It only made sense that one of the final poems Moose Jaw’s Robert Currie read during his book launch for Shimmers of Light on Wednesday night involved a rapt audience listening to a poet’s prose.
The tale -- involving the legendary Robert Frost reading to an appreciative group of college students, with the exception of one disinterested individual n the crowd who drew a harsh rebuke from the man himself -- fit nicely with the audience in the Moose Jaw Public Library theatre, who hung on Currie’s every word throughout the evening.
All told, around 50 fans and supporters filled the venue to hear Currie read a couple dozen of entries from Shimmers of Light, including both new and old samples of his writing.
“It’s really nice when you have something like this and everyone is really receptive, for sure,” Currie said shortly after the event as folks lined up to have copies of the book signed. “It’s a thrill. And it’s really fun when you see people that you recognize, too, there are a lot of people who are really supportive.”
Currie’s reading covered a wide gamut of subjects, ranging from familiar favourites that had previously been published in his tomes like Yarrow and Klondike Fever to brand new selections that had seen the page for the first time.
Tales told of Currie’s days as a boy and shenanigans in the line waiting to get into school, or hanging out at the swimming hole and trying to entice some girls to join them. Poems that talked of nature and its beauty, of farm life and cowboys, of travelling the rails and just life in general.
It’s all fare familiar to Currie’s readers over the years, with Shimmers of Light covering 50 years of work, with about 74 pages of new poems in addition to featuring some of his favourites from the past.
“It’s a lifetime of work,” Currie said.
In describing the book to MooseJawToday.com shortly after its initial release back at the end of April, Currie said he hoped Shimmers of Light would offer a little bit of something for everyone.
“There are all kinds of poems about what I would call a common human experience, poems of youth and age and family and friendship and yearning and feeling,” he said. “I’m always hoping that poems will connect with readers so that they share the experience and feel it too.”
Shimmers of Light: New and Selected Poems by Robert Currie is published by Thistledown Press and available through booksellers everywhere.
