Wednesday 20 April 2022

Lingo Advanced Communication's Meeting April 19, 2022 - National Poetry Month


Did you think sitting around discussing poetry may be boring? Wrong! Lingo  Executive had a great meeting last night, but we did miss our other members and guests. We heard these words that described the evening: family, team, fun, prepared, and of course “poetic,” the word of the day, per Cherry C, grammarian.

I led off the poetic meeting by introducing myself as Sgt at Arms in limerick style (“finicky” rhymes with Baraniecki!) and the TM for the evening Eileen, the square dancing Queen.  Eileen S had given us a heads up a few days earlier asking us to come ready with our favourite poem, which was mentioned either during introductions or Tabletopics. 

Always thinking food, we had a “PIE” meeting: prepared speeches, impromptu speaking (of sorts), and evaluations.


Xiao gave us a Dynamic Leadership L5 speech regarding “Lessons Learned” - she gave a very articulate rendition of a work project she and her team worked together on. Her speech evaluator Rhys D, said she did “a bang up job.”  Lots of description, we felt like we were there without doing the work. Well done Xiao. 

We then heard Dan Mc recite Robert W Service’s poem “The Cremation of Sam McGee.”  The poem had special meaning to him as the setting was places that he had been.  Dan used the perfect inflection in reciting the poem. Given Dan’s recent voice issues, he deserved double applause.   He also recited a second poem. He was also timer so did double duty.

Eileen was also Tabletopics Master asking us to recite our favourite poem and why we selected that poem. As TT Evaluator, I noted everyone picked a poem that reflected their personality and/or interests. Cherry’s poem, with lots of rhyming reflected on the meaning of life but she asked if it was poetry or prose. My poem, “In Flanders Field” was emotional to me as I saw it written in John McCrea’s own handwriting and in the specific setting “where the poppies blow between the crosses row on row.”  Rhys recited, without an ah or um, Alfred Lloyd Tennyson’s poem about the “Kraken.” Given Rhys’ love of sports, we were not surprised, other than where was the cat?  Xiao made us all smile and clap, as this mother of two young boys, recited a short kids poem. Eileen laced poems within her TM role but recited a Robert Frost poem about the year 2000 from a book, yes, a book. She is always aware of what is happening around us, like in the City of Edmonton.  Well done everyone. 

It was a close race for best Tabletopics but Dan and Rhys tied. Eileen closed out the evening with a play on the words from Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.” …”and now my friends the meeting is done.”  

What an enjoyable evening and we have another coming up. On Tuesday at 7 pm May 2/22, when your taxes are all done, join us for our “2022” meeting, Lingo’s fourth annual version of presenting slides, this year in recognizing the year 2022, 20 slides of 22 seconds each on your topic of choice, where pictures help tell your story. So far we have three members presenting (Dan, Edith and Cherry) and can accommodate three more presentations. Other members and guests, accept the challenge, first come first served. There are prizes. Eileen enjoyed being TM so much, she is willing to do it again. Xiao will be our Zoom master so the slides upload and run smoothly. Contact one of us to register.  So looking forward to real spring and the upcoming evening.  Submitted by Edith Baraniecki VPPR

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