I don’t know if other writers who are poets as well as novelists find, like I do, that when they are writing fiction poems leak through. Rarely do these end up in the finished work—they really don’t fit. But it seems—unfair—not to admit their existence.  There could be, I suppose, waiting for an anthologist with the curiosity to follow this up, a book to be made of such poems.  The poems below belong to several different voices. A young woman, a narrator, a lover….

Poetry from a Novel in Progress

In this place, small as the beginning of Time
Where my mind walks through flowers
On its own and with gravity
Walks with the roundness of oranges and lemons
As it measures its steps

Walks fearfully
Walks and sings anyway
I’d like to sleep as if I were still a girl
With nothing on my mind but arrivals

*

Everything had to be born
Even heaven and earth

Before there was water
There was nothing

And once there was water
The slime of the earth

Began to slip and slide.

Yahweh and his Beloved
Joined, and blew the breath

Of soul into the clay-made human
And soon, even in the garden

Made for the Created One

Even among the trees and birds
And at the junction of rivers

That brought news of gold
And lapis lazuli from far places—vast

Material blessings—

Profound loneliness prevailed… even
After such remarkable beauty

Then the woman already existing
Stepped aside from the man

So they could look at each other
And be happy

*

Then they slept together
Man and woman, tight as thieves

And the woman conceived

What pleasure they took
In their bodies–they were young

As the world, the night drank them down
‘Til dawn, and all day long

They were love-making, always
They scarcely supped or

Touched ground

The children worked
Neither seen nor heard

One boy, Cain, tilled the soil
The other, Abel, watched flocks: the stars pressed

At his soul, he took flight. Cain, lonely as grass
Wrenched at stones; his back hurt

His hands ached, the damp
Flayed his joints: wash, cook, plant, harvest

Oi vey

Abel sang, played flute, slept warm between sheep
Cold cold was Cain, his sadness a blight: it rained

It snowed without respite
It was right to give thanks

Yet one boy grew straight, the other bent
One hardly slept, the other dreamt

Yahweh preferred blood
To the labour for bread

He thrived on it – hurt Cain’s heart
Who was envious and harnessed

They were in the field, these boys
One cheerful, one jealous

It wasn’t fair, it was hard
To bear and not care

And Cain did

And brought hatred, murder and death
To the world

As Yahweh had willed it

*

Sleepless sailors

Aim for streets

Their feet drag water
From other worlds

Others arrive and leave
But these navigators can only begin

Like an unfinished play
Under the sun of imagined seas

Are those who live in houses
And watch from balconies

*

In a dark wood
Trees surround you, but

Their branches fill with birds
A wing; an iridescent eye

Such fire as the Phoenix brings

The woods grizzle with rain
Light drains, and is cold

You are song, although you’ve lost
Your singing

Be your ears, until your voice takes hold
And you can view

Blue wings, a flash of gold
Everything is made

Put your tongue out to the rain
And claim

“Green, is a beautiful book! The sensory affection of Marilyn Bowering’s words make each poem glow.  The intelligence of heart, mind and body are merged throughout with emotional depth and a rare meditative sensibility. This is wise, tenderly cadenced work, exquisitely drawn and evocative.  The linguistic grace of these poems simmers with the authority of love and the synaptic reach of redemption that keeps the art alive.  It was a joy to read.”

Don Domanski 

In Green, Marilyn Bowering addresses her physical and metaphysical worlds in conversations that move from the most intimate expressions of longing to the political. Her love of Lorca and Ritsos and Rumi and the years she spent in Spain have seeped into the frames of her poetry, adding another colour to the interplay of form and improvisation that is her canvas. The poems are variations of classical themes and traditions but are driven by the immediacy of family, love and death. Coats, rooms, cars, cups, bees and finally the rose are all part of the dive into the sources of Green.

Now there is peace
of the kind that longing brings:

sleeplessness,
long halts

as I stand on the driveway
broom in hand, not sweeping.

I listen to the trees:

what do they say
but green green?

At last I understand Lorca!
Verde que te quiero verde.

And remember his life in cities
and the cafes
and with his friends hidden
by night;

but most of all
it’s the sweetness of Granada I recall,
even the terrible barranco at Viznar,
full of sedge grasses,

a blue hyacinth its only flower,
where exhausted murderers tried
to eradicate poetry:

Ay amor
Que se fue y no vino!. . .
Ay amor
Que se fue por el aire!

Why think of such sadness?

It flourishes in the bodies
of those we love;
it also needs joy.

*

What remains of the wood?
Ash.
What remains of the river?
Stone.
What remains of the night?
Dark.

Oh gateway—who is at the entrance?
Oh gateway—who holds the door?

The night is a black bird
on the rooftop,
a button in its beak,
under a clear sky.

For the rooftop
there is no gate,

for the river
there is no depth,

for the star
there is no darkness.

I crouch over this paper,
the wind flames it in my hand,
its ink is a black wave
that sands a shore.

How you lie, hand and foot
bound with a thread.
before the tide.

How long will you wait
to untie your hands
and read?

*

Advice for the twenty-first century

When I’m alone, and I remember to ask
at twelve midnight, and at the stroke of 3:00 a.m.,

I’m at some threshold
with a million others,

and the summer fires in the forest
are only light, not pain,

and the world is a murmur of electricity
through the silence.

The house is two countries, only one underfoot;
and the documents and photographs on the table

spring to life, full of hope,
and my longing becomes happiness.

How precious the sweetness of empty night,
and at the same time, the dust quivers

and I want to wash my hands again and again in clean water
and think only of those peacefully sleeping.

(I hear you shout: the weather is all green!
We’re discussing meaning and I can’t sleep.)

So many wounded: every morning the count
is a white pistol shot through my dreams.

Get up, tell about the wreckage—
tell whoever will listen

about all those drunk on technology—

although even they can’t muzzle the bees
or the trees and streams or gravity,

or climb through the smallest black hole—

and we all want honey and clear skies,
and we’re going to cry out

when we’re loved.

I will never reach the sea
ahead of the arrival of waves:

it can’t be done

even by drones searching out targets
with their red mosquito bites of infrared:

don’t let them silence our pillowtalk.
It’s better when I don’t think.

How hard everyone tries not to think.
Don’t try so hard, walk upright

like a human being:

don’t trample the gardens
with hooves you don’t have.

*

From the point of view of the rose,
the bird on its way to its nest
is of no consequence.

The bee, on the other hand,
draws the geometry of sweetness
flower to flower:

distances sway
according to the wind
of an intricate innate ballet:

Only the bird perceives the rose totally.

Put science aside: or bring it close, as if the microscope
and spectrum telescope were the fine hairs
of the bee’s belly, its organs of dalliance—

here’s the romance of attraction, the plus and minus
of eye contact, the medium of brain

like some primordial soup: creation’s about to start
and I’m here, keening,

As not everyone who reads a leaf knows its meaning.

Upturned cup, leaves incised on a hip,
is as good as any means to assess
this attempt to scry the rose,

its scent at one with fingertip:

and look—I’m ready at once—without a shove!—
to dive into the heart: you’re my oxygen
it’s as deep down here as heaven above,

O you who from the book of reason would see the signs of love.

Books! I meant to reference botanical text,
the knife of dissection,

to lead you by degrees
to tear the rose as I instruct:

but—attention deficit be damned—the essay’s lurched
out of my hands:
all I can think,

my senses assailed by love,
is how scant the hours, how profound the dove.

(I fear that you cannot fathom this subtlety
by research.)

Read the reviews

It’s the celebration of my grandparents wedding anniversary in 1960. My mother sits across from me at the long table in the restaurant. Her face is half turned away and she is smiling. Her ears are bare but there’s a single rhinestone strand around her neck. The emerald engagement ring she always wears, matches her green eyes. Her dress has cap sleeves, a sweet-heart neck, a fitted bodice and the narrow skirt of the dress is darted to the waist seam. The material is jacquard: blue and black velvety leaves; and she’s sewn the dress herself. Her shoulders are straight, and the way she’s turned means I can see a slight gap between dress and skin where the back zipper starts from a low scoop. She wears high-heels; the stockings shine when she stands up and moves away. I don’t want her to come any closer to me—although she will, and I’ll have to pretend I don’t love her as much as I do. Her beauty and grace, her refinement, are anomalies in this family of goofs, jokers, story-tellers, Newfoundlanders—and  the happiness this vision brings me wakes me up in the middle of the night more than fifty years later. I look again: I was wrong about her ears: she’s wearing small pearl screw-ons—but she never gets them even and she never keeps them on for long.

Ever since I first wrote about Marilyn Monroe in a series of poems set to jazz for the BBC in the late 1980′s, the subject of  her life and work have kept connecting and re-connecting to mine. I’m at work, these days, on a libretto for an opera based on some of the Marilyn poems; while looking through materials in my files, I came across a review I’d written in the early 1990′s for a (then) newly revised biography of Marilyn Monroe by Maurice Zolotow.  It was published in the Globe & Mail. I’ll post it here.

One wonders if the Marilyn Monroe phenomenon will last, and if so what our descendents will make of her. Her talent was to project, on film, a spirit and beauty of heightened reality: many people have called it transcendent. Even the soggy revelations of recent years about her marriages, her relationships with the Kennedys and the sordid circumstances of her death, have not dimmed the public adulation. It seems, in fact, that her insecurities and weaknesses have only added to the image of a goddess at bay. It also makes no difference that her beauty was largely man-made, involving enormous expense and trusted attendants. In some curious way, Monroe’s working class origins, inflexible ambition and instinctive intelligence made her a touchstone of truth. This, I think, was part of the bond with her third husband, the playwright, Arthur Miller. She also invites compassion, which is, of course, one of the finer aspects of love.

Maurice Zolotow’s “Marilyn Monroe” originally issued in 1960, two years before her death, remains the best existing biography of the actress. We may now doubt some fo the claims of Monroe’s naivety, but Zolotow knew her, and the book has an authentic ring. His fascination with his subject is obvious, the inexplicable and mysterious nature of her appeal; but it doesn’t make him uncritical of her astonishing narcissism. Above all he makes her appear human.

Zolotow quotes the director Billy Wilder, to whom Monroe once gave a lift in her black Cadillac convertible, as follows: “I didn’t realize what a disorganized person this is until I see in the back of the car. It is like she throws everything in helter skelter because there’s a foreign invasion and the enemy armies are already in Pasadena. There’s blouses laying there and slacks, dresses, girdles, old shoes, old plane trickets, old lovers for all I knew, you never saw such a filthy mess in your life. On top of the mess is a whole bunch of traffic tickets. I ask her about this. Tickets for parking. Tickets for speeding. Tickets for passing lights, who knows what. Is she worried about this? Am I worried about the sun rising tomorrow?”

Zolotow foresaw for Monroe, because of her paradoxical and conflicting desires, a future alienated “from the common stream of humanity” and of “essential loneliness.” He compares her to Garbo who was able to accept a solitary life saying that it is this with which Monroe must come to terms. Here he foresees her tragedy. For there was no coming to terms with the need for human contact and for love that consumed her. Perhaps it is the scale of this need which continues to draw a world-wide outpouring of love, adultation and pity nearly thirty years after her death.

When you entered the house where I wrote at the kitchen table while small black mice scrabbled over the floor and flowed in and out of the garbage, you’d see immediately in front of you, suspended over the staircase to the second floor, a tennis ball on a long string.  This was for Jed, a fencer. Several times a day, sliding in sock-feet, he’d careen down the stairs, leap and attempt to skewer the tennis-ball with his foil—which was fine until the German Shepherd belonging to the daughter of the house returned with her to live there. It watched her every movement, and when she shut the dog out of the bedroom she shared with her boyfriend while they made noisy and predictably patterned love, it howled. This dog was suspicious by nature and disliked everyone except its mistress. We were all frightened of it and Jed learned to call down in advance to ask where it was before hurtling himself, sword-arm extended, onto the stairs: it wasn’t an animal that liked to be surprised.

As well as the occupants of the three upstairs bedrooms– me; the daughter, her boyfriend and the dog; and Jed and his wife who crescendoed with the other couple nightly– there was a woman who lived in the basement. I had no idea she was there until she emerged late one night when I was typing, to take something from the fridge.  She didn’t stay long—I don’t think she ever used the stove– and she was shy as a marmot. In fact, as long as I lived there, as far as I know, I was the only person she spoke to.  One night, in a pause in my typing of poems, she surfaced and invited me to have tea with her the next day in her room.

I went down the flight of narrow wooden steps into a low-ceilinged, concrete floored, spider-webbed space illuminated by a single bulb. A door in the far wall opened and she invited me in. It was no brighter in there, but she had covered the walls, the floor, the ceiling, the niche where she stored her clothes, and her bed with Indian print cloth. On every available surface, as well, there were baskets of sea-shells, stones and glass; and from the ceiling hung fantastic mobiles made of these materials.
“It’s beautiful,” I told her. “I had no idea.  It’s like Aladdin’s cave.”
“I don’t usually show people,” she said.
“It must have taken you a long time to find all these things.”
“I search for them every day,” she said. “I make necklaces and bracelets and earrings and I sell them.”
 We sipped our tea and then she said, “I’m glad you got rid of your old boyfriend. He wasn’t right for you. I like the new one; he suits you better.
“I’ve made you a present,” she said.  She handed me a tissue wrapped package. Inside was a mobile made of pieces of white shell and blue glass glued onto string. It was exquisite.

When I began to remember her, her name returned to me as Rumi– which is not quite accurate, but will have to do .

There: Cornwall, 1978

Here: Mt. Blinkhorn, 2011

A gathering of literary activities, in progress: 

 Schooling and early career: 

Marilyn Bowering was born in Winnipeg and attended elementary, junior and senior high schools in Victoria, B.C.  Her principal interest outside of school was in music. She studied piano through the Toronto Conservatory of Music and played in a church brass band and taught music throughout her high school years.  Her other interests were in drawing and painting and drama. 

 Marilyn Bowering was awarded a University of Victoria alumni Scholarship and undertook studies as an undergraduate first at UVic and later at U.B.C.  She continued to win a number of scholarships and bursaries and obtained a BA in 1971 in the Dept of English, with distinction. As well as Eng lit she studied Political Science and Psychology. At the conclusion of these studies, because of her developing work as a poet (and although she had been headed to law school) she enrolled in Graduate Studies in English Literature and Creative writing under Robin Skelton at the University of Victoria.  Marilyn held a number of jobs during this period, including for Information Services at UVic, for the Creative Writing Office, and as a marker for undergraduate English courses. She also lived for a period in Washington D.C. where she worked for a newspaper, The Jewish Week. In addition, she spent a summer as a script assistant on a film crew and worked for a local Victoria .radio station. (CKDA.)  While engaged in Graduate Studies, Bowering was awarded both the University of Victoria Graduate Scholarship and the University of Victoria Graduate Fellowship. 

Early Publishing: 

During this period Bowering began to publish poems, stories, translations and reviews in a number of journals and magazines including The Malahat Review, The Victoria Times Newspaper, Island, Northern Light, 52 Pickup, Tuatara, Contemporary Literature in Translation, View from the Silver Bridge, Karaki, Introductions from an Island, D.N.A. Tape Magazine, Canadian Fiction Magazine and others. 

It was also during the early 1970’s that Bowering began to compile an anthology of contemporary Canadian Indian Poetry (Many Voices), published 1977, and edited with D. Day. This project, took two years of initial research and a further two years of compilation and editing.  Bowering travelled throughout BC and other provinces making contact with Native writers and organisations, including the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs and the National Indian Brotherhood.  Many Voices was considered to be a pioneering work—the first of its kind in Canada—and continues to be used as a reference work in First Nations Studies in Canada and elsewhere. 

Marilyn Bowering was a participant in the regular Haunted Book Shop talks and readings in Victoria. Through her contact there with the poet, Charles Lillard, she began a period of research on early BC women poets, meeting and interviewing poets such as Hermia Harris Fraser, Doris Ferne and Dorothy Livesay. Some of this work was broadcast, with Charles Lillard, on CBC Radio and for Co-Op Radio in Vancouver. 

 In 1973 Marilyn’s first book, The Liberation of Newfoundland, was published by Fiddlehead Press in Fredericton. 

 After obtaining her M.A. degree, Bowering travelled to Europe and settled on the island of Paros, Greece, where she continued writing and began an association with the Aegean School of Fine Arts. Her involvement with the school (affiliated with Antioch, Ohio and the Tyler School of Art) led to a number of readings in the area and an exhibition in Greece (Photographs and Poetry) with the American photographer, Gail Lineback.   While she was in Greece, Bowering continued reviewing contemporary Canadian poetry and Canadian Native studies materials, and to this repertoire she added contemporary Greek Poetry.  Her reviews on these subjects appeared during this time, and after her return to BC, in The Malahat Review, Quill and Quire, Books in Canada, Canadian Literature, Monday Magazine, and The Victoria Times Newspaper. 

In the Fall of 1974 Bowering moved to the Queen Charlotte Islands where she taught both elementary and high school English.  In 1975, she enrolled at the University of New Brunswick in the Doctoral Program in Canadian Literature, but was obliged to withdraw because of injuries suffered in a car accident.  While still at the University she gave a talk and reading at the famed UNB Observatory and began work on an anthology of Canadian poetry for children (unpublished.) After her recovery, she began to work, in Victoria, as a freelance writer, continuing to review and publish in magazines such as The Malahat Review, Branching Out, Contemporary Verse II ,  A Room of One’s Own, All Alone Stone, The Fiddlehead, and Q.C. Eye , the Canadian Forum and Prism International. Her second book, One Who Became Lost, was published in 1976.  As well, she worked for the Correspondence Division for the Dept. of Education (Creative Writing and Guidance) and taught a poetry workshop, Voice and Vision, for Continuing Education at the University of British Columbia.  Bowering also gave readings at the University of Victoria, UBC, the Kootenay Festival of the Arts, and at Notre Dame University. 

While working out of a studio at Signal Hill in Victoria, Bowering established the Signal Hill readings and broadside publication series which ran for two years.  Among the other poet participants were PK Page, Susan Musgrave and Charles Lillard. She also ran the Open Space reading series first with Susan Musgrave and later on with PK Page.  In addition she was a participant and reader at the regular ‘Friday Night’ literary gatherings at Morriss Printing in Victoria and was an active member of the League of Canadian Poets. 

 In 1977 Bowering moved to Scotland and her third book of poetry, The Killing Room (Sono Nis) was published.  She received a National Magazine Award for Poetry. In Scotland she gave readings and talks at the Centre of Canadian Studies at the University of Edinburgh, published in a variety of UK Magazines including Prospice, The Moorlands Review,  Trends, New Poetry London, Akros, Lines Review, Stand and Cencrastus.  Martin Booth’s Sceptre Press published pamphlet editions of several of her poems. During this period she returned to Canada for a reading tour which included readings at, amongst others, York University, Concordia University, University of P.E.I., Acadia University, and the University of New Brunswick. 

When Bowering returned to live in Canada, she began to instruct in the Department of Creative Writing at the University of Victoria, teaching poetry, fiction and drama..  In addition, she worked for the ‘poet’s company’ gregson/graham marketing and communications, and published a first book of fiction (accompanied by photographs), The Visitors Have all Returned. 

By this time, Bowering’s work had begun to be anthologised in collections such as Alchemists in Winter( Barry Callaghan), New poets of Canada (Dennis Lee), New Oxford Book of Canadian Verse (ed Margaret Atwood), Canadian Poetry Now (ed Ken Norris) Anything is Possible (ed Mary di Michele), Un Dozen (ed J. Fitzgerald), Anthology of North American Women (Berkeley), D’Sonogua (ed Ingrid Klassesn), Whalesound(ed Greg Gatneby), The Poets of Canada (ed John Robert Colombo), NewWest Anthology I(Intermedia)and the  Anthology of Vancouver Island Poets.
 Some of the readings/presentations she gave during this period took place at the Literary Storefront, the College of New Caledonia, the Carnegie Centre, Octopus Books, and the William Head Correctional Centre.  For a special edition of The Malahat Review, Bowering wrote on the poetry of Patrick Lane (Pine Boughs and Apples) an overview article and consideration of Lane’s work that remains in print in a variety of reference works. 

1980’s: 

In 1980, just after the publication of Sleeping With Lambs, Bowering returned to live in Scotland.  While there she resumed publishing in such magazines as “Cencrastus” , “Lines”, “Akros” and “Landfall” and also worked as a freelance editor for Blackwells and for Noel Collins Publishing.  Her principal writing during this time was on the poems that became, in 1982, Giving Back Diamonds, and on the long narrative poem (published 1987), Grandfather Was A Soldier.  Once again interested in what had not yet been articulated by her generation, she obtained a copy of her grandfather’s war service record, undertook considerable research, and visited the World War I battlefields of France and Belgium. This work was subsequently produced for BBC Radio, with a commissioned score by David Dorwood which was performed by the Edinburgh symphony, and with actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company.  The production received a nomination for the Prix Italia. 

 Bowering also conducted workshops and gave readings for the Tattenhall Centre in England, and at the Chester College Poetry Festival. She gave the inaugural poetry reading, with Elizabeth Smart, at Canada House in London, and also read at the Third Eye Centre in Glasgow. 

 In 1982 Marilyn Bowering returned to Canada where she once again took up teaching in the Department of Creative Writing at the University of Victoria, work she continued (with the exception of the years 1987 and part of 1988) through 1989.  During much of this time she was on the editorial board of “The Malahat Review”.She also published articles for Western Living Magazine, The Scotsmen Newspaper, Gangway (London), Waves, Exile, Poetry Canada Review, Radio 3 Magazine, Northern Light, Aura, Jewish Dialogue, The Commonwealth Magazine, Toronto Life, Poetry Canada, and The Canadian Forum. 

 A number of Marilyn Bowering’s poems were translated into French by the Quebecois writer, Michael Beaulieu. 

Readings were given at, amongst others, Duthie Books, for Amnesty International, Seneca College, the University of Toronto, Carleton University, Red River College (Winnipeg), the University of Victoria,  and F.H. Collins High School (Whitehorse). 

In 1984 Bowering’s book, The Sunday before Winter: New and Selected Poetry was published and later short-listed for the Governor General’s Award. In this same year she wrote scripts for and produced, with Elizabeth Gorrie of Kaleidoscope Theatre, several performance works for poetry, including a performance/reading of   PK Page’s in-progress “Brazillian Journals” and Robert Bringhurst’s “Jacob Singing.” Literary Jury duties included the Canada Council Short Term grant award.  Bowering also performed a choreographed evening of Poetry and Jazz with the musician, Larry Cohen. 

In 1985  Bowering was invited to the Canberra Poetry Festival in Australia. She also toured and read and gave talks on Canadian writing in Sidney and Melbourne, and in New Zealand in Auckland and Christchurch. In the summer of 1985 Bowering was invited to Edinburgh to work with Marilyn Imrie of BBC Scotland on a commissioned radio play about Marilyn Monroe, “Anyone Can See I Love You”. The play was broadcast (with a jazz score) in 1986 and received a nomination for the Sony Award 

In 1986 Bowering wrote poems, narrative and lyrics for the play, “Hajimari-No-Hajimari” four myths of the Pacific Rim. The play was directed by the Japanese master director, Yukio Sekyia and was toured by the Kaleidoscope Theatre Company in North America and Japan in 1986/87 

In the mid 1980’s Marilyn Bowering was asked to adjudicate the first of the Commonwealth Literature Prizes, serving first on the poetry jury and later on the jury for the photography prize. Other prize juries during this period included the CBC Literary Prize, the BC Federation of Writers Prize, the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild prize jury, a number of juries for the Government of BC Arts Scholarships and a number of juries for the Canada Council, including for the Governor General’s Award for Poetry. 

 1987 saw the publication of two of Bowering’s books, Anyone Can See I Love You and Grandfather Was A Soldier. Also in 1987, Bowering wrote the script of Laika and Folchakov, a Journey in Time and Space for CBC Radio (Directed by Don Mowat).  It received the regional nomination for Best Script (Actra Awards) and was also broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 

In 1988, Marilyn Bowering wrote a stage version of Anyone Can See I Love You. The play was produced by Bastion Theatre Company, and directed by John Cooper. 

During much of the 1980’s, Bowering was also researching for and writing, To All Appearances A Lady, a novel set in 19^th century Hong Kong, Vancouver Island, and the leper colony on D’Arcy Island. The novel, published in 1989, was a pioneering work of BC history and culture. As such, it was mentioned in Hansard in the BC Legislature.  It was short-listed for the W.H. Smith First Books Award and for the Ethel Wilson prize and was named a Notable Book of 1990 by the New York Times after it’s publication in the U.S.  To All Appearances a Lady was also published in the UK.  It remains a popular selection with BC book clubs, is on the BC secondary reading list. 

 In this same year (1989) Bowering was awarded a National Magazine Award for poetry. She also published, Calling All the World, Laika and Folchakov 1957. Her play for radio, “A Cold Departure, the Liaison of George Sand and Frederic Chopin” directed by Don Mowat, was broadcast for CBC Radio. Bowering continued to sit on Canada Council  (Arts A & Governor General’s), BC Federation of Writers, and BC Arts Council juries, to do reader’s reports for the Canada Council, and to give presentations on creativity to students and teachers at local schools; she also appeared on a poetry program for the Knowledge Network. She continued to give readings, including at the Vancouver International Festival, Malaspina College, North Park Gallery, Harbourfront, Tanner’s Books, and the Sidney Library etc. 

 At the end of 1989, Marilyn Bowering moved to Seville, Spain. 

 1990’s: 

While living in Seville, Bowering read, and gave presentations on Canadian literature at the Facultad de Filologia (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) and at the III Conferencia de las Asociacion de Estudios Canadienses  in Madrid.  In England she read at Canada House; she was invited to the International Conference on the Novel at the Edinburgh Book Festival and to read at Clare Hall, Cambridge. During this time she reviewed (at a distance!) for the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star, worked on poetry and began research towards her next novel. 

 In 1992 Bowering returned to Canada.  She was on the faculty of the Banff Centre Writing Programme, where she also gave readings. She presented a lecture on Poetry and Memory to the Dept. of Creative Writing at the University of Victoria; she began teaching at UVic in the fall of 1992 and continued in various positions within the Dept. of Creative Writing until the spring of 1998 (with the exception of spring term 1995.)  Bowering gave readings and talks, at amongst, others, Everywoman’s Books, and the Sechelt Festival. In 1993 Bowering began working with the Writers-in-Electronic Residence programme which linked writers across the country with high school students throughout Canada. She worked in this programme until 1997. 

In the spring of 1993 Bowering presented a paper to the League of Canadian Poets titled, “Syllable From Sound” later published in book form. Still in 1993, Bowering’s book of poetry, Love As It is was published. Also in 1993 Marilyn wrote the film script for “Divine Fate” an animated film by Ishu Patel, for the National Film Board. (This film won the Earth Peace International Film Festival , Heart of the Festival Award in 1994, and the Unicef Animation Award at the International Animation Festival.) 

 Bowering  read at the Vancouver International Writers’ Festival (with a score by Sal Ferreras), for the Victoria Read Society, The Rites of Spring (Vancouver), the Victoria Library, the Galiano Poetry Festival (reading and workshop), Malaspina College,  and in a benefit reading for Clayoquot Sound. Anthology publications included the Dominion of Love (ed Tom Wayman), The Bedford Introduction to Literature;  Inside the Poem (ed Bill New),Skelton at 60, and 50 poems for Pat Lane, 

In 1994 Hawthorne Books published Bowering’s “Interior Castle”.  Bowering also won the Malahat Review Long Poem prize. 

Jury duties during this period included the City of Regina Literary Award, the Bronwen Wallace award, the MotherTongue Press Award, the Pat Lowther Poetry Award and the Power Poetry award, and for BC Cultural Services. In this same period Bowering was a Writers’ Union of Canada Rep liaising with the BC Dept. of Education on curriculum issues. She was instrumental in the “Swiftsure Internet” project, the first attempt to put large numbers of Canadian writers and other artists on the Internet.  TWUC members were trained in internet use and in the construction of web pages; Bowering also gave the May Workshop on Creativity in Victoria. Readings included for the Rites of Spring, an Amnesty International Benefit , for  Hawthorne Books, and for the Mayne Island Festival.     

1995 

In January 1995 MB took up the position of writer in residence at Memorial University, Newfoundland.  Here she was writer-liaison with the community, writers groups and the university. As well as conducting a writing workshop and visiting classes, she gave two University readings (with the musician and folklorist Peter Narvaez), read at “The Grad House”, and for the Erotic Poetry event, produced an anthology of her students’ work, read at and talked with many writers’ groups, gave radio talks, judged a local CBC literary contest, and ‘mentored’ (reading manuscripts, editing etc.)  a number of writers who have gone on to publish nationally She continued to work for WIER during this period, as well as to write a draft of her next novel, Visible Worlds, and to undertake research for a future novel. 

Back in BC, Bowering continued with The Swiftsure project, read at the Victoria International Literary Festival and at a benefit for Kaleidoscope Theatre, and was on the Board of Press Porcepic. In September she returned to teaching at the University of Victoria and continued teaching for WIER. She also sat on the Canada Council Governor General’s awards jury, gave benefit readings for the Cancer Society and the Read society, and read at GlenLyon Norfok school, and at Pelican’s in Sidney 

 1996 

In 1996 a new book of poems, Autobiography was published.  This book received the Pat Lowther Award and was nominated for the Governor General’s Award for poetry and for the Dorothy Livesay prize. In this year, Bowering’s play, “Temple of the Stars”, directed by Elizabeth Gorrie, was produced by Kaleidoscope Theatre. In addition MB participated in a fund-raising event for the Writers’ Development Trust, gave readings for the League of Canadian Poets Benefit, for the Hornby Island Festival,  the Belfrey Theatre (UVic anniversary), Visions and Visionaries (Kikomora Ventures),the  Shawnigan Lake Festival (reading and talk), the Saltwater Festival, at the Royal City Poetry Centre, Word on the Street, Victoria High School (talk and reading), at the 25^th anniversary Press Porcepic reading, at Chez Piggy (Kingston), Gallery 101 (Ottawa), the U of T Bookstore Readings, and contributed to the Malahat Review Special Edition on PK Page (written piece and reading). 

 1997 

This year saw the publication of Bowering’s novel, Visible Worlds.  It won the Ethel Wilson Prize, was nominated for the Dublin IMPAC award and was short-listed for the Orange Prize. (And later published in the UK, USA, Greece, Finland and Germany.) 

 Some of the readings that year were  at the Dorothy Livesay Memorial, the Royal City Poetry Centre, for the BC Book Prizes, the Saltwater Festival (II),  and at Duthies, Steamworks,  U. of Toronto, Western U., Waterloo, and Open Space, 

 1998 

In 1998 Marilyn was Writer in Residence at St. Mary’s University, Halifax; in addition to readings and class visits at the University she gave a workshop for the Nova Scotia Writers’ Federation and also read at Acadia U. and the U. of P.E.I. She gave a speech to the Vancouver Island Teachers Association on literacy and read in the Mocambo Poetry Series, for the Rites of Spring (literacy reading), at Edward Milne Secondary School (talk and reading) and for the League of Canadian Poets as a Pat Lowther Award winner. She gave a talk to Sooke Rotary about the writing life and also a Women and Fiction talk and reading for Co-Op radio New Zealand. 

Bowering conducted week long writing workshops for the Victoria School of Writing and for the B.C. Festival of the Arts (Prince George). She gave readings at the Shawnigan Lake Writers’ Festival (II), and in San Francisco, Portland and Seattle. In the UK she read in Waterstones (London), in Canada House (London) and Manchester. Back in BC she gave a Vancouver reading for the Literary Press Group, Word on the Street, at Bolen Books, for Victoria High School (presentation and reading to class), at Malaspina University College, for Night of the Novelists (Salt Spring Island), the Vancouver Public Library, the Richmond Public Library and at Isadoras, Granville Island. Returning to the USA she read at Clackamus College, Oregon City. 

 1999 

This year saw the publication of Human Bodies: New and Collected Poems 1987-1999, a gathering of Marilyn Bowering’s major poetry. She also finished teaching at UVic in the spring and took up a new position in the Dept. of Creative Writing at Malaspina University College (now Vancouver Island University) where she continues to teach to the present. She gave readings for the Burnaby Public Library, Duthies, Milestones in North Vancouver; also for the Esquimalt Library, the Nellie McLung Library, at the U. of Toronto, Artbar (Toronto), Harbourfront (Toronto), Cafe Chez Piggy (Kingston) and various venues in  Ottawa and Montreal. 

Marilyn was short-listed for the World-Wide Orange Prize (for Visible Worlds) and gave readings and talks at the Haye-on-Wye Literary Festival, (reading and panel); the New British Library (reading and panel, chaired by Andrew Motion); and appeared at an event at the Royal Festival Hall.  In the summer she gave a two week workshop, that also encompassed talks and readings for “Fishtrap”  in Wallowa Oregon. In the early Fall she travelled to New Zealand for the International Women’s Book Festival and gave readings and spoke on panels in five cities: Christchurch, Dunedin, Mosgiel, Wellington, Gisborne and Auckland. 

 2000

Anthology publications this year included work in Westcoast Stories (ed. Keith Harrison); Line by Line (ed. Heather Spears); A Long Life of Making (ed. Rhea Tregebov); and Poets Present Poets (ed. Evan Jones.) A selection of MB’s poetry was translated into Spanish in the periodical Movobil….; other periodical publications were in The Canadian Forum, Exile Magazine and in the Times Colonist Newspaper to which MB contributed a column on Project Literacy. Also in aid of Literacy Marilyn gave a benefit reading for the Read Society. Some of her other readings took place at the Sidney Library, the Oak Bay library, the Emily Carr Library, St. Michael’s University School, Victoria High School and at the Global Connections Café.   She was a presenter at the tribute to PK Page at the Vancouver International Festival and a guest lecturer in History at Malaspina University College and in International Studies at UNBC.   At Douglas College Marilyn engaged in readings, class visits and talks over the period of a week; and also was a presenter at The Poet as Fiction Writer;.  Marilyn also presented three new poets (introductions, biographies, editing) in the anthology, Breaking the Surface: Fifteen New Poets (Sono Nis Press.) The work of one of these poets, Danielle Lagah, was introduced by Marilyn on the CBC programme, Out Front. Other CBC work included presentations on New Poetry (Moure, Thiesen, Mooto, Redhill, Baron, Elliot Clarke (Eleanor Wachtel)) books and Art and Ideology (Ian Browne).  Her paper, Syllable from Sound’ was published in Poets on Women and Language, Reinventing Memory (Broken Jaw Press.)   As always, she undertook other community work that involved the mentoring of young poets.

2001
By this time, MB was at work on her novel, Cat’s Pilgrimage. Nevertheless she was able to once again participate in a CBC panel on poetry , to give a presentation at the British Columbia Librarians Association Conference, to write a story for the CBC’s Festival of Fiction, to read at Mocambo and the James Bay Inn, to participate in the Sechelt Literary Festival, and to give a benefit reading, Words for Afghanistan, broadcast by the CBC, from the Belfry Theatre. She also made a presentation to the Joint Senior English Project for  BC High Schools ‘The writer as link to literature and society in the classroom” (with Brian Toohig: a report on a three year project involving the use of MB’s novel To All Appearances A Lady,

2002
In 2002 Marilyn participated in a number of literary memorial and celebratory events. She read work written for, and discussed, the poet, Charles Lillard in Vancouver,  read work by, and discussed, the poet Robin Skelton at a posthumous launch of his collection formal verse collection, The Shapes of Our Singing,  and read work written for, and discussed, the poet PK Page at Extraordinary Presence, a conference on PK Page at Trent University (Peterborough). Festival readings included the Women and Words ‘Poetry Matters’ Festival at Simon Fraser University,  and several readings and presentations for Word on the Street (Vancouver) and for the Sidney Christmas writers’ Festival (which also included a talk on Robin Skelton) In addition she gave a reading and talk to St. Michael’s University School (Greg Marchand) and undertook a week long reading tour for the Saskatchewan Writers Guild (in Regina, Saskatoon and Estevan).  MB’s novel, Visible Worlds, was optioned for film by Rhombas Media; and Gavin Bryars set prose from Bowering’s novel, To All Appearances a Lady, as a song, “I have heard it said a spirit enters”, sung by Holly Cole, performed in concert and recorded by CBC recordings.
This year, too, with a small group of others, Marilyn was an inaugural member of the Victoria Book Award Development Committee (which became the Butler Prize).

 2003
In the spring of this year, Marilyn published a new book of poems, The Alchemy of Happiness (Press Porcepic). At the Manulife Literary Festival, MB interviewed the Australian poet, Judith Rodriguez and also took part in a panel on writing historical fiction. She lectured to the Long Form writing class at the University of Victoria, to a history class studying one of her novels at Malaspina University-College and to another university class studying her story, “North America, South America”. As part of an ongoing relationship with the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, Bowering participated in a telephone lecture class with students from across the Middle East who were studying her work (Prof. Larry Wood). She also presented a talk, ‘Creativity in a Time of Chaos’ for the Victoria School of Writing. Some of her readings took place at Vancouver City College, the Vancouver Public Library, the North Vancouver Library, for the North Shore Writers’ Festival, at Word on the Street (Vancouver)and at the James Bay Inn (Victoria).  Other readings were for the Victoria Public Library and Bolen Books, at the Art Gallery in Vernon, and in Ontario at the Toronto Art Bar, the College of the Redeemer in Ancaster and for the Hamilton Poetry Centre. Bowering also adjudicated City of Regina Literary Award.

 2004
Near the beginning of 2004, Marilyn Bowering’s  third novel, Cat’s Pilgrimage was published, as was Debjuos et Poemas (poems translated into Spanish) in conjunction with an  exhibition of the work of Mercedes Carbonell in Seville. Later in the year, Cat’s Pilgrimage was translated and published in German, and Marilyn’s book of poems, The Alchemy of Happiness, was short-listed for the Dorothy Livesay Prize. New work and/or commentary appeared in Focus on Women, Blancomovil #91, Exile Magazine, Quills Poetry magazine, the Malahat Review and in the Pooka Press Poetry Postcards series. Bowering read and was a panelist for the Victoria Literary Festival, The Vancouver Poetry Festival, The Sidney Christmas Festival and the West Coast Poetry Festival.
She gave talks/lectures for the Canadian Library Association, to various book clubs, and once more to students at the University of Sharja (UAE).  Public readings, this year, included events for Bolen’s Books, The Victoria Public Library, the Reading for Peace Festival, the Love and Loss Raw Exchange Panel, Women in Print, Harbourfront (Toronto)and at the Victoria Art Gallery.  Bowering also read at other venues in Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo, Sechelt, Vernon, Kamloops, Toronto (Art Bar), and Edmonton. Her community work included judging the Rona Murray Award. Research work took her to Yuquot (Nootka) and San Blas.

(To be continued….)

Marilyn Bowering’s literary papers are in the National Library of Canada and also in Special Collections, the University of Victoria

http://www.poets.ca/linktext/agm/bowering_essay.pdf

Book length non-fiction–A commonplace of Hills- remains as work-
in-progress at the moment. It’s astonishing how much time it can
take to finish a novel, a libretto and a series of poems….so I’ll post
an inspirational photo of my path-finding friend, Alan Danesh.

Alan Danesh on Mt MacDonald, as Alpine Guide

“Afterword”  by Marilyn Bowering to Black Robe by Brian Moore,  McClelland & Stewart,
2011.  ISBN: 978-0-7710-9426-2 (0-7710-9426-4)

“Famous Writers” In Writing Life, edited by Constance Rooke
http://www.mcclelland.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780771076251

“Introduction to The Last of the Crazy People by Timothy Findley”
http://www.amazon.ca/Modern-Classics-Last-Crazy-People/
dp/0143055054/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1291249553&sr=1-7