Inventing the tradition

I spent the day at a poetry festival. One of the better ways to spend a day . . . if you like that sort of thing, and, let's be honest, it is a niche artform and likely to remain that way. It would be helped by more/better exposure in schools though.

As a Christian it was a strange environment to find myself in. This was epitomised at the end of the day when the lady who received the prize for best indigenous poetry read out a poem railing bitterly against Christian missionaries. This was followed by the prize for best religious/spiritual poem which was won by a lady who is currently in the middle of a months' long Buddhist retreat in Japan and whose poem was about Siddhartha Gautama.

And there I was in the midst of it all. I was mainly there for a bit of r&r, so I wasn't too stressed about being a Christian presence, but I also didn't want to be selfishly looking inwards. So I prayed for opportunities to speak with people, and for the wherewithal to make the most of these opportunities. And it's my joy to tell you that God answered my prayers. I overcame my introversion and chatted comfortably with the people around me. And at lunchtime when the people I was sitting with asked what I did, I calmly told them that I was a student at a Bible college and was planning to be a missionary in Latin America. They were good about it but it was obvious I had overstepped a powerful, invisible line. But, thank God, I remained unashamed and unruffled and was even prepared to press on with a little talk about Christian things.

I'll post more on the festival soon. For now, let me finish by saying that LK Holt is a kick-ass poet.