Although organizers of the Chicago Poetry Festival probably agree with Joyce Kilmer`s famous couplet, ”I think that I shall never see/A poem lovely as a tree,” they`re aiming for the next best thing-a lovely poem about a tree.
At the Neutral Turf`s third annual gathering Sunday at Navy Pier, five Chicago writers will compete for an all-expenses-paid trip to Japan by reading original poems inspired by trees. The winner will serve as Chicago`s cultural ambassador to the International Garden and Greenery Exposition, to be held in Osaka, Japan, in July.
The ”Poem For Osaka” selection process, cosponsored by the city`s Department of Cultural Affairs, neatly bypassed the time-consuming red tape usually involved in officially endorsed competitions.
Festival organizer Marc Smith, who has popularized poetry among the nightlife crowd with his ”Poetry Slams” at such clubs as Green Mill and Fitzgerald`s, explained: ”We happened to be hanging around (Cultural Director) Lois Weisborg`s office one day when she started talking about an invitation she`d received, asking her to send a cultural ambassador to this festival. She didn`t know if it would be a singer, a band, or what, and we thought, `Why not poets?`
”Then someone said, `How ya going to pick the poet?` And, because I`m the Slam Master, I said, `Rather than wade through submissions, let`s have some slams.` ”
So Smith quickly organized about 20 saloon readings throughout the city,
”open to anybody who wanted to do them.”
One of the finalists, selected at B.L.U.E.S. last month, is William Lombardo, who drew on childhood memories growing up in Bridgeport for his entry, ”The Last Tree on Paper Route 32.”
”The neatest time the trees looked to me was wintertime when branches were blackest and barest, and the street lamp set off this eerie glow,”
Lombardo said.
Another finalist, Cindy Salach, had little experience with trees growing up in Schaumburg. ”At that time, it was just flatland and the only trees were just sticks in the ground.”
But she was sufficiently inspired on a camping trip in Michigan`s Upper Peninsula last summer to pen ”Inanimate Objections.”
”It`s sort of an ode to trees before they got corralled into forest preserves, when they were allowed to run free,” she explained before reciting a few lines: ”Well, take your brain for a walk, Mr. Mammal, feed it some fresh air/Meander over to one of them/Nature Preserved, wilderness controlled, forests of trees, trees, trees and other related things/And set your mind free.
Besides the ”Poem For Osaka” competition, which also includes readings from Barry Sileski, Patricia Smith and Michael Brown, the festival will feature about two dozen other poets and live music from David Hernandez`
Street Sounds Band.
What: Neutral Turf 1990 Chicago Poetry Festival
Where: Navy Pier, 600 E. Grand Ave.
When: 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday
How much: Free
