GPG members Gwen Gunn and Norman Thomas Marshall have recently created the Moses Gunn Play Company, dedicated to the memory of Moses Gunn. Together, they present staged and concert readings of dramatic and comedic plays for the shoreline community. Original and well-known plays will be presented as well as little known masterpieces.
Three Chairs Publishing is pleased to announce the publication of its newest book, Waiting out the Storm, a collection of poems about death, grief, and gratitude by Branford writer and Guilford Poets Guild member Jen Payne.
Reflecting on the sudden loss of a close friend, Payne returns, as she does in her past books LOOK UP! and Evidence of Flossing, to the solace of nature. On the opening pages, she allows the poet Rilke to remind the reader “Through the empty branches the sky remains. It is what you have. Be earth now, and evensong. Be the ground lying under that sky.” Written from the shoreline of Connecticut and the wide and windswept beaches of Cape Cod, this book is an intimate look at life transitions and how we cope with the unexpected.
Payne is the owner of Words by Jen, a graphic design and marketing company in Branford. She has published four books: LOOK UP! Musings on the Nature of Mindfulness (2014), Evidence of Flossing: What We Leave Behind (2017), FLOSSSING (2019), and Waiting out the Storm (2019). Installations of her poetry were featured in exhibitions at the Arts Council of Greater New Haven and the Kehler Liddell Gallery (New Haven). Her work has been published by The Aurorean, Six Sentences, the Story Circle Network, and WOW! Women on Writing; in the international anthology Coffee Poems: Reflections on Life with Coffee; and in The Perch, a publication by the Yale Program for Recovery & Community Health. She is a member of the Guilford Poets Guild, the Connecticut Poetry Society, Guilford Art Center, and the New Haven Arts Council.
Copies of Waiting Out the Storm (5.5 x 8.5, paperback, 44 pages, $15.00) may be purchased at the Martha Link Walsh Gallery in Branford, and online from Three Chairs Publishing, www.3chairspublishing.com.
Author photo by Christine Chiocchio.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Connecticut Shoreline, Guilford Poets Guild, Jen Payne, Poem, Poetry
Pi Poetry Series
featuring
Jane Muir
Wednesday, October 16
Jane was born two weeks before the Great Depression and it has been all uphill since. She has been a member of the Guilford Poets’ Guild for twenty years. Her poems generally reflect her life, which has been up and down. Down when she couldn’t help it, up when she could.
Each month, The Poetry Institute Poetry Series celebrates an eclectic mix of poetic voices. Free. Refreshments. (And participants are invited to bring something to share.) Open mic. Outstanding featured readers. In a casual setting. Open to all members of the public (and even others).
The Institute Library
847 Chapel Street
New Haven, CT
right next door to the Tattoo Parlor
Doors Open at 6:30. Reading starts at 7:00.
Please arrive a few minutes early to sign up for the reading.
For more information: poetryinstitute@gmail.com or poetryatpi.wordpress.com
Members of the Guilford Poets Guild and the Connecticut River Poets will be featured in a reading on Sunday, October 13 at 4:30 at Mercy By The Sea, 167 Neck Road, Madison, CT.
The members of both groups include published, established poets including several area poets laureate.The inspiration for these poems will be the original artwork by Old Saybrook artist Judy Perry that is on display in the Mary C. Daily Gallery located at Mercy By The Sea through November 12, 2019. The title of Perry’s solo show is “She is Water, Healing Sources, Healing Forces.” The paintings include women’s faces, seascapes (like the one shown above), and marsh scenes created in watercolor and pastel.
In Julie Weavers recent blog she described Judy’s work as “a combination of loose but methodical strokes forcing one to linger on the surface of the painting, marveling at the sculpted pigment. Perry is what I would call a sculptor trapped in a painters body.”
Join CT River Poets and the Guilford Poets Guild as they are inspired by Perry’s artwork creating paintings with words in ekphrastic poetry. The joining of two creative venues results in a powerfully emotional experience. There will be a full moon labyrinth walk following the reading, all are invited.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Connecticut Shoreline, Guilford Poets Guild, Poetry, Poetry Reading
The Guilford Poets Guild’s October Second Thursday poetry reading will feature two of its own accomplished poets—Norman Thomas Marshall and Elizabeth Possidente. The reading will take place on Thursday, October 10 from 6:30-8:30 pm at the Guilford Free Library.
Norman Thomas Marshall is a veteran of 55 years as a professional actor. He has participated in more than three hundred productions — stage, film, television and radio — as actor, producer or director. Marshall has shared the stage and screen with such notable performers as F. Murray Abraham, Raul Julia, Moses Gunn, Bette Midler, Peter Reigert, Burt Reynolds, Telly Savalas, Barbara Streisand And Fritz Weaver. He has also appeared numerous times in a variety of daytime television dramas and is a familiar voice for some of the animated spots on Sesame Street. Marshall and his partner GPG member Gwen Gunn present original and well-known plays for the shoreline community through their Moses Gunn Play Company.
Elizabeth Possidente retired from her career as a creative arts/dance-movement therapist and has returned to poetry after many years of journaling and jotting on paper scraps, etc. She has published poetry in the Connecticut River Review and professional articles in her field, and read at Clinton Art Gallery’s Poetry Place. She is a member of the Guilford Poets Guild and her first collection of poems The Orange Plate is in process.
Remember to bring your own poem to share during the Open Mic which is open to accomplished and aspiring poets of all ages wishing to present one original composition to a live audience. Refreshments will be served after the reading. This event is free and open to the public.
Upcoming events include: November 14 – Book Launch and Readings from the GPG 20th Anniversary Anthology; December 12 – Holiday Roundtable.
The Guilford Poets Guild is a group of award-winning, published poets from the shoreline who meet regularly to share poems and promote the love and engagement of poetry within the community. Throughout the year the GPG hosts a number of poetry readings including its popular Second Thursday Poetry Series, a Holiday Roundtable, the Guilford High School Poetry Contest, and coordinates poetry/art events with Guilford Art Center, the Madison Art Society and the Florence Griswold Museum. The Guild is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and its third anthology of poems, Our Changing Environment, is due out this fall.
The Guilford Free Library is located at 67 Park Street in Guilford. Please register by phone (203-453-8282), online (guilfordfreelibrary.org) or in person. For more information about the Guilford Poets Guild, visit guilfordpoetsguild.org.
Thursday, September 26, 1:00 p.m.
at Breakwater Books
Get a preview of the Guilford Poets Guild’s 20th Anniversary Anthology, Our Changing Environment, during this special reading by Guild members. Click here for more information.
The Guilford Poets Guild welcomes poet Gemma Mathewson for its September Second Thursday poetry reading to be held on Thursday, September 12 from 6:30-8:30 pm at the Guilford Free Library.
Gemma offers her biography as only a poet can…in monosyllabic pairs:
birth: down and out, childhood: black and blue, adolescence: sturm und drang,
high school: hard to take, college: peace and luv, education: hit or miss,
social life: hide and seek, friendships: ebb and flow, saving grace: rock and roll,
downfall: rise and shine, twenties: lost and found, marriage: give and take,
children: first and last, cars: scratch and dent, 30s: good and bad,
40s: sick and tired, 50s: love and death, 60s: here and now,
grandchildren: hug and kiss, heart: ice and fire, ambition: slim to none,
standards: hard to please, fear: wrack and ruin, joy: heart to heart,
style: rag an bone, enthusiasms: read and weep & hunt and peck & point and click
& pen and ink, energy: dribs and drabs, strategy: hand to mouth,
motto: “each by each,” yearnings: far and wide, finale: wait and see
Gemma is co-host of Pi (Poetry Institute, New Haven) with Mark McGuire-Schwartz and co-produces Poetry of Immigrants public access TV Shows with Frank Crowley. Her book The Museum of Rain, a collection of poems spanning the last 14 years, will be released later in the fall. You can read more of her work on her website: gemop.wordpress.com.
Remember to bring your own poem to share during the Open Mic which is open to accomplished and aspiring poets of all ages wishing to present one original composition to a live audience. Refreshments will be served after the reading. This event is free and open to the public.
Upcoming events include: September 26 – Guilford Performing Arts Festival, Guilford Poets Guild at Breakwater Books; October 10 – Norman Thomas Marshall & Elizabeth Possidente Second Thursday Poetry Series; November 14 – Book Launch and Readings from the GPG 20th Anniversary Anthology; December 12 – Holiday Roundtable.
The Guilford Poets Guild is a group of award-winning, published poets from the shoreline who meet regularly to share poems and promote the love and engagement of poetry within the community. Throughout the year the GPG hosts a number of poetry readings including its popular Second Thursday Poetry Series, a Holiday Roundtable, the Guilford High School Poetry Contest, and coordinates poetry/art events with Guilford Art Center, the Madison Art Society and the Florence Griswold Museum. The Guild is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and its third anthology of poems, Our Changing Environment, is due out this fall.
The Guilford Free Library is located at 67 Park Street in Guilford. Please register by phone (203-453-8282), online (guilfordfreelibrary.org) or in person. For more information about the Guilford Poets Guild, visit guilfordpoetsguild.org.
See our CALENDAR for upcoming events!
