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A Common Wealth of Poetry The newsletter of The Poetry Society of Virginia July 2009 www.PoetrySocietyOfVirginia.org Email address: PoetryInVA@aol.com ________________________________________________ From our President Happy Summer, Everyone, First of all, I should like to thank you, once again, and for the last time, for your continued confidence in me, as shown by your having re-elected me for another year as your president. I am truly honored and humbled. I look forward to this year with a little trepidation, but as always, with a great deal of excitement. If you attended this year’s Festival, you know that it was, as always, a delightful event, much enjoyed by all. However, the time has come to make some choices about the Festival. Ed Lull, after ten years of serving as Festival Chair, is “retiring” from that position, and we need to do a lot of searching if we intend to continue this PSV tradition. Would another region like to take on this project? Or, is anyone in the same region ready to pick up the reins, and continue the tradition in Williamsburg? Anyone who is interested in working on the Festival is encouraged to contact your Regional Vice-President right away, let us know and you will have all the guidance and help you will need. We are currently looking into a suggestion to create some sort of alliance with institutions of higher learning, beginning with William and Mary. It will be interesting to find out what kind of alliance we can form, and what it can do for us and for the colleges and universities in Virginia. We are moving forward on the choice of a poet as reader/award winner for the Ellen Anderson Reading. Thank you so much for your many excellent suggestions; we’ll be hearing soon about the final decision. I have some delightful projects for the summer: in July, I’ll be participating in teaching a summer enrichment program in creative writing to some inner-city youngsters in Richmond. In August, I have been accepted as a participant in the Bread Loaf Writers Conference in Middlebury, Vermont, and am very excited about it! I hope your summer will have just as much in the way of wonderful opportunities and surprises, and I hope to see you all at the September meeting. Best of all good wishes! Patsy Anne Bickerstaff ________________________________________________ FUTURE MEETINGS See Page 2 for information on the Poetry Society sponsored events at The Virginia Highlands Festival Southeast Region will meet Sept. 12. Please note change to second Sat’day. Deadline for newsletter: 8/23 Western Region will meet Oct. 17. Deadline for newsletter 9/25 Future meetings: Nov. 21 Deadline for newsletter 10/30 Feb. 20, 2010 ExCom Meeting March 20, 2010 Deadline for newsletter Feb. 28 April 17, 2010 Deadline for newsletter Mar. 27 ________________________________________________ Highlands Festival again has Poetry Society programs The Poetry Society of Virginia is once again sponsoring poetry events at the Virginia Highlands Festival, which occurs each year in Abingdon, Virginia, in late summer. Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda, Virginia's Poet Laureate 2006-2008, will present two workshops on Monday, July 27-- "Discover Your Inner Voice Through Nature Poetry" in the morning, and "Nature and Art-Inspired Poetry" in the afternoon. All the details of Carolyn's workshops and a large number of other Festival events from July 25 through August 9 are available at http://www.vahighlandsfestival.org. The fee for all Creative Writing Day events, including both morning and afternoon workshops, is $25.00, and a pre-registration form is available online. Or you can register at the door. Originating as a regional antiques mart, the Virginia Highlands Festival has grown into a two-week celebration usually attracting well over 100,000 people. Not only is there a very extensive antiques market. There are also art, photography, and crafts exhibits and sales and numerous concerts, play performances, lectures, one or two street dances, and other fun events. ________________________________________________ A poem by Jane Simon STRANGE BEAUTY (Amherst County, Virginia) No farm animals on the land; the farm is sad Forlorn, like an old abandoned man Whiskers of weeds fill the driveway’s chin Notice how rude nature, unruly, rules! Where are the teeth, the horns, the rooster’s crow? Fox, coyote, deer come and go and assume This farm land with peach and apple is theirs now. But the land is sad; lacks the plight of man The rule with stick in hand to lend Order. Man takes from & implements a strange beauty, cool discipline. ________________________________________________ News About Members From Michal Mahgerefteh: I'd like to share that my debut poetry collection, In My Bustan, is now published by Poetica Publishing Company and is available through www.poeticamagazine.com $13.00. Michal’s book has been reviewed by Michael Glaser, Poet Laureate of Maryland: These poems by Michal Mahgerefteh comprise a moving memoir which explores and examines the poet's connection to her family and Jewish-Moroccan heritage. Many of her poems are steeped in the traditions of family and rituals and blessings; others are rich with the imagery, scents and smells of the Middle East. Mahgerefteh weaves her poems through a forest of symbols, always seeking the light, the fig, the almond, the olive in bloom. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Larry Turner's poem “Krishna and the Cowgirls” was published in the online journal Fickle Muses on March 8, 2009, and can be found in their archives. Larry's short story “Picture of Guilt” won the “Inside the Back Cover” competition for fiction sponsored by the Virginia Writers Club and was published in their April Newsletter. ________________________________________________ Williamsburg Hosts 2009 Virginia Poetry Festival Poetry filled the air in Williamsburg for three days, May 15, 16, and 17, as the annual poetry festival brought a panoply of workshops, seminars, and readings to enthusiastic poetry-lovers. A full schedule of daytime events was supplemented with a banquet and an original theater presentation. On Friday morning, Hermine Pinson, Associate Professor of English at the College of William and Mary, opened the 10th Annual PSV Festival by inviting the participants to discover the meaning of a Blues Aesthetic. Distinctively American, the blues presents an individual's reaction to life's challenges, sustained, not by the consolation of philosophy but by personal experience, in itself, a constant improvisation. Wisdom overcomes sadness; the individual becomes the voice of the collective, yet never loses his/her own voice. Prof. Pinson read examples of the blues from her work and that of Langston Hughes, Sterling Plumpp, Laura Nyro, among others, underlying their near-tragic, near-comic lyricism. During the latter part of the session, the participants composed their own ballads, most of which were sung movingly, in the spirit of the blues. After lunch at the Candle Factory Kitchen, the attendees returned to the library for the afternoon activities. These began with a session titled "Color Me Real, Color Me Surreal". In this workshop, Marjorie Maddox, Director of Creative Writing at Lock Haven University, used the element of color to connect the real with the imaginary. She emphasized that, although poetry is sustained by truth, truth is not always synonymous with "what actually happened". Instead, poets might use surreal juxtapositions to create a more effective poem. In a series of exercises, the participants wrote poetry that gave sensory reality to various colors; they also used unpredictable connections between verbs and themes, yielding such examples as "sprouting art" and "dancing history". The readings that followed the exercises showed how "feeling outside the box" awakens the creative minds of poets. Tim Lewis was the Featured Poet on Friday afternoon. An Englishman (and a Virginian by adoption), Lewis read from his most recent book The Virginiad. He also spoke of its composition and eventual publication, and he gave some serious advice on being more proactive in the dissemination of one's work, a consequence of one's commitment to it. The Virginiad, a rich, character-driven collection of poems, narrates the events of Virginia history from the perspective of its common citizens: an indentured servant, a slave, a washerwoman, to name a few. The various cadences and rhyme schemes of Tim Lewis's work reflect the complexity of these characters and their social interactions. Most importantly, Lewis resurrects the past, allowing our forbearers to inhabit the present, through the poet's words. The final work session on Friday was led by Rei Berroa, professor of Spanish literature at George Mason University. A writer and translator, Prof. Berroa explored the challenge and the necessity of translation, noting that only through translation can world literature, present and past, reach most of its readers. He gave examples of the potential impact of translations through his own personal experience. When addressing the difficulties of this task, Prof. Berroa emphasized that one does not actually translate a poem but reconstruct it, through a parallel linguistic experience. And because sound is essential to poetry, a translator must listen to a poem repeatedly in its original, in order to capture whatever meaning the sound expresses. The attendees set out to emulate this, using some of the presenter's poems. Before leaving, Prof. Berroa offered his eloquent, almost impromptu translation of a poem by one of the participants. Friday's events closed with the traditional Banquet and Open Reading at Ford's Colony. The menu (particularly the barbecue) fulfilled the expectations of both newcomers and returnees; the poems, rich and diverse in language and experience, livened the evening through their warm and spirited deliveries. The Saturday morning events kicked off with 25 people taking part in an especially lively open reading. During the annual business meeting that followed, a proposal was voted down, after extensive discussion, to raise lifetime dues from $300 to $400. The nominating committee’s slate of candidates for next year’s offices, presented by President Patsy Ann Bickerstaff, was elected without competing nominations from the floor. The president, having announced establishment of an award in memory of Frank Craddock, solicited suggestions for the first recipient. Finally, on behalf of the Society, she presented Ed Lull a certificate of appreciation for his outstanding work in organizing and chairing the festival over the last ten years. The afternoon session, attended by 30-35 people, began with a reading by featured poet Luisa Igloria. Many poems drew on her Filipino roots; others provided sharp, amusing insights into contemporary American culture. Two workshops concluded the program: the first by Ron Smith, who spoke about the state of English-language poetry today. He discussed online and on-air anthologies and furnished a host of practical writing suggestions. Patsy Anne Bickerstaff then presented a program on writing sequential poetry using her own book, Mrs. Noah’s Journal as an example of this type of approach to writing. Some 50 evening attendees were treated to Bob Arthur’s production at the Williamsburg Library theater of “Roses So Red and Lilies So Fair,” a cornucopia of songs and poems of Virginia. Bob was joined by a troupe of singers, readers, and instrumentalists, who wove into the performance the works of two dozen Society members. On Sunday, Henry Hart, a professor at William and Mary, spoke to the Festival attendees about the latest biography he is writing, that of Seamus Heaney, the great Irish poet. Last year, Hart entertained us with the work and life of James Dickey, one of the great American writers who confused reporters, friends and readers with the distortions of truth about his own life. Unlike Dickey and many other famous poets, Heaney is a congenial person who has had a happy family life. Even though he won the Nobel Prize and is the most widely read poet in the English language, he remains accessible and down to earth, remembering his rural roots. He is replacing Shakespeare as the most widely studied poet in English classes. One of Heaney’s poems “Digging” was his manifesto: that he was not going to dig turf or potatoes like his father and grandfather in rural Northern Ireland, but he was going to be a writer: “Between my finger and my thumb/the squat pen rests./ I’ll dig with it”. He was one of nine children on a farm with no running water or indoor toilets. His poetry draws upon the beauty and sadness or rural Ireland. We heard Heaney read one of his poems on video, “The death of the Naturalist” which is about a boy who is fascinated by and attracted to the flax ponds (or “dams”) with all of their frogs and slime and other wildlife; then he is repelled by sliminess and violence of nature. Hart described the poet as torn between two worlds: the world traveler who never turned down an invitation to read his poetry and the private world of silence and simplicity where his writes poetry and finds his roots. The rainy Sunday afternoon saw a handful of members straggle into William & Mary’s Muscarelle Museum of Art for an ekphrastic experience. They were treated to the traveling Tiffany glass exhibit: A Riot of Color. In summary, the 10th annual Virginia Poetry Festival provided attendees three days of informative, creative, and entertaining poetry-related experiences, as well as the stimulating social aspects of mingling with many of Virginia’s finest poets. ________________________________________________ Frank Craddock Memorial There will be a contest category memorializing Frank Craddock. If you are interested in contributing to this memorial send a check made out to Poetry Society of Virginia to: Peg Crews, Treasurer 3112 Windy Branch Drive Toano VA 23168 ________________________________________________ Book Review by Ron Smith I cannot recall ever hearing anyone at PSV mention a book that is or should be central to PSV's identity and historical consciousness; no doubt I have filed some data away in what Homer Pound called his Forgettery. It's a book I thought I had read, but realize now--having just finished it--that I had not. It is PSV President Harry Meacham's The Caged Panther: Ezra Pound at St. Elizabeth's (1967). See page 136 for a memorable meeting of poetry lovers at The Rotunda Room at the Hotel Jefferson and pages 137 through 142 for James J. Kilpatrick's National Review article about that meeting. See also page 153 for a trip to the Williamsburg Inn and page 178 for a screening of a film in honor of EP at the Richmond Public Library on the occasion of the poet's 80th birthday. The Poetry Society is mentioned several times. It is notable that T.S. Eliot was offered $1,000 to give a reading to the PSV and that Oliver St. John Gogarty, the model for Joyce's Stately, Plump Buck Mulligan in Ulysses, gave such a reading and at Meacham's home managed to sneer at not only Joyce, but also Eliot and Pound. Here's a taste of Gogarty, quoted on page 47: “James Stephens used to say in a poem of which I remember only the last lines: He caused the policemens' feet to beat In the verse of Ezra Pound. " The PSV's history is both long and storied and has brought much honor (and some controversy) to American letters. Here's hoping for much more honor, even at the price of controversy. ________________________________________________ Book Review by Peter Lattu Nikki Giovanni tackles a familiar subject in her new book Bicycles –Love Poems. She looks at various aspects of love: its excitement; its energy; its disappointment; its tears; its frustrations; its endings. Along the way she employs some intriguing conceits to describe love. In “Migrations” the Monarch butterfly’s journey north in the face of hardship is compared to what one lover would do for another. The electric jolt of “The 3rd Rail” is like that first glance of love. In “I Am Glass” love is glass in a door opening to a new life together, easily scratched. Love is glass again in “I Am the Ocean”. It is a window opening for “a fresh breeze… to caress you.” This poetry is straightforward and offers new insights into a subject covered by many in poetry and song. Giovanni speaks “the language/ of love/ no translations/ necessary.” ________________________________________________ A good quotation The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, All that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave, Await alike the common hour: The paths of glory lead but to the grave. ________________________________________________ Executive Committee Officers 2009-2010 President Patsy Anne Bickerstaff granypatsy@yahoo.com Vice President, Central Maria Butler Mariawb@earthlink.net Vice President, Eastern Nancy Powell nancyp1734@aol.com Vice President, Northern Jack Underhill gwaposr@cox.net Vice President, So. Eastern Pete Freas mindworm@juno.com Vice President, Western Dave Partie daveword444@yahoo.com Treasurer Peg Crews pegcrews@cox.net Membership Chair Stuart Nottingham poetryinva@aol.com Contest Chair, Adult Judith Bragg musicsavy45@yahoo.com Contest Chair, Student Peg Crews pegcrews@cox.net Newsletter Editor Stuart Nottingham poetryinva@aol.com Webmaster Linda Nottingham lindanottingham@aol.com Archivist Warren Harris wmharris@naxs.com Parliamentarian Guy Terrell ggterr@infionline.net Recording Secretary Maria Butler Mariawb@earthlink.net Poetry in the Schools Beth Huddleston bethhud@shentel.net Festival Chair Ed Lull ewlull@verizon.net Nominating Com. Chair Evelyn Tower ertower@earthlink.net Exec. Dir. Joseph Awad James McNally Carolyn Foronda Beth Huddleston Shirley Sellers Ed Lull Jim Gaines Adv. Board Ron Smith Margaret Morland Robert Arthur A Common Wealth of Poetry, July 2009 Newsletter of The Poetry Society of Virginia. Poetry Society Of Virginia 913 DeWolfe Dr. Alexandria VA 22308-2602 |
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