Guild Members in November

Our poetry reading on November 12, 7 p.m. at the Greene Gallery (behind Whitfield’s on Guilford Green) will feature Guild members Carol Leavitt Altieri and Patricia O’Brien. Altieri is a conservation activist who recently won the State of Connecticut’s Green Circle Award for environmental projects. She has published three books of poetry: In Beijing, There Are No Dawn Redwoods; The Isinglass River; and The Jade Bower. O’Brien has facilitated poetry workshops at the York C.I. hospice program, and has been published in CT River Review, Embers, Pulp Smith, Fairfield County Magazine, Poet Lore, Caduceus and Red Fox Review. She has been awarded prizes from the Trumbull Arts Council and the Old Saybrook Acton Public Library.

There will be an open mic from 7 to 7:30, and refreshments will be served.

October Reading

The Guilford Poets Guild is excited to present poet Gray Jacobik as featured reader on Thursday, October 8, at 7:00 p.m in The Greene Art Gallery, 29 Whitfield Street (behind Whitfield’s on Guilford Green). Gray Jacobik lives in Deep River, Connecticut. Her collections include Brave Disguises (AWP Poetry Prize, Pittsburgh UP 2002), The Surface of Last Scattering (X. J. Kennedy Prize, Texas Review Press 1999) and The Double Task (Juniper Prize, UMASS Press, 1998).  A memoir-in-verse, Little Boy Blue, is forthcoming for CavanKerry.

Refreshments will be served, and there will be an open mic beginning at 7:00 for the first 5 who sign up.

Leaves

Each time I look up from my task, more

russet spinners speckle the air. Called,

it seems, I walk to the porch to hear

the tick-tick as each adds itself to

the already-down––rustle and tumble

then the soft hush––abrasions of gutter

flutter. Sometimes a slight breeze stirs

the trees and the sky becomes patterned

with progress; at other times, no force

except the final severing encoded in that

tripled-tiered layer of cells at the base

of each stem, botanical cushion designed

for departures, fulfilling its purpose

since winter nears and leaves are liabilities.

Every now and then a leaf takes a long

slow ride, whirls down with regular

oscillations—a plate-spinner’s best effort.

Others wobble crazily as if anxious to land,

a few skip and dip like water-skimmers, then

topple pell-mell into a mêlée of discards.

September Reading

The Guilford Poets Guild will start out their fall series with a reading by poet Anne Harding Woodworth on Thursday, September 10, at 7:00 p.m in The Greene Art Gallery, 29 Whitfield Street (behind Whitfield’s on Guilford Green). Woodworth’s most recent book is Spare Parts: A Novella in Verse (Turning Point, 2008). Woodworth lived in Athens for four years, and she and her husband have travelled extensively in search of ancient sites.  She is the author of two other books of poetry and two chapbooks, and is a member of the Poetry Board at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. Refreshments will be served, and there will be an open mic beginning at 7:00 for the first 5 who sign up.

I feel tired and sit down next to the cellar wall,
and I refrigerate myself there,
put the breaking-down
of my own cells in abeyance
and try to figure out in the dark of winter
just what it is I do
on the other side of the slanted doors.
When spring comes and no mouse
has nibbled at my knuckles,
I emerge, still young, still plump and tasty,
feeling slightly saintly,
but squinting in what has once been familiar sunlight.

From Up From the Root Cellar

34Th Annual Madison Art Society Juried Show

Rick Odermatt's photo of First Prize Winner Elizabeth Boyd - Mixed Media - Glimpses

May 21, Thursday, 7 pm — Members of the Guilford Poets Guild will read poems they have written inspired by works in
the juried show and you are invited to attend a wine and cheese reception.

Scranton Library, 801 Boston Post Rd., Madison, CT 06443
(203) 245-7365

Shoreline Youth Poets

Photo by Audrey Fitting of GPG members with top prize winners.

At the Guilford Poets Guild’s annual Poets Day, which took place on April 24th at the Guilford High School, Guild members Gordy Whiteman, Jane Muir, Gwen Gunn, Audrey Fitting, Sharon Olson, Julie Harris and Nancy Meneely,  with GHS senior class members Simone Wolff, Amelia Urry and James Plunkett, read poems to over 400 students in 4 sessions throughout the morning . We were also joined by Shoreline Cluster poet Peggy Sawyer and Tony Fusco from the CT River Review. Every year the Guild sponsors a youth poetry contest and this year we received 73 entries from Guilford High School students. The top three winners, Amelia Urry (1st prize), Simone Wolff (2nd prize), and Emily Breeze (3rd prize) will be our featured readers at the next “Second Thursday” Guilford Poets Guild gathering, May 14 at the Greene Art Gallery (29 Whitfield Street, 7 p.m.) The evening begins with an open mike to which high school-aged poets are welcome to come read their own poems.

Our event received publicity in the April 30th issue of the Guilford Courier–to read the article click here.

Our friend Richard

The Guilford Poets Guild has lost one of its longtime members, Richard Tietjen. He had been battling lymphoma for 14 years and seemed so resilient, a hardy walker, a special man with a brilliant mind. Recently he had been experiencing high fevers and was eventually diagnosed with leukemia. Early on the morning of April 20 he passed away peacefully, surrounded by friends and family. His obituary in the New Haven Register speaks of how he “followed his bliss writing poetry and working in farms and forests in southern Vermont and New Hampshire…returned to Shoreline Connecticut in 1982 and settled into a challenging and pleasurable job as a computer engineer for Dushkin Publishers and then McGraw Hill…developed a web site for the Shoreline Greenway Trail project…became a member of the Guilford Peace Alliance where he was known for reciting his poetry at their weekly vigils…[and] also was active in various poetry groups including the Art Place and the Yale Medical Group.”

We’d like to share one of Richard’s poems.

Right now

Happiness is what I want
to tell you about.
The getting and having,
the measuring.

Here:
Live in the same place for five years
watch the cars on the road
wash your dishes in the morning
and try to see
you will never get another chance
to be all-knowing, powerful, and wise.

Living won’t always make you happy
but when you are
you’ll know why

West Acworth, 1983

April is Poetry Month

The Guilford Poets Guild Celebrates National Poetry Month on Sunday, April 26, from 2 to 3 PM at Breakwater Books, 81Whitfield Street, Guilford, CT 06437. Come and listen and share a poem you love.

Guilford Poets Guild to publish anthology

The Guilford Poets Guild plans to publish a Tenth Anniversary Anthology and is now accepting submissions.  This is the Guild’s second anthology and will be published in the fall of 2009.

Submission is open to all shoreline residents, who may submit up to five poems, none longer than 50 lines. Poems should be an original work; previously published poems are acceptable.  Subject matter should be Guilford or the shoreline.  “Shoreline” is interpreted broadly to include the physical and emotional landscape, culture and history.  A section of the anthology will be devoted to poems from local high school students.

Poems should be sent to gpg.anthology@gmail.com and should be in the body of the email–not as an attachment.  The subject line of the email should read Submission and the full name of the author.  Poets should also include their snail mail address, telephone number and if a student, identify their school.  All entries will be acknowledged by email. The deadline for submissions is May 15.  Entrants whose poems are included in the anthology will receive one free copy.

April Reading

The Guilford Poets Guild  presents Elizabeth Thomas, Thursday, April 9th  7:00 – 9:00 pm. Elizabeth Thomas is a widely published poet, performer, advocate of the arts and teacher. The author of three books of poetry, she has read her work throughout the United States.  Much of her energy and time is devoted to designing and teaching writing programs for schools and organizations in many parts of the country. These programs promote literacy and the power of written and spoken word. As an outstanding advocate of youth in the arts, Elizabeth Thomas is a coach and organizer with Brave New Voices: International Youth Poetry Slam and Festival. She is also the founder of UpWords Poetry, a company dedicated to promoting programs for young writers and educators, based on the belief that poetry is meant to be heard out loud and in person.  She hosts a website at www.upwordspoetry.com.

The reading is part of the Guilford Poets Guild Second Thursday Poetry Series. There will be an open mic from 7 to 7:30 for first 5 sign-ups, limited to one poem each reader. Admission is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. The Greene Art Gallery, 29 Whitfield St.  (red barn behind Whitfield’s Cafe), Guilford, CT.
Map & directions

Poetry Roundtable

Thursday, March 12, 7:00 p.m. at The Greene Art Gallery, 29 Whitfield St. (behind Whitfield’s Cafe), Guilford, CT. Sponsored by the Guilford Poets Guild. Admission is free and open to the public. Refreshments are provided. Contact: (203) 453-2036, 453-8836, or guilfordpoetsguild.wordpress.com. All readers welcome. Come and share one or two poems.