It’s National Poetry Month and Skagway is home to artists and poets

By Gretchen Wehmhoff

April is National Poetry Month and Skagway is the place to find poets. 

Jeff Brady has been writing poetry for decades, but when he and his wife, Dorothy, moved out to their home in Dyea, he found more inspiration to write creatively.

Brady published The Skagway News for 37 years, so his experience in Southeast Alaska is deep.

Brady had long saved ideas for poems, writing them quickly on pieces of paper and  tucking them away until he had the time to work them into works of word art.

“Some of those ideas are 30-years-old,” Brady said.

 Some notations were  from his years in North Carolina, but most are from his Alaskan life. “I usually write them down in longhand,” Brady said.  It helps him remember it better, although he says the lines can appear to be a “mish mash” until he starts to edit. 

“At that point, when I start to change words and lines, you almost have to work on it on a computer.”

While Brady has published his poetry in multiple venues, the most recent poems published in journals highlight his personal relationship with nature and life. He mentioned that while attending a celebration of life, he jotted down multiple ideas recalling memories of his friend.

Brady’s poem “The River of Taking” is in the most recent issue of Cirque – a literary journal of the North Pacific Rim. Using local Tlingit language to describe a Láx’ (heron) landing at the mouth of the Deiyáa (Taiya River), Brady illustrates the character and chronicle of the river’s  journey from glacial melt through centuries of natural and human encounters.

He also has two pieces in the latest Tidal Tales.

Brady is a founding member of the North Words Writing Symposium hosted in Skagway and Dyea every year.

This year’s symposium, May 29 – June 1,  has faculty from Alaska and beyond. Registration for the annual event and more information is available at https://nwwriterss.com/.

Brady will join other faculty members for a Faculty Reading event at Eagles Hall from 7 – 8:30 p.m. on May 30. The readings are open to the public.  

Another faculty member reading that night will be Kent Fielding.

Fielding, a well-loved high school English teacher in Skagway, writes poetry inspired by a combination of his travel experiences, his chance meetings with people enhanced by dream events. 

“I used to keep a dream journal,” said Fielding. 

Fielding recently had three poems published in Night Owl Narrative (a Cajun Mutt rag.)

One of his poems, “Nightmare,” occurs on a train. It involves vodka, a train through Siberia (reflective of a train ride he took from Irkutsk, Russia) and characters pensively examining their life. The concept came about when Fielding was in Siberia.

He met a family in Irkutsk where three generations lived together. The grandfather was a war hero who had fought in the Battle of Moscow during WWII. The older man shared a story with Fielding where as a soldier, he had been wounded and woke up in an underground bunker used as a makeshift hospital. He told Fielding that he was offered the choice of food or a cigarette.

He took the cigarette. Fielding understood from the story that when a person is surrounded by death or other overwhelming trauma, that the addiction to find relief or distraction was met by the nicotine or alcohol.

Night Owl is a journal that introduces attending poets and influencers for the next Insomniacathon in Louisville, Kentucky.

The title of the event, scheduled for June 22-28 this summer, is true to its form.  The performance art and music celebration will last 56 straight hours – non stop. This year will feature between 50 – 100 writers and poets as well as over 30 bands and musicians.

Fielding helped found the first Insomnicacathon in November 1992. While he has been involved with Insomniacathon since the beginning, this year he is in charge. 

Although staying awake the enitre time has become more difficult with age. 

“In those days I could stay up for hours on end,” he said.

 The event has grown and been hosted in various venues around the country.  The website is https://stphilipcampus.org/insomniacathon-2024/