GPG Member Jane Muir to Read at The Poetry Institute

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

October 13: Poetry Reading at Mercy by the Sea

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.

GPG Members Norman Thomas Marshall & Elizabeth Possidente Featured at October 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.

Guilford Poets Guild to Perform at the Guilford Performing Arts Festival

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.

Guilford Poets Guild Welcomes Gemma Mathewson for September Reading

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.

GPG Poet Nan Meneely Featured on National Video Anthology

Guilford Poets Guild member Nancy Fitz-Hugh Meneely has recently been added to the Brainwaves Video Anthology, a collection of more than 1,000 videos with 2 million views in 234 countries.

The Brainwaves Video Anthology is produced and filmed by Bob Greenberg, and includes thinkers, dreamers and innovators; some of the brightest minds in education. The series is meant to inspire and engage the viewer to dig deeper and learn more. In the words of Georges Melies, (The Invention of Hugo Cabret) “Now sit back, open your eyes and be prepared to dream.”

• “Tired”
• “Sunday in Park with George”
• “Still Life With Grandmother”
• Teachers Make a Difference – My Students

Nancy Fitz-Hugh Meneely, Smith College B.A. in hand and nothing at all to suggest she knew how to make a lesson plan, began professional life as an English teacher in Vermont’s Waterbury High School. When, after two happy years, Vermont suggested it was important that she sport a real credential, she acquired a Master of Arts in Teaching from Yale. After discovering her best students were listening to her from inside hallucinations, she moved into the work of training community/school teams in drug abuse prevention at Yale’s Drug Dependence Institute. Later, with a Master’s of Education in Human Relations from the UMass School of Education, she tacked back and forth across a career path in training, counseling and education, finishing paid employment in a twenty-year career with the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Washington, DC, where she worked first in emergency management training and then directly in support of response and recovery operations. She retired north to Guilford, CT, and now devotes much of her time to the Guilford Poets Guild, the Guilford A Better Chance Program, and the town’s Human Services Council.

IMPERMANENCE: An Old Saybrook Poetry Display