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www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday March 24, 2007 - 3 Inner muse drives poet By Krissie Rutherford OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF E LIESA KORTMANN / OAKVILLE BEAVER POETRY IN THE COMMUNITY: Elka Enola, an active member of the poetry community, is coordinator of a group of volunteers who have created a jam-packed schedule of events for April, which is poetry month. lka Ruth Enola can't really explain to others what drives her. She grew up in a one bedroom flat in Montreal with her parents, brother, sister, grandfather and aunt, a family and home she describes as "completely illiterate and without culture. Not a book, not a record." "My father was the only one who could read," Enola said, while sitting in her Oakville home. "I remember we would gather around and he would read us the paper sometimes." In fact, Enola, now 65, says she was discouraged from educating herself. "My family didn't think I should study, because then you didn't get married. My father used to say, `If you study, you'll be too smart.'" Describing her family as "very, very poor" and living off the income of her father's upholstery business, Enola said the only clothing she had was her school uniform and a box of hand-medowns she'd receive every year. "I decided as soon as I had any money, I was going to the department store and I was going to buy clothes," she said. "That's what I wanted. Beautiful blouses." Instead, the teenaged Enola used her first pay cheque to buy a set of encyclopedias. Her next big purchase was a portable record player and two classical records. "We think we know what we want ­ I thought I wanted clothes," she said, "but I didn't." That was the first demonstration of a thirst for knowledge and culture that has been a defining part of Enola's life, though she says, "I don't know where it comes from." As a teenager she worked during the day to pay her tuition at Sir George Williams University in Montreal, where she earned a degree in English with minors in economics, philosophy and history. A retired teacher, Enola has traveled to more than 80 countries ­ many trips taken with husband of 30 years, second World War veteran Ernie Enola. A writer, poet, artist and photographer, she has also helped lay the foundation for many of Oakville's artistic groups. "When we first moved here in 2000, one of the first things we did was join the arts council," Enola said of herself and Ernie. At the time, only one poetry group existed in town: The Inkwell. It didn't take her long to change that. "I wanted to get something else happening, because there are so many ways of dealing with poetry, and the Inkwell is just one of those ways." She approached the Oakville Arts Council and through CJ Martin, was able to contact other like-minded poetry lovers. "That's when we started the Poetry Café. It was an outreach, a way to bring in significant writers to read, and also to showcase local writers," said Enola. She's also now coordinator of Visual Word, helped found the Oakville branch of the Ontario Poetry Society and started up The Pelican, a small group that meets at her home every other Monday. "I wanted a very tough, serious critiquing group, one that wouldn't say `that's nice' to every poem," she said, "one that would say, `that's a piece of crap." For the past year, Enola has been coordinating Poetry Oakville 2007 to celebrate April, which is officially poetry month. She and a group of volunteers have created a jam-packed schedule, with various poetic events planned for almost every day in April. Again, she can't explain why she's so devoted to spreading her love of poetry. "I've always been into poetry. In See Poetry page 4 · Wood & Vinyl Shutters, Supplied & Installed · High Quality at Affordable Prices · Customer Satisfaction Guaranteed · Serving Oakville with Shop at Home Service Authorized Vinylbilt Dealer www.shuttersetc.ca Shop at Home Service FREE