At Susan Telfer's book launch two weeks ago, her son Oliver Telfer played a terrific fiddle along with music teacher Tom Kellough. She was also supported by her husband, friends and literary fans from Gibsons for her first book of poetry, House Beneath, recently published by Hagios Press.
A reader could guess from the tenor of the poems that this supportive family life is crucially important to Telfer, since the intense poems in House Beneath reveal many sad stories from her childhood: a father who abused alcohol and a mother slowly dying from a wasting disease. Certainly Telfer uses the therapeutic qualities of writing poetry to express a childhood betrayed. She also describes her adolescence, during which she learned "to hold my head low" against her father's excesses (Lost House), and how she became a mother at a time when her own mother was dying.
"She can't be my baby; my arms are full," Telfer writes in Mother Fugue.
Other material casts a worried look at how humans meddle with nature, for example, Branchless Tree, in which residents lop off all the branches of a tree to stunt its growth because they don't like the leaves its source of life. This particular metaphor brings to an end a series that deals with tragedy; the new cycle begins with the title poem House Beneath. It offers hope for the future.
"There is another house beneath my house. How have I not noticed it before? It's beautiful and spacious" she writes.
The title poem is conveyed brilliantly on the cover of the book, using a painting by Greta Guzek that depicts a luminous arbutus tree that has the ability to grow within the cracks on rocks. Its roots are reflected as solid and tough beneath the tree.
Telfer spoke about how important Guzek's art was to her. She bought a dogwood painting years ago and it later inspired her to a poem, Dogwoods.
The poems in this fourth section seem up to the minute. In one prose poem, she describes the shooting at Christenson Village last March; in another she talks about Brahms.
"I jotted down this poem while at a Coast Recital Society concert last year," she told the crowd.
Music has been a big factor in her inspiration.
The poems speak of resiliency, the clambering back to joy in domestic life and career. Telfer is an English teacher at Chatelech Secondary School. She is the spark behind the Gibsons Live Poets Society that will be holding an open mic night at the Wild Bistro in Gibsons tonight (Oct. 2) at 7:30 p.m. as a benefit and fundraiser for the society.
"I find I need to hear poets read on a regular basis, so I thought, let's make it happen," Telfer said.
All poets are welcome to read to a seven minute limit. The society will also be presenting local poets John Pass and Joe Denham reading at the Gibsons Public Library on Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free.
Telfer is holding a second book launch for her own work this Monday, Oct. 5, at 7:30 p.m. at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre in Sechelt. All are invited. House Beneath is available for $17.95 at local bookstores.
