues have, for a number of years, and I don't think we've ever had a poetry reading, certainly in my days with the school board and city council. So this is a momentous occasion; hopefully our first annual," said Hall.
The reason well-known local poet Gillian Wigmore was called to the spotlight actually started with Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi who issued a challenge to all mayors across Canada to have a poet come to chambers to recite an original poem to commemorate either UNESCO's World Poetry Day in March, or Canada's National Poetry Month in April.
Hall said he hadn't been made aware of the challenge when it was first announced, but Coun. Jillian Merrick brought it to his attention and the rest of council agreed to look into it. His first call was to the Prince George Public Library for their advice.
"I'd like to really thank Your Worship, Mayor Hall, and all of city council, for participating in the national city challenge," said chief librarian Janet Marren. "The purpose is to recognize poetry, writing, small presses, and the contribution of poets and all writers to the quality of life in our communities. So by inviting a local poet to read at a council meeting, the City of Prince George joins over 50 Canadian cities that are participating in this (Nenshi's) mayor's poetry city challenge."
A number of poets could easily have been tapped for the honour of being the first for a chambers recitation. Prince George has a long and lauded history of acclaimed writers and top-shelf poetry. Wigmore's poems have appeared in magazines in Canada, the United States and Australia; her books of poetry include the titles soft geography, Dirt Of Ages and Orient; she has a published novella called Greyling; and her writing has earned her a 2008 Relit Award and a nomination for the Dorothy Livesay Award. She is also one of the local poets known well for public readings, which is an additional skill to the writing element.
"One of the aspects of being a writer and a poet that I hadn't anticipated was that I am an ambassador for the City of Prince George, and in the past 10 years I've had three national tours and five provincial tours so I've had the opportunity to represent this city in numerous other cities, and it is such a pleasure," Wigmore said. "It's so neat to be able to have an effect on the cultural identity of this city. And that's what the songwriters and the poets and the writers and the artists are all busy doing every day. And I know this council is really supportive of the arts, so it is a total pleasure for me to read to you."
She resisted an obvious choice in poems, however. She read Late Season Sun instead of the one Hall expected she might, one called Beer With The Mayor. Wigmore said it was tempting, but since it was about an alcoholic cowboy poet she deferred to one more thematically appropriate, one that described the passage of time and the passage of train cargo through this specific valley of rivers, a poem about family and industry. It was only about a minute, and produced an energetic round of applause from councillors and those in the public gallery.
"They may not have thought about that cultural aspect of what I do and what all artists do, creating the cultural identity of Prince George. It is part of the fun of the job and I loved being able to tell council about it," she said. "We are doing this work to show humans humanity. I do consider it important community work, important cultural work. It was wonderful to see these people doing important city work support other people doing important city work in this way. When you see yourself reflected, you develop better connections. That matters."
Wigmore mentioned that the City of St. John's in Newfoundland & Labrador starts every council meeting with the reading of a poem. The cities of Victoria, New Westminster and Vancouver have established poets laureate, and new municipalities in B.C. to adopt this position include Surrey and Nanaimo. There are six others in Western Canada, more than a dozen in Ontario, and five more in Eastern Canada. Why not Prince George, Wigmore wondered out loud?
"It's funny you should say that," said Hall. "I was thinking about it as I was watching Gillian reading, and why not? Why wouldn't we? But what that looks like needs to be talked about, but I see no reason why it isn't time the city took a look at that. We certainly have the talent. And poetry, historically, has been one of those art forms that steps up whenever you think about how to describe a community, or how to represent a community, because the skill is in saying a lot in a small space."
Hall recently turned the fifth floor of City Hall, where his office and those of many senior municipal officials are housed, into a constant gallery of local visual arts. More needs to be done, he said, and more realistically could be done by local government to strengthen the arts.
Wigmore is constantly developing more written work and is at the ready for readings. Her next scheduled book is her debut novel entitled Glory set in the Fort St. James area. It is slated for release in fall, 2017 by Invisible Publishing of Ontario.
