Irish Poetry Reading by John F. Deane

We are currently in the middle of a program series called, The Irish. Although, the event listed below is not a Kellogg-Hubbard Library program it certainly may be of interest to those who love all things Irish!

A poetry reading by the award-winning Irish poet John F. Deane
will be held on Friday, May 2, 2008 at 6:30pm at the St Johnsbury Athenaeum,1171 Main Street, St Johnsbury, Vermont 802-748-8291

Deane will be introduced by Vermont poet Galway Kinnell.

The Irish Times says of him: “This is a major European writer of conscience. . . No other contemporary Irish poet, and few Irish writers, have mastered the art of eloquent, impassioned expression as artistic statement so beautifully. . . In common with Yeats and Kinsella, Deane possesses an instinctive feel for beauty.

John F. Deane is editor of The Poetry Ireland Review, and winner of the O’Shaughnessy Award for Irish Poetry. He is a member of Aosdána, established by the Arts Council to honor artists whose work has made an outstanding contribution to the arts in Ireland. In 2007 the French Govern¬ment honored him by making him “Chevalier de l’ordre des arts et des lettres”. Mr. Deane lives in Dublin and this spring he is poet-in-residence at Boston College.
His books include: The Instruments of Art, Manhandling the Diety, In Dogged Loyalty, The Heather Fields and Other Stories, and A Little Book of Hours to be released in 2008.

Celebrating Poetry

We've had a great time reading the poems that people have posted on Hilari's National Poetry Month post on April 7th. We are up the 12 poems. It's nice to see the Vermont Poets receive attention here. The Bridge is celebrating National Poetry Month, too, with a look at what's happening around Montpelier in terms of slams and poetry reading. Nat Frothingham, The Bridge's editor and Scottish poet, Len Irving, are presenting An Evening of Poetry at the library on Shakespeare's birthday, April 23, next Wednesday at 7pm. Nat and Len will take turns at the mic sharing their favorite poems with us. Len, a published poet, will also read a few of his favorites by Robert Burns and William Shakespeare. On Friday, April 25, we're hosting a Mud Slide Poetry Slam with slam master, Geof Hewitt at 7pm. Since the library will be closed, please use the School Street entrance to the Hayes Room.

Send us a favorite poem!

April is National Poetry Month. Perhaps, with recent sightings of crocuses blooming in select locations in town, this is truly the perfect month for poetry. It is, after all, a time of hope.

In the course of a very busy life, I don't make much time for poems anymore. Nowadays, I find myself thinking of poems as a luxury reserved for the young, when one feels pain and joy most acutely. But it shouldn't be like that. So, in honor of National Poetry Month, I'll throw a poem out there and see if anyone else would like to chime in with a favorite of their own.

By way of introduction, I heard this poem on the radio and tracked it down via the Internet. It made a lovely Father's Day gift.

Those Winter Sundays

Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he'd call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love's autere and lonely offices?

Robert Hayden
(1913-1980)

Lea Wood, poet and so much more!

On Saturday, February 9th, Lea Wood held her premiere poetry reading at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library. Although Lea has been writing poetry for years, make that decades, she enjoyed her first poetry reading yesterday in celebration of her first published book of poems, Wind & Water, Fire & Stone. Lea's poems appear in five categories: Wheel of Life, Kinship, In Love, Earth First, and Living my Life. Lea Wood has such a presence when reading her poems. I could have listened to her read all afternoon.
Here is one of her poems chosen for its timeliness:

LIVING THROUGH WINTER

On winter mornings I'm drawn
to the red line encased on the bird feeder.
The air's relation to zero will determine my day.
at twenty-two below I want to crawl into a book;
snuggle under my favorite sheep fleece
and reach for hot tea, lose myself in a fictional world
and stay there 'till spring!
Tasks call with faint voices
until guilt pushes me out.

At twenty-two above I emerge from dormancy
the iron clamp of cold loosened.
The glitter of sun on snow, the white-draped pines
blossoms of snow on bushes begin to delight me.
Each year I vow against the immobilization
of winter's long, dark hours,
and each year I'm caught in that black net.

Well, bears hibernate, trees rest, the very earth sleeps.
Perhaps living through winter with living words
is the way!
Underhill, VT 2003

Lea is donating the sales of her books to the Kellogg-Hubbard Library. They are available at the library. Thank you Lea for being a wonderful supporter of the Kellogg-Hubbard Library!