Category Archives: general

NS Poets’ Forum Meets Saturday!

general, Meetings, Naomi Cherkofsky Contest, Open mic, Poetry

HI folks,

The new season at the North Shore Poets’ Forum gets started on Saturday, Sept. 17, at 11 a.m., in the Sohier Room of the Beverly Public Library, Essex Street, Beverly. Our eminent founder, Jeanette Maes, will present a program about the renowned poet Donald Hall. He is an elder statesman of poetry, at this point in his life, but still active. We look forward to Jeanette’s presentation.

Fall beckons, and next month will be filled with cooler air and traditional tales of ghostly spirits. Maryanne Anderson will present a program entitled “Hauntings,” on Oct. 22.

Please see Meetings and Events tab for our plans for the following months.

End of summer now, so I will leave you with some end of summer poems.

End of Summer

 

STANLEY KUNITZ

An agitation of the air,
A perturbation of the light
Admonished me the unloved year
Would turn on its hinge that night.

I stood in the disenchanted field
Amid the stubble and the stones,
Amazed, while a small worm lisped to me
The song of my marrow-bones.

Blue poured into summer blue,
A hawk broke from his cloudless tower,
The roof of the silo blazed, and I knew
That part of my life was over.

Already the iron door of the north
Clangs open: birds, leaves, snows
Order their populations forth,
And a cruel wind blows.

 

 

XXXIX (from Last Poems)

A.E. Housman

When summer’s end is nighing
And skies at evening cloud,
I muse on change and fortune
And all the feats I vowed
When I was young and proud.

The weathercock at sunset
Would lose the slanted ray,
And I would climb the beacon
That looked to Wales away
And saw the last of day.

From hill and cloud and heaven
The hues of evening died;
Night welled through lane and hollow
And hushed the countryside,
But I had youth and pride.

And I with earth and nightfall
In converse high would stand,
Late, till the west was ashen
And darkness hard at hand,
And the eye lost the land.

The year might age, and cloudy
The lessening day might close,
But air of other summers
Breathed from beyond the snows,
And I had hope of those.

They came and were and are not
And come no more anew;
And all the years and seasons
That ever can ensue
Must now be worse and few.

So here’s an end of roaming
On eves when autumn nighs:
The ear too fondly listens
For summer’s parting sighs,
And then the heart replies.

 

Today, May 12, is Limerick Day!

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Our next Forum meeting is Saturday, May 21, and Jeanette Maes is presenting a program on Ella Wheeler Wilcox. We will meet in the Barnet Gallery, and we have been given special permission to have food. However, the library is having trouble with its water so we are advised to bring our own.

As usual, you are encouraged to bring copies of any poems for which you would appreciate gentle critiques.

In the meantime, I came across this in the New York Times today and thought you might enjoy it!

Back Story

(Stolen from the New York Times, 5/12/2016)

There was an old man in a tree, Whose whiskers were lovely to see; But the birds of the air, Pluck’d them perfectly bare, To make themselves nests on that tree.

That might sound a bit like Dr. Seuss, but it was written by the British painter and poet Edward Lear, who popularized limerick poems in his “Book of Nonsense” (1846).

He was born on this day in 1812, which is why today is Limerick Day. (CKO’s emphasis)

The limerick’s name has been traced to France, where an 18th-century Irish Brigade was serving.

The men returned with a song, “Will You Come Up to Limerick?” — an Irish city and county. The chorus may have developed into what became the limerick form, some scholars say.

Lear had been hired to paint an aristocrat’s private menagerie and he came up with his poems to amuse the children in the household. He said he got the idea from an old nursery rhyme.

The five-line poems have an AABBA rhyme scheme, meaning the first, second, and last lines rhyme, as do the third and fourth lines.

The first and second lines introduce a character, activity or setting, while the third and fourth lines are generally shorter to intensify the punch line.

So, just for fun, why not try one?

 

2016 Open Mic!

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Wow, it has been a year since I’ve posted anything! Well, that’s life! Some years just run away from you.

But, onward! It is time to spring into Spring with another annual Open Mic and announcement of the Naomi Cherkofsky Poetry Contest winners. If we are lucky, one or two of the winners will be able to come to the Open Mic, too. In any case, we certainly hope you will join us for this lovely celebration of National Poetry Month with a few poems to share.

Date: Saturday, April 16th

Time: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Where: Beverly Public Library, Essex Street, Beverly, Program Room

Light refreshments served.

Most importantly, bring poems!

The May meeting of the North Shore Poets’ Forum will be on the 21st, again at the Beverly  Public Library, at 11 a.m., but this time in the Barnett Gallery, which is lovely. Jeanette Maes will give a program on Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Please join us. After the program and some refreshments, we love to share our own poetry. For gentle critique, please provide 6 to 10 copies of your poem.

The Massachusetts State Poetry Society will meet May 7 at the West Branch of the Peabody Institute Library, 603 Lowell St., Peabody. Contact Jeanette Maes for more information, jeanettemaes@comcast.com, or Roberta Hung, robette02@yahoo.com

Now, for a little poem to  get you in the mood for even more great poetry! This one is by Eamon Grennan, who lives in New York state. I found this in Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry column begun when he was Poet Laureate. It continues today and is available free online.

Up Against It
by Eamon Grennan

It’s the way they cannot understand the window
they buzz and buzz against, the bees that take
a wrong turn at my door and end up thus
in a drift at first of almost idle curiosity,
cruising the room until they find themselves
smack up against it and they cannot fathom how
the air has hardened and the world they know
with their eyes keeps out of reach as, stuck there
with all they want just in front of them, they must
fling their bodies against the one unalterable law
of things—this fact of glass—and can only go on
making the sound that tethers their electric
fury to what’s impossible, feeling the sting in it.

 

 

Next meeting coming up

general, Meetings

The North Shore Poets’ Forum will meet on Saturday, Sept. 20, in the Barnett Room of the Beverly Public Library, 11 a.m. to 1 ish. Because no food or beverage is allowed in this room, we won’t have any goodies this time. So sorry!

I found my notes from the last meeting, and it turns out I am the one responsible for the program this time. So, since I haven’t decided what it will be, you’ll just have to come to find out.  (Maybe poems about food?!)

My notes also state that Jeanette will present a program on Dorothy Parker in October. Again, we can’t have the Program Room, so no food again. And, we can’t have the Program Room or Barnett Room in November.

I think we should revisit where we meet. So, put your thinking caps on.

See you Saturday.

Trying to publicize the contest

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So, newspapers these days make you, the subscriber and would-be reader, do all the work of trying to get something published. I have been on my little computer here for hours and hours, trying to add the Naomi Cherkofsky contest to the calendars of Boston Globe, Boston.Com, Salem News, Lynn Item, and possibly, although not necessarily, to all their affiliates. (See here, Poetry Contests, for details.) I also tried to add the announcement to the North Shore Sunday calendar, which would, presumably, add it to all the Wicked Local papers. This proved beyond my capabilities. So, I am relying on an old friend and former coworker to do the job for me. Here’s hoping she is allowed to do it!

Now, will anyone read those? I’m not sure. Therefore, I beg you, my fellow poets in the North Shore Poets Forum and those of you who aren’t but occasionally drop into this blog for a bit of news, to enter the contest, to tell your friends to enter the contest, to tell them to tell everyone to enter the contest. If they aren’t poets, please encourage them to join us on April 26 for our National Poetry Month celebration, during which the winners of the contest read their winning entries. An Open Mic follows, during which we have always had very talented people show up to share their work. After all, most people don’t write, but they do enjoy. Here’s to those wonderful enjoyers!

And, here’s another little poem to get you in mind of warm breezes and Spring.

More Than Enough

By Marge Piercy

…

The first lily of June opens its red mouth.
All over the sand road where we walk
multiflora rose climbs trees cascading
white or pink blossoms, simple, intense
the scene drifting like colored mist.

…

The arrowhead is spreading its creamy
clumps of flower and the blackberries
are blooming in the thickets. Season of
joy for the bee. The green will never
again be so green, so purely and lushly

…

new, grass lifting its wheaty seedheads
into the wind. Rich fresh wine
of June, we stagger into you smeared
with pollen, overcome as the turtle
laying her eggs in roadside sand.
…
Note: Marge Piercy is one of the featured poets at this year’s Massachusetts State Poetry Festival.

Share your favorite poet

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Bring along some poems by your favorite poet to share with the group at our meeting Saturday, Oct. 19, 11 a.m., at the Beverly Public Library. Add a few words about the poet and the reasons you think he/she is so terrific. We had intended this agenda for last month, but then changed it to a Seamus Heaney retrospective given his recent demise. It was a great meeting, and I expect the next one will be, too.

I will bring Mary Oliver (I think) and Roberta said she was going to bring Elizabeth Bishop. Of course, I mean their poems, not their bodies, although that would be a kick. One (quiz time: which one?) is not with us anymore, but given the onset of the Halloween season (it is a season in Salem), it might work. (Just kidding.)

At our September meeting we also outlined an agenda for the rest of the formal Forum year.

November 16: Write a poem about thankfulness. If you can’t write one, bring one by another poet to share.

December 7: Joint meeting with Mass State Poetry Society. This year we will have a special Tribute to Althea Adelheim, one of our founding members who died this year. As usual, we will have lots of good food. We will also have a Yankee Swap, gifts in the $5 range, with the Most Apt Poem contest sponsored by the North Shore Poets’ Forum. To participate, you simply write a poem to describe the swap gift you are bringing. You do not sign the poem or swap gift package. A judge will determine which poem was the best description of the swap gift, and the winner gets $10. It’s always fun!

January 18: We are stretching our poetic muscles and writing poems in forms. In addition, bring another form poem by an established poet to share.

February 15: Mary Miceli will lead a program on rhythm, using the rhythm of music as an easy route to understanding. You might consider bringing in the sheet music, or simply the words, to one of your own favorite songs.

March 15: Even though St. Patrick’s day is right around the corner, Melissa and I (Cathryn) are ignoring that great day and presenting a program on the Imagist poets.

April 26:  Annual National Poetry Month celebration with readings by the winners of the Naomi Cherkofsky contest followed by an Open Mic.

May17: Poems of Place. Bring, write, explain.

Anyone who was at the September meeting who has a different recollection of the decisions made regarding the agenda, please let me know.

Thanks!

Next meeting is Sept. 21

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The next meeting of the North Shore Poets’ Forum is Saturday, Sept. 21, 11 a.m., at the Beverly Public Library. We have to set up our agenda, so please come prepared to volunteer to prepare a program.

For the first meeting, too, I hope you will bring a poem or two by a different poet (not yourself) to read. Then we’d like to hear what you admire about this poet/poem.
New this year: If you bring a poem of your own that you want to share, please bring six or seven copies so that we can gently critique it. This is in the longstanding tradition of the poets’ forum that we all need feedback, that there is always more to learn, and that we humbly realize we need help to become better poets.

I look forward to seeing you next month.

Photos from National Poetry Month contest reading

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Roberta Hung listens to the winners of the Naomi Cherkofsky Memorial Contest .
Roberta Hung listens to the winners of the Naomi Cherkofsky Memorial Contest .

There isn’t a harder working intellectual mind full of curiosity and brilliance than Roberta Hung. Unfortunately, Roberta has been busy painting and

Ellie is such a brave and beautiful soul reading from her notebook of thoughts and poems.
Ellie is such a brave and beautiful soul reading from her notebook of thoughts and poems.

participating in an online course regarding ancient Greek history and did not have any new poems to share that wonderfully sunny Saturday we celebrated National Poetry Month by honoring the winners of the Naomi Cherkofsky Memorial Contest and participating in the annual open mic event.

(Roberta, if you happen to read this please post the information about your class and the artistic group in the comments section! )

You can read all about who the winners were in Cathryn’s earlier post. But I was just going through a ton of photos and came across these from our reading.

Richard Samuel Davis received an honorable mention for his poem “Waiting for Deer at the Island Refuge”
Richard Samuel Davis received an honorable mention for his poem “Waiting for Deer at the Island Refuge”

(You know how it goes, you take the photos and you love the representation of the

The illustrious leader of the Massachusetts Poetry Society Jeanette Maes.
The illustrious leader of the Massachusetts Poetry Society Jeanette Maes.

 

moment but you never seem to get the pictures developed. It’s as true today in the digital worlds as it was in the days of film. Tell me you don’t have at least a few rolls of film kicking around in a drawer somewhere that you have no idea what’s on it!)

I do so wish that I had been better about posting sooner, so I could give a recount of the wonderful words that were shared. I am sure that I took notes, buried now in my notebook, highlighting some turn of phrase that I loved. I promise that when I do come upon those notes, I’ll leave a comment on this post with them!

At any rate, here are a few of the other photos I took that day (don’t worry Joan, I didn’t take any of you!) and where I think I have the correct identification I’ll make a notation.

Naomi Cherkofsky contest winners

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The results of the Naomi Cherkofsky Memorial Contest  are in, and we are very excited to share them with you. We do hope any of you who entered and are not on this list know that all of us have not been on some list or other! It doesn’t mean you are not terrific. Please know that we would love to have you join the winners to share your poetry during the North Shore Poets’ Forum’s annual celebration of National Poetry Month on Saturday, April 20, at the Beverly Public Library, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. It is always an entertaining time.

And now the list:

1st Prize   Carol Seitchik – “Tel Aviv: Meandering Back”

2nd Prize   Clemens Schoenebeck – “Resurrection”

3rd Prize   Sally Clark – “One Loose Screw”

Honorable Mentions:

1HM   C.H.Coleman – “A Mother’s Moment”

2HM   Clemens Schoneback – “Old Dog”

3HM    Ms. Phyllis Hodge – “Blizzard in the City”

4HM   Peter McDale – “Almost Spring”

5HM   Alan Swartz – “In the Dream there was a Card Game”

6HM   V. G. Bisaillon – “A Partly Blocked View”

7HM   Richard Samuel Davis – “Waiting for Deer at the Island Refuge”

We invite our winners to come to our celebration to read their poems. After they read, we have an Open Mic. Lots of people join in, and we all have a great time.  Please try to make it!

Naomi Cherkofsky Contest deadline coming up

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The deadline for the annual Naomi Cherkofsky contest has been changed to March 15, to give this premier procrastinator (i.e., Cathryn Keefe O’Hare, AKA Cathy, AKA director of the North Shore Poets’ Forum) a little more time to get the news out about the contest.

Help, please!

(Please notice my use of line breaks here to add emphasis, something I learned from Melissa’s presentation on line breaks to the forum. See her earlier post.)

Tell your poet friends and neighbors and enemies. It’s cheap to enter, and it’s a lot of fun to attend our annual celebration of National Poetry Month with readings of the winning poems before an Open Mic and other great poems from those in the audience.

This year the celebration is on Saturday, April 20, 11 a.m. to 1 or so, in the Program Room of the Beverly Public Library.

Rules are spelled out under the “Contest” tab. In brief, any subject, any form, 40 line-length limit, poets 18 or older, no more than 5 entries per poet, $3 per entry. Send two copies, one signed with contact information, the other not (for judge), to Jeanette Maes, 64 Harrison Ave., Lynn, mA 02105, by March 15.

OK?

Now, as the Nike people say, Just Do It!