PoetFest 2023
Chris Bodor
April is national poetry month. Poetry has the power to excavate complex emotions, helping us to name and process the abstract. It has also been an effective tool in making sense of a chaotic world scene. Today, I am pleased to share the thoughts of my fellow poet and guest blogger, Chris Bodor. Chris is the editor-in-chief of an international literary journal called Ancient City Poets, Authors, Photographers, and Poets (A.C. PAPA) Let’s get to know him better.
Chris, you and I are fellow New Yorkers who found our respective ways to the Ancient City. How did your family land in St. Augustine?
When my wife, Mary Beth, and I got married in 1990 we were living in her home town of Beacon, New York. We had met at a theater party on campus at the University of New Haven a few years before. Her cousin Marie traveled up from St. Augustine to be my wife’s Maid of Honor. Back in the day, it was expensive to make long distance phone calls and I was concerned about the bills my wife and Cousin Marie were racking up from all the calls to St. Augustine to Beacon, and back. I knew that if we ever moved to St. Augustine, I would save a fortune on my long distance phone bill.
When did you first realize writing was your calling?
In high school I was terrible at math, but I was always able to tell a good story, so I blossomed as a writer, a journalist, and an observer. In seventh grade, a school friend showed me a movie he made with a film camera. The next day I bought a camera with money I saved by cutting lawns and my dad bought me a projector, so I could watch the footage that I shot. Now that I had the equipment, I had to figure out what I wanted to make movies about. I started writing scripts and casting my two little brothers in my silent three minute movies. Forty years later, in any art that I do, I am telling a story. My poetry, my journalism articles for newspapers, this interview, are all vehicles for my written words.
Who are some of your favorite poets?
In college, at the University of New Haven, I was studying communications, journalism, and radio studio production. There was a great movie house in downtown New Haven, Connecticut called the York Square Cinema. A guy from one of my film production classes told me about a movie called Barfly written by Charles Bukowski. I went to see it and I was instantly hooked on Bukowski, a working man who labored by day and wrote by night. I went next door to the Yale Co-op and bought the Charles Bukowski novel “Ham on Rye”. I only read half of it because a dozen pages were missing from the middle of my copy. I returned it, and was able to exchange it for his first novel “Post Office”. Bukowski delivered mail for a decade and the day that he resigned he sat down and wrote “Post Office”. Charles Bukowski set me on a path of writing during lunch breaks and after hours. When I started getting published in anthologies and literary journals, I would read the other poets who I was published side by side with. I love the work of my contemporaries, such as Dan Denton from Ohio, the San Pedro poet R.D. Armstrong, Rust Belt writers Michele MacDonald and John Dorsey, and Michael Grover, who now lives in Florida. They are poets who publish other poets. I learn from them and they learn from me.
Your work has been published in multiple languages. This is fascinating. Tell us more about that.
Getting published in other languages grew organically during the process of submitting my poems to literary journals. I am grateful to Eric Dejaeger, from Belgium. He was the one who looked at my debut collection "Railroad Ties" in 2001 and hand selected a few poems that he liked, to translate into French and publish in his amazing magazine called “Microbe”, twenty years ago. Fast forward to five years ago, when an Orlando poet asked me to submit poems to her for an international English language anthology that she was editing. She was fluent in Polish and asked me if I would allow her to translate a few of my poems into the Polish language. Soon after that two other Polish poets, one in Reigate, England and another in Inowrocław, Poland started translating and publishing my words overseas. It is possible that there is enough translated Chris Bodor poetry to put out a collection entirely in Polish. I find this all to be pretty mind blowing because I am the first person in my family to be born in the United States. My mother moved from England in her early twenties after she got her nursing degree, and my father is a political refugee from the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Regarding my father’s native language, I can speak Hungarian, but not read or write it. Recently, the Hungarian poet Gabor Gyukics translated three of my poems into Hungarian. They are called “Poems for Otto” and I am excited to share these Hungarian language poems with my father.
What is the origin story of Ancient City Poets?
Poetry saved my life. It is amazing that Ancient City Poets have been gathering constantly since 2009. In April of that year, author Glenda Bailey-Mershon worked with the St. Johns Cultural Council to stage two poetry events to recognize National Poetry Month, on a local level. I was a member of the Cultural Council and I stepped forward to emcee the poetry reading event. We had three poets who each did 10 minutes and then we invited members of the audience to share their words. Kimmy Van Kooten came up to the mic that afternoon. Micheal Henry Lee and his wife Sara were there. I had not written anything new in more than seven years. I dusted off my first book from 2001, ”Railroad Ties”, and shared ten minutes from those dogeared pages. The event was a success and it felt good for me to be back at the mic.
The reason that I say that “poetry saved my life”, is because I was destroying my life with alcohol and I reached a bottom in 2008. I was a successful husband and father on the outside, but on the inside I was empty and hollow. Reading my book to an audience of St. Augustine locals, and sharing poems that dated back to 1994, gave me the confidence to put my poetry career back together. I was attending support groups meetings and getting to know other alcoholics in recovery. I was starting to think clearly and I was suddenly able to meet deadlines.
A few months later, in August of that year, with full support from Glenda Bailey-Mershon to use the name that she had created, I set up a microphone at a local coffee shop and invited poets and poetry lovers to share five minutes of their written words. Words written on cocktail napkins. Words printed in fancy looking books. Words typed up and thrown on a copy machine. People of all skill levels. We gather to celebrate creative writing and reciting.
This was all happening during my first year of sobriety. I was becoming accountable and responsible. Hosting the monthly gathering of the Ancient City Poets became a very healthy outlet for me. We gather on the last Sunday of the month and we are the longest, consistently running open mic poetry event in St. Johns County. During the last fourteen years we have done residencies at locations such as a gift shop on West King, an art gallery, a restaurant, and a movie theater downtown. During the global COVID-19 pandemic, Ancient City Poets gravitated to an online gathering through Zoom and Facebook Live.
The city of St. Augustine now has its very own Poet Laureate. Why do you think this is an important asset in the year 2023?
I am very excited that I was able to get the City interested in a Poet Laureate program. In April of 2021, Christina Parrish Stone, the Executive Director of the St. Johns Cultural Council, arranged for the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioner to recognise National Poetry Month with a proclamation. Last year I suggested that the City get involved and they were very supportive with a proclamation. City Commissioner Roxanne Horvath attended last year’s St. Augustine PoetFest. She reported back to the Mayor all that she learned during the seminar hosted by David Axelrod, who is the Poet Laureate of Volusia County.
Any upcoming projects you want to share?
My next goal is to get the County interested in forming a poet laureate program, modeled on what David Azelrod has been able to do for poetry in Volusia County. They also have many Art in Public Spaces initiatives that combine written words of worth etched into sculptures. I would like to see poetry plaques attached to park benches. Artwork that is functional, and it has written words attached to it, to make you think.
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Thank you Chris, for opening your heart and sharing your compelling story. I’m grateful to know locals with such depth who are making a contribution to our community and culture. More details about PoetFest are below as provided by Chris:
Press Contact:
Chris Bodor, 2023 Festival Chair
2nd Annual St. Augustine PoetFest
(904) 501.0043
acpapalitmag@gmail.com
On campus Saturday, April 15th activities will include:
* 9 am to 3 pm – Book Bazaar and author signing table.
* Noon until 5 pm – Zine Zone events with a fanzine making workshop at 1:00 pm ($10 charge for materials. Limit 12 students).
* 9 am to 3:15 pm – Six Hour Open Mic Marathon featuring five Florida Counties, author talks, workshops, and panel discussions, a Florida Poets showcase hour, a storyteller spotlight, and a dramatic theater reading at the Markland House, Gamache-Koger Theater, and outdoor courtyard at Ringhaver Student Center.
* 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm - Lunch and Learn Side Hussle Spotlight at the Brown Innovation Center.
* 3:30 pm to 4 pm – Haiku Spotlight Presentation featuring winners of the 3rd Annual St. Johns Cultural Council Haiku Contest.
* 4 pm to 5 pm – Out of State Spotlight: New York Poet George Wallace.
* 5 pm to 6 pm – Jax by Jax: the First Ten Years with Co-DIrectors Erica Saffer and Darlyn Finch Kuhn.
* 6 pm to 6:30 pm – Out of State Spotlight: Georgia Poet Jimmy Broccoli.
* 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm – Two Rust Belt Voices: featuring US Beat Poet Laureate John Burroughs and Lucas County (Toledo) Poet Laureate Jonie McIntire.
* 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm – One Hour Keynote Presentation featuring Michigan Beat Poet Laureate Joe Kidd with Sheila Burke, followed by meet-and-greet and book signing.
The weekend will also include three “PoetFest at Night" performances presented by Hellthy and Bandturo at Sarbez, located at 115 Anastasia Blvd, St. Augustine, FL 32080. The shows will happen off campus on Friday (4/14), Saturday (4/15), and Sunday (4/16) night. $10 cover will go to help support the performers. A fanzine making workshop will be offered on campus from 1-2 p.m. on Saturday for a small $10 fee. All other events will be free of charge and open to all, thanks to the support of Flagler College, St. Johns Cultural Council, and the Ancient City Poets.
The St. Augustine PoetFest is a celebration of creative writing and reciting. It is St. Johns County’s official recognition of National Poetry Month (April).
SOCIAL MEDIA
Festival Website: https://ancientcitypoets.wordpress.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StaPoetFest
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stapoetfest