On October 10, Bowen Island resident Lisa Shatzky is launching her new book of poetry, When the Colours Run at 7:30 pm at the Gallery @ Artisan Square. In addtion to poetry readings by Shatzky and friends, there will be music by Ruta Yawney. The evening is sponsored by the Bowen Island Arts Council and 100 per cent of the proceeds from books sold at this event will be donated to the Sea Sheppard Conservation Society.
Undercurrent: What is your motivation for writing the new poems?
Lisa Shatzky: Sometimes I think I write because I must, because it is my way of making some small sense of the world, of pressing the pause button and being fully present to the moment. Poetry is like meditation. If I can sit still long enough, or allow there to be some moments of stillness and pause in each day, it’s as if the words already exist and somehow they find me. Or perhaps I am more open to them. I am never quite clear how a collection comes together. I just write every day. The poems arrive like butterflies. Or dreams. You must move slowly so not to lose them. In the blink of an eye, they are gone.
Undercurrent: Is there a common theme or question you want to resolve in writing these poems?
LS: The poems in this new collection emerged over the past year and I had been thinking a lot about the idea of transformation, meaning, how things are always in flux so to speak, like the seasons, everything is always reinventing itself. All of the poems speak in some way to our relationship with ourselves and the various inner and outer seasons of our lives. What was and still is important to me is how we all in some way must deal with the “ dark” to get to the “light” in ourselves and ultimately in our relationship with other people and our fragile planet which depends so much on our ability to bring increased consciousness into our lives.
Undercurrent: What happens in life when the colours run?
LS: Perhaps a few sentences from the lead poem in this new book answers this question best.
“....... when the colours run, it’s because the sun changes directions. Even when the sun disappears, the colours do not disappear. There is an ebb and there is a flow, all things being and becoming,
moment to moment
from eye to breath and breath to light
and here you are -
the temple, the wonder, the breath, the sight. So open your windows and open your doors and do not fear the colours of night. For sometimes you must face the storm, lean into the exquisite wild wind
with your aloneness and emptiness
so you may dance again. And when the light returns, (and it will), notice how the geese also come back, even the daffodils push through the dark and every blade of grass sings
if you have the ears to hear it.......”
