South Mountain Poets Return to West Orange Public Library Thursday

"curse the bird that does not love/ its wings which drive through severed air"

—Poet Phil Kirsch

"We had 48 chairs set up and people had to stand in the back," said poet and long time West Orange Arts Council (WOAC) Board Member Peg Vassallo. Vassallo was talking about this past April's poetry event at the West Orange Public Library (WOPL) held under the auspices of the highly respected South Mountain Poets, led by Millburn's Judith A. Christian.

Five of the top South Mountain poets including Christian and Vassallo — who is also the group's vice president — will be reading as part of their poetry "Sampler" evening this Thursday, June 2 from 6:45 p.m.to 8:45 p.m. in WOPL's meeting room. Time permitting, there will be an open mic after the formal part of the program.

South Mountain Poets, which takes its name from the Watchung Range that stretches through our area, holds bi-monthly workshops at the Millburn Public Library under Christian's guidance. The group has published three anthologies of New Jersey poets, with Christian editing. Vassallo was the assistant editor on their most recent release, "Off Line," which was launched at a standing room only event at the .  

The other three readers are South Mountain Poet's secretary, Patricia McKernon Runkle, member and past assistant editor Diane Lynch, and Millburn based Phil Kirsch who has been writing and publishing his poems for 40 years. Kirsch holds a Master of Fine Arts in poetry from Goddard College. 

Both Runkle and Lynch write haiku short poems which adhere to strict rules of form. Runkle's poems have appeared in "Frogpond" and "Modern Haiku"; she also writes music and lyrics. Lynch founded the group Haiku Poets of the Garden State, and her work has been published in several haiku journals.

Vassallo's and Christian's works can be found in the South Mountain Poet's anthologies and in many journals. Christian was recently published in "Voices from Here" by the Paulinskill Poetry Project and in "The Stillwater Review." She reads her poetry widely, including at the major annual poetry festival held in West Caldwell each May. Christian had a past career in technical publishing and studies periodically at a Tibetan Buddhist Center.

Vassallo sent an excerpt from one of Christian's poems and one of her own:

"and on the way I will watch the cinema of roadside weed-roughstalk bluegrass and slender rush blurring" —from "The Garden in April" by Judith Christian

"...she began to lose herself and saw a fleeting hope of red melding into orange into yellow" —from "Prism" by Peg Vassallo

Vassallo has been bringing the joys of poetry — reading, hearing and writing — to the adult and teenage community for several years. She has organized and led many poetry writing workshops, often collaborating with fellow West Orange resident, poet and poetry mentor Frank Niccoletti, the retired Director of English, Arts & Humanities, Curriculum and Instruction at River Dell Regional Schools. Vassallo and Niccoletti were the recent judges at the , whose winner Clarissa Lotson went on the  

Emerging poets continue to be part of the poetry scene in West Orange. "We had a great turnout with high school students," Vassallo said, talking about the April WOPL poetry event.

The WOPL is at 46 Mt. Pleasant Ave. with adjacent parking. Handicapped accessible. See www.wopl.org for more information.