One man’s dream is about to be realized this week with the start of the inaugural Poetry’zOwn Weekend Festival this coming Friday in Cobourg. The idea came to Cobourg resident, poet, and human dynamo, James Pickersgill, while out for an early morning run almost one year ago. "I talked the idea over with my wife, Jane – who I can always rely on to tell me the truth and keep me down ro Earth. We kept it to ourselves as we discussed all the ramifications. Then I asked one or two of the founding members of the Cobourg Poetry Workshop if they thought the idea of a festival was realistic and got a positive response and members volunteered to help. That told me it could succeed."

So much so that Cobourg council has declared this weekend officially Poetry Weekend in Cobourg, co-inciding with Poetry Month across Canada. " Planning the festival has become something of an ‘out of body’ experience for me. It’s growing into something that makes other people feel excited, get involved, bring wonderful ideas to it, making it complete and full of potential, far more than I thought I could make it." says Pickersgill, a man who is used to living life on the edge. Although a resident of Cobourg for the past 23 years, he has lived and worked across Canada and Europe, living in 29 different houses in the first 34 years of his life. "When I was 17 years old I read a quote from Mark Twain that said, paraphrasing, if schooling is getting in the way of your education, then quit school. Which I did, heading out to broaden my horizons." He is now, a computer-whiz, providing technical support for customers of the largest Internet service provider in the United States.

How has all this impacted his poetry? "I wrote my first poem in Grade 9. In the next 4 years I wrote 300 more. It became part of my life. I think, aiding being a good poet, is simply recording what you have lived; the important part is not the recording, but the living. I’ve lived." Over the years he has had 125 poems published in Canadian literary journals as well as a book of poems. As for the festival, which officially starts this Friday at 6.30pm with an opening reception at Meet At 66 King Street East, and continues through until late Sunday afternoon when the dream will have been finally realized, Pickersgill says, "If it was someone else putting on the POW! Festival, I’d be the first person to buy a weekend pass. I’d be there for every event. What I’m looking forward to is coming away from it at the end and being able to say, ‘That was totally awesome.’ "

As a lead-in to the festival the Cobourg Poetry Workshop will be holding its regular free monthly readings this Thursday evening, starting at 7.00pm, also at Meet At 66 King Street East, with guest poets Ed Carson and Roz Bound and CPW poet Grahame Woods.