The Generosity of Poets

The Generosity of Poets

Plumes of song in flight --

Birds in early morning light

Silence on the wing

April is cruel – too, too cruel – they say, and so they make it Poetry Month.  In Massachusetts, a few years back a group of poets decided to create a month-long celebration, crowned by a Festival first held in October 2010 in Lowell for some reason, and beginning last year and henceforth in Poetry Month, April -- and in Salem, Massachusetts.  And we all know what Salem is famous for.

Which brings us to poetry that’s happening right now – this week there are two wonderful poetry events on island and one exciting opportunity if you happen to be in Boston.

• On Thursday, Justen Ahren, the new poet laureate of West Tisbury, is presenting a reading of writers who are in residence for the month of April at the Martha's Vineyard Writers Residency. This reading will be held at Pathways at the Chilmark Tavern at 6 pm.

• On Saturday, it will be my pleasure to host a Common Threads poetry discussion at the Vineyard Haven Library from 2 -3:30 pm with special guest Fan Ogilvie, former poet laureate of West Tisbury. These Common Threads discussions are sponsored by the Mass Poetry Foundation as part of Poetry Month events statewide. For this discussion, Fan Ogilvie has chosen to work with three poems exhibiting a very wide range of styles:

No. 1129 – Tell all the Truth but tell it slant by Emily Dickinson

For the Union Dead by Robert Lowell

if see no end in is by Frank Bidart

The third event this week is a Youth Poetry Slam, the largest ever held! On Friday, April 13 – yes, that’s right Friday the 13^th in April the Cruelest Month – The Villa Victoria Center for the Arts –  85 Newton St, Boston – will open its doors at 6:30 pm to Louder Than A Bomb. This weekend-long, poetry slam competition will bring teens together from all over the Bay State across racial, gang and socio-economic lines —in one room, on one stage, and in one cypher to share stories and build family. Learn more at Mass L.E.A.P. Collective. Tickets are available at: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/237160

And next week on Thursday April 19^th at 7 pm, the Bunch of Grapes bookstore in Vineyard Haven will be celebrating Poetry Month by hosting an Open Mic Poetry Night featuring well-known island poets Justen Ahren, Michael West, Jennifer Tseng, Emma Young, Donald Nitchie, Lee McCormack and the Open Mic readers. Signups will be at the bookstore on the evening of the event from 6 pm -7 pm, and Open Mic poets are encouraged to bring one poem to share. For any questions, please email megan@bunchofgrapes.com prior to April 17.

Climbing toward the sun

The pumpkin sprout stretches

Still wearing its seed husk

And that brings me to my point, the generosity of poets. Nobody is getting paid here. These poets are performing their art for the love of it, pure and simple. Not only do poets dig deeply into themselves to dredge up the truth of their lives, and then apply the craft of shaping it into words that not only sing, but remain singing in our hearts -- they share it all freely with others.

Think of all the unpaid work that goes into making the summertime Featherstone Poetry Festival happen, bringing the most accomplished and recognized poets nationally to our island to share their work in an intimate setting. Fan Ogilvie does that freely out of the generosity of her poetic spirit.

Or the aforementioned Martha's Vineyard Writers Residency that Justen Ahren runs in his spare time in April, September and October, when he’s not working on his own poetry or spending time with his family or working at landscaping, his day job. And special thanks should also go out to Claudia Miller, painter and philanthropist, who opens The Point Way to the poets and writers and also to others engaged in creative pursuits.

Or the Summer and Winter Solstice Poetry Readings that William Waterway and Ellie Bates put on to bring together island poets and their grateful audiences. Or Marianne Goldberg and the Pathways Projects Institute at the Chilmark tavern. Or Megan Freitas at the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore. Or Jennifer Tseng at the West Tisbury Public Library. I could keep going, because poets are doing this all the time.

Evening dew drenches

The grasses in late spring fields

Beading on a bent stalk

Bearing the weight of the light

From the moon's reflection

But I guess Ruth Lilly takes the death-by-chocolate torte for poetic generosity. In 2003, the poet, philanthropist and avid bowler passed away leaving a no-strings bequest of what eventually proved worth $200 million dollars to the venerated, 100-year-old Poetry, A Magazine of Verse. I am tempted to say that Poetry went right out and merged with a 26-year-old spoken-word magazine looking for a sugar momma, but that’s just not the case. However, since receiving its Megabucks windfall, Poetry has increased its budget and now pays poets, who used to get two bucks a line, a big phat ten. That’s $140 smackers for a sonnet.

Sadly, the late Ruth Lilly is no longer around to leave cognac and roses at the grave of Edgar Allen Poe in Baltimore each year for his birthday. Somehow I think this most generous of poets deserves her own cognac and roses, don’t you?