Tag Archives: MSPS

Apologies and updates

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Apparently, some of you relied upon the information in this blog’s Contests page to send poems to the Mass State Poetry Society’s most recent contest. I am sorry. I have been blatantly absent for some time from the blog, but I just updated the information. Gertrude Callis, former contest chair for the MSPS, died this year. She is missed for her enthusiasm for poetry, for her quiet determination, for her sense of humor, for her generosity, and for her hard work on our behalf. In her place as contest chair for the MSPS is Roberta Hung, another wonderfully kind, gracious and hard-working poet. Those of us who are also members of MSPS are lucky to have her.

I have also updated the meetings schedule for the Forum….with almost no information! We neglected to set a program for this coming year. So, please join us on Saturday, Sept. 17, at the Beverly Public Library, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. ish, with some poems from a favorite or new or interesting poet we may not be familiar with so that we, too, can learn and enjoy. Please also bring a poem or two of your own, with copies, for gentle critique. And, be prepared to volunteer to give a program over the course of our next year at the Forum.

Some of you know that my husband died in April. This is one of the first times I’ve actually said that, and I don’t think I will ever get used to it….the saying it…the absence it only declares. In any case, although I may have shared this poem by Jane Kenyon before, it is the one I chose for my husband’s service.

Let Evening Come

BY JANE KENYON

Let the light of late afternoon
shine through chinks in the barn, moving
up the bales as the sun moves down.
…
Let the cricket take up chafing
as a woman takes up her needles
and her yarn. Let evening come.

…

Let dew collect on the hoe abandoned
in long grass. Let the stars appear
and the moon disclose her silver horn.

…

Let the fox go back to its sandy den.
Let the wind die down. Let the shed
go black inside. Let evening come.

…

To the bottle in the ditch, to the scoop
in the oats, to air in the lung
let evening come.

…

Let it come, as it will, and don’t
be afraid. God does not leave us
comfortless, so let evening come.

 

Of hearth and home: NSPF workshop featuring MSPS leader Jeanette C. Maes

Poetry,
Like Dorothy says: "There's no place like home."

According to Merriam-Webster, a “habitant” is “a settler or descendant of a settler of French origin working as a farmer in Canada” but we’ve come to understand the word more akin to an inhabitant, or dweller, a residence of a given location over time. Which perhaps begs the question regarding the distinction of “location” and the difference between the nouns “house” and “home” and the emotional connection we feel (or don’t feel) when those words are used.

So this Saturday, May 21, at 11 a.m., at the Beverly Public Library Jeanette C. Maes, president of the Massachusetts State Poetry Society will offer NSPF attendees a workshop titled, “Habitation: House  or  Home.” After the program, of course, NSPF members can bring their own poems to share for gentle critique. Don’t forget to brin g a goodie or two to share as well.