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A Common Wealth of Poetry The newsletter of The Poetry Society of Virginia Apr. 2007 www.poetrysocietyofvirginia.org email address: PoetryInVA@aol.com From our President Happy National Poetry Month! Of course, everyone is looking forward eagerly to this month’s meeting, with its announcements of the winners of our Annual Contest. With record participation, we have good reason to be proud of its prestige. But we have even better reason to thank and congratulate those who have made it happen. Norma and Ralph Richardson, Helen Eano, Guy Terrell and Kathy Hartsock have been working all year; Judi Bragg joined the committee later, and has been enthusiastically learning and ready to help in any way possible. Joanne Kennedy, Flora Adams, and Peg Crews have done an outstanding job with the student contest, picking up a 25% increase in participation from students. Our judges in both competitions, many not even members, have taken on a difficult job, sometimes involving over 100 entries, for only token remuneration. This dedication to perpetuation of our art is awe-inspiring and encouraging. Thank you so much, all of you, for everything you have done, and continue to do. Because of your efforts, someone decides to find in the beauty of language some way to reach out to the world. Someone decides to read a poem, then another, and forms a bond with a stranger. Someone discovers that he or she is not the only person in the world who responds in a certain way to a certain experience, and begins to understand other people a little better. Someone recognizes the place of the human voice, the spoken word, to the music of the universe. You have taken your place among the champions of poetry. Congratulations to the winners of prizes and honorable mentions. You have succeeded in your efforts to touch, to amuse, to explain, commemorate and entertain. You have made something extraordinary, which has attained recognition. Congratulations to all those who entered any category of the contest. Based on the one category in which I saw all the entries, most of you have produced something worthwhile, which will undoubtedly receive accolades at some time in the future. And you did it all by playing, with the toys we poets like best! During this Poetry Month, step out and share, if you can, this very special joy. Go to an open reading; carry poems around and hand them to people; speak to a group about poets and poetry. Find your own way to celebrate, and keep playing! Best wishes, Patsy Anne Bickerstaff Short Notes Meeting Dates in the future May 18-20, 2007, Festival in Williamsburg Sept. 15, 2007 Oct. 20, 2007 Why don’t you send in an entry for our “Poems That Mattered “ series? EMAIL delivery of your newsletter More than sixty have signed up for email only delivery of the newsletter. This saves us more than $100 monthly, money that can go to projects such as our poetry in the schools programs. Look over the newsletter on the web site and in the pdf attachment you have received. Think. Sign up! News About Members Member Linda Amos of York, PA, had her poem Sojourners of the Heart published in York County 50 Plus Senior News. Linda Dini Jenkins of Midlothian has two poems, "I Want" and "His Clear Black Eye," in the current issue of the journal Peregrine (Volume XXIV) from Amherst Writers & Artists Press of Amherst, Massachusetts. _______________________________ Meet Virginia’s Poets Monthly columns for Virginia’s newspapers. #7 in the series Joseph Awad was born in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania and grew up in Washington, DC; he majored in English literature at Georgetown University. His career in public relations brought him to Richmond where he became a vice president of Reynolds Metals Company. He served as national President of the Public Relations Society of America and was inducted into the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame. He has published four books of poetry and has served as Poet Laureate of Virginia. Of an Evening This evening on our street Is quietly expectant. The girl in the lit window across the way Is knitting. Rows of screen doors seem to hum Of summer heat. The trees are still. They stay, As in a painting by Magritte. The mood is Sunday evening Of a Fourth of July weekend, When half the neighborhood is at the shore And sporadic squibs and firecrackers Quicken the expectancy. Tonight There will be no rockets, No showering blooms of blue and orange Shuddering the sky with gasps of light. I stand, hands in pockets, Looking out our front door, Thinking of all the quietly expectant evenings History will ignore. #8 in the series Patsy Anne Bickerstaff, of Richmond, is president of The Poetry Society of Virginia. She has published work in over 100 periodicals, and has conducted readings and workshops in various Virginia locations. Her second book of poetry is scheduled for publication in the near future. Perpetuities Still horses graze on brown, snow-dusted hills Below eternal pines, infinite sky; A river, born in ageless caverns, spills Down rocks of time, to seas that never dry. Red mountains, crowned with eagles, stand like kings Or priests, guarding a desert's mysteries. A lark, a nightingale, a sparrow, sings The same song through uncounted centuries. Children in rubble, sunlight in tear-prisms, Flowers on graves, new mosses from charred earth Have more to say of God than catechisms. Mourning is morning; death makes way for birth. Life welds a chain no rust nor sword will sever; Only destruction cannot last forever. ________________________________________________ Poems by Members Defeat, by Linda Amos of York, PA As she felt her legs give way As she slipped slowly down knee less As her back rasped against the tree’s rough bark As she went plop, exhausted, weary against its wide foot As she came to a full understanding of the word’s true meaning As she yielded to grief she had contained behind a façade all day. NOW! Exploring Form and Narrative The West Chester University of Pennsylvania announces its 13th Annual Poetry Conference. Information is on their web site www.wcupa.edu/poetryconference or by writing them at West Chester University Poetry Conference Poetry House West Chester University West Chester PA 19383-2124-904 or email at poetry@wcupa.edu or telephone 610-436-3235 ________________________________________________ Poem That Mattered, by Patsy Anne Bickerstaff A “commuter marriage” is an oddity of the present generation. Spouses are separated by work, and fly or drive back to each other at the end of a week, a month, or an assignment, and an immense amount of love is required for the marriage to survive. Beginning in 1997, I found myself in this situation, spending many hours traveling between Northern Virginia, then Richmond, to be with my beloved Bill on weekends. I learned to appreciate the telephone, which let us hear each other’s voices nightly, but missed the days we had sat at our partners’ desk, passing manuscripts back and forth for critiquing. He did, too, and every night, he would say gently, “I miss you.” On September 29, 2002, he called a second time, late at night, to ask about some problem with his computer. I told him which button to press, and we talked for a while before he was ready to hang up. I said, “Good night, God bless you, I love you,” and he answered, “I love you.” It was the last thing I ever heard him say. The next morning, he suffered a sudden, fatal heart attack. Returning from his funeral to our home, I lifted a stack of papers on his side of the desk. Wilson Seay was a brilliant writer, and I didn’t want to lose anything he might have had in progress. One paper fell from the stack, into my other hand, and I knew on reading it, it was the piece he had been working on when he called me: the last thing he ever wrote. I MISS YOU AT SUNSET WRAPPED IN PALE FIRE AND SINKING BEYOND THE OLD APPALACHIAN PEAKS HOLDING UP THE HEAVENS GOD’S ARCHITECT ON DISPLAY I MISS YOU ON MOUNTAIN ROADS CROSSING ELEVATIONS IN LEAF COLORS A TURKEY ON ITS WAY BELOW LEAVING THE ROAD SURFACE WHILE IT CLUCKS ITS CHICKS TO A SAFE NIGHT’S REST I MISS YOU IN SNOW, A WHITE ROAD AND FLAKES IN DIAMOND SHAPES PLAY ON THE WINDSHIELD I MISS YOU IN SONG, COUNTRY-BORN WORDS TAGGING HEARTS OF THEY WHO CALL THE MOUNTAINS HOME I MISS YOU AT DINNER THIRTY-SIX THOUSAND FEET HIGH WATCHING YOU WATCH SAILINGS OF COTTON CLOUDS AND WONDER AT THE BEAUTY OF YOUR HEART UP THERE IN GOD’S SPECIAL DOMAIN FOR LOVERS OF HIS UNLIMITED HEAVENS And always, Bill This poem is, of course, unpublished, but no poem has ever mattered more. It is the message that tells me his last thoughts of me were memories of the joyful times we had shared, and a love that lasted to his very last moments. God give you rest, my Dearest. ________________________________________________ West Virginia Poetry Society Contest Brochure Enclosed with this newsletter is a copy of the West Virginia Poetry Society contest brochure. Enter and bring some dollars home! This exchange of contest brochures (they send our brochure out) is an example of the increasing cooperation between our two Societies. ________________________________________________ Williamsburg Festival The annual festival will be held in Williamsburg May 18-20, 2007. With this newsletter will be a Schedule of Events and a brief summary of the programs. Sign-up forms will be included next month, both in the newsletter and on the website. The Friday evening banquet and open reading at Ford’s Colony Country Club will be in the same room (with all the windows) that everyone seemed to enjoy last year. Our workshops on Friday and Saturday will be in the library at Norge. Our Saturday Poetry Reading Series in Williamsburg has adopted a restaurant less that a mile from the library for our lunches. So you will notice that the schedule shows “Lunch” instead of “Box Lunch.” More detail on this will be included next month. In summary, reserve those dates and plan to spend that beautiful May weekend enjoying the season and poetry. ________________________________________________ Review of March Meeting VP Claudia Gary Annis again put on a nice meeting at the Eifel Tower Café. The open reading gave us an opportunity to hear from several new members. After an excellent lunch we were entertained by a cello player. Claudia sang some of her songs accompanied by the cellist. Patsy Anne Bickerstaff began her presentation with a segue connecting the music with the musicality of poetry. Patsy Anne read from her new book, Mrs. Noah’s Journal, a retelling and an expansion of the Bible story told from a wife’s point of view. Provocative and thoughtful! ________________________________________________ Book Review by Stu Nottingham I am indebted to Jim McNally for giving me a copy of William Stafford’s You Must Revise Your Life. This is one of the books in the series Poets on Poetry, published by the University of Michigan press. In the first section of the book Stafford tells us his life as a writer comes to him “as two parts, like two rivers that blend. One part is easy to tell: the times, the places, events, people. The other part is mysterious; it is my thoughts, the flow of inner life, the reveries and impulses that never get known, perhaps even to me.” The rest of this twenty page section is an autobiography from which I feel I know Stafford better and can better appreciate his poetry. Following sections of the book include a selection of poems on writing, several interviews he has given, and several essays on teaching and writing and performing. His views on teaching are different from many teachers. He does not approve or disapprove the work of the students. He reacts and discusses. Unless forced to by the Dean he does not give grades. This is a good book. Get it and read it. I imagine other books in the series are good too. ________________________________________________ Workshop Etiquette by Stuart Nottingham, reprinted from the Sept. 2001 newsletter When we participate in peer review critique workshops, we need a common understanding of how we are going to react to one another’s poems. I propose the following as a starting point of discussions for any beginning group to come up with a beginning understanding of how their group will work. As the group gains experience with one another, some of the procedures may change. There is a difference between email critique groups and groups that meet face to face. Email groups have several advantages. Group members can be from places far apart, giving the group geographic diversity. They can include the ill and others who cannot travel. There is time for mature reflection before responding, and lengthy uninterrupted responses are possible. When the group meets face to face, tone of voice, pauses, and body language are a part of a group member’s reaction. None of this is possible in an email group. Therefore e-mail reactions should be carefully crafted to deliver the intended message. Since this is sometimes difficult for some of us, recipients of our comment should assume our good intentions. It is rare when one of us intentionally wants to hurt or offend another. A poorly managed face to face group often degenerates into discussions of non relevant issues. This is not a problem with email groups. Of course, some freedom of expression needs to be present in groups that meet together, but the group leader needs to keep the group focused. The tone and content of the critique offered in the two types of peer review group is pretty much the same. The first rule here is to be generous of spirit. Show respect for the efforts of the poet. Don’t dump on the poet. Remember that we are all brothers and sisters in the poetry community. Usually it is best to start your comment with something positive about the poem. Poems may tell a good story, &/or faithfully follow a form, &/or have good sound quality, &/or have good imagery. Comment on which of these aspects is especially strong in the poem, and which could be improved to make a better poem. Tell how the poem affects you. Look at the poem’s internal integrity. Say what you think the poet is trying to accomplish. Remember the poet: -has started with an experience (real or imagined), -has internalized an image of that experience (developing a mental image, including the impact of the experience and the emotional response to the experience, accepting a message from the experience), -and has written a poem to share that image (using poetry as the vehicle of sharing, using a voice in the poem that fits the image.) -you as a critical reader/listener should be able to find access to the poet’s image and experience vicariously what the poet experienced. When your critical reaction gets to the micro level (word choice, line breaks, rhyme, meter and other poetry tools), remember you are only a consultant to the poet. Do not try to take over the poem as your own. State your advice and the reasons for it but do not advocate too strongly. Do not argue. It is not your poem. Comments on spelling and grammar should be brief and direct. Let the poet check on their validity later. Here are some suggestions for the poet, especially useful in face to face workshops: -do not immediately react to reviewer’s comments. Listen and take notes. -do not explain, defend or react to questions until the review is finished. Let the poem stand (or fall!) on its own. -when all comments are in, you may ask questions or react to the criticism. -thank the group for their help. ________________________________ Robert Pinsky writes in the March 25, 2007, Poet’s Choice, Book World of the Washington Post: In art, as in life, we desire something between the familiar and the unfamiliar. If the person or party, poem or movie is completely predictable, it is repellent, boring. At the other extreme, if there’s absolutely nothing recognizable, that too is repellent, boring in another way. We want that tension or uncertainty or balance between the familiar and the unfamiliar. Hope to see you in Richmond and Williamsburg. Stu |
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