You’ve likely saved a couple birthday cards over the years, especially ones given to your children for milestone birthdays.
One local dad has taken that a step further. When his daughter turned two years old he wrote her a poem. It was a Dr. Seuss-type piece with fun rhymes and short lines.
“How can you be two? When just yesterday you were new?”
Then, as his only child grew, he kept writing poems, without planning to.
David Conning is the poet, and his muse is his only child Laura.
When she turned 25, he discovered her mother had saved all the poems. So they made a book and David used his skills in graphic design and art to paint illustrations for each poem reflecting each year of his daughter’s life.
“We never intended to do this, it was for family that we put this together,” said David. “When we got to 25, it was the chronicle of her life in these 25 poems. It was different than looking back and writing about a life, because these were written over 25 years.”
The poems change in format and content depending on what was going on in Laura’s life at the time. As she grew older, the poems grew more sophisticated.
For her fifth birthday, David wrote a poem called the Land of Five, which is a fantasy world where a fairy tale occurs.
For Laura’s 17th birthday, David wrote a poem called Chinatown where he goes to a restaurant and Elvis Presley walks in to sing a new song, written by Laura Conning.
Laura was developing a passion for music, and would eventually attend university to study music and songwriting.
In Chinatown, there’s a line that reads: It was Karaoke night at Lee Ho Fook’s, and Elvis just walked in. That line became the title of the book of poems.
“There are aspects of that title that sort of relate to the whole book,” said David. “It’s kind of funny and it references popular music [which Laura was going to study in University].”
“It’s like in songwriting, sometimes you come up with a line and you build the whole thing around it.”
The poem marking her 19th birthday slightly resembles the length and rhyme of the first poem for her second birthday, but it’s sadder as a father says goodbye and a daughter moves away to university.
Laura loves the book and not just because the poems are about her. She said they are universal.
“It’s neat to look at it as though it’s someone’s coming-of-age story,” she said. “It’s pretty special. It went from these special birthday poems that I got to this little book and it’s a universal message for everyone.”
The book of poetry will be featured in this year’s Blue Mountain Foundation for the Arts Storytelling Festival with an event featuring David reading his poems and Laura performing music in her band Honeymoon Phase, which includes herself on guitar and vocals and her boyfriend Nelson Beattie on saxophone. They are also getting a bass player for the event.
In addition to poetry, Laura grew up with music, playing guitars and singing around a bonfire, so the event is aptly named 25 Years: A Young Life in Poetry and Music.
The event takes place Oct. 13 at 8 p.m. at the Simcoe Street Theatre. For more information on Storytelling Festival events or to buy tickets, click here. It Was Karaoke Night at Lee Ho Fooks and Elvis Just Walked In can be purchased at Clerkson's Home Store downtown Collingwood.