As Alberta’s North continues to recover from the devastating Fort McMurray/Wood Buffalo fire, more help is on the way thanks to a group of poets.
Yes, poets.
The intrepid wordsmiths have come together to create an anthology called Fire and Sky. St. Albert poet Sandra Mooney-Ellerbeck was thrilled with the chance to help out and send words of love and hope.
“Most of the poetry that I write leans toward the inspirational side anyways, so when I get the opportunity to share a poem that offers another inspiration then I embrace it,” she explained.
Proceeds of book sales are going to the ongoing recovery of the Wood Buffalo Regional Library in Fort McMurray. The facility survived the fires but received a great deal of smoke damage.
As far as Mooney-Ellerbeck is concerned, she wants to do for the facility what the facility usually does for those who use it.
“This anthology not only offers to raise funds for the library but also to raise spirits,” she said. “I know how important it is.”
The anthology was conceived by David Brydges, a poet who worked in the northern city before it was ravaged by the disaster. He called out to poets across the country to share their poems about loss, recovery, renewal, hope, adversity, triumph, fire and aftermath.
He was personally affected by the fire, losing his job because it was unsafe, but there were many people he knew who were affected too.
“I was just appalled and shocked. I had friends and work colleagues that were in the work camps and had to flee, along with everyone else,” he began. “I reached a saturation point where … something just takes over and I need to get it down into a story form like a poem.”
He said that he was astounded by people’s generosity and the outpouring of support. He felt that he had to do his part too.
“It just tore my heart apart because I knew that this was the Canadian way. This generosity and reacting in a very constructing way to a crisis… it was a virtue in full view across the country.”
He took some samples of these acts and inserted them into a new poem and that poem became “the nucleus” of the book.
The Fire and Sky book launch takes place tomorrow evening from 8 to 10 p.m. at the Yiannis Taverna Greek Restaurant (10444 Whyte Ave. in Edmonton) in its downstairs Kasbar. In addition to Mooney-Ellerbeck and Brydges, other poets who will do readings that night include Mary Campbell, Daniel Piller, Hank Binnema, Jocelyne Verret, Marcia O’Connor, Audrey Seehagen, and Audrey Brooks. The emcee will be Kathy Fisher and Roylin Picou will add some musical atmosphere. The event is free to attend.
