Tag Archives: poetry readings

Contest Winners and Reading — Coming Up

Meetings, Poetry, , , , ,

Just a quick note to say that the winners of the annual Naomi Cherkofsky national contest have been chosen, but the judge needs to get the names and contact info — always a secret — which the contest chair has to pull together. So, we’ll keep you posted.

Then, everyone should join us at the Beverly Public Library on Saturday, April 26, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for a celebration of National Poetry Month, with readings of the winning poems followed by an open mic. Light refreshments will be available.

See you then!

Share your favorite poet

general, Meetings, Poetry, , , , , , , , ,

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!

Naomi Cherkofsky contest winners

general, Poetry, , , , , , , , ,

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

general, Meetings, , , ,

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!

Poetry plans made for upcoming year

general, Meetings, Poetry, , , , , , , ,

A small group met at the Beverly Public Library on Saturday, Sept. 15, and we’ve come up with a schedule and some of the programs for the year, which follow. However, we didn’t want to exclude anyone who wasn’t at the meeting from a chance to volunteer for a program. Therefore, we have a coupd of unplanned meetings for you!

There was some talk about presenting a program for the Massachusetts Poetry Festival, which is scheduled this year for Ma 3-5. It won’t conflict, as it did last year, with our Poetry Month Reading in April, which is good news. And, therefore, Mary Miceli suggested that we might want to find a few members of the Massachusetts State Poetry Society, of which our group is a chapter, to do a program for the festival. She suggested the topic be on Aging, although she had more of a transitions theme in mind, and aging in all its age groups.

As just one chapter, we didn’t feel we could make any definitive decisions and voted to bring the topic up at the Mass. State meeting coming up this Saturday, Oct. 6.

So, back to the NSPF schedule. We always meet at the Beverly Public Library, at 11 a.m. to about 1 p.m. Everyone is asked to bring a food item or beverage to share. The date is usually the third Saturday, but it can change. See below:

Oct 20: Melissa Varnavas will present a program on line breaks.
Nov. 17: Volunteer needed.

Dec. 1: Holiday Party, with the whole Mass State Poetry Society. NSPF sponsors the Most Apt Poem contest, which goes to the person who has a poem that best describes the present he/she brought for the Yankee Swap. Poems/presents are unsigned. The winner must fess up! And, it’s all in good fun!

Jan. 19: Need a volunteer.

Feb. 15: Mary Micelli will do a program, TBA.

March 16: Diane Giardi will do a program, TBA.

April 20: Celebration of National Poetry Month, with readings by the winners of the Naomi Cherkofsky Contest, followed by Open Mic.

May 18: Volunteer needed.

June 15: Annual Outing.

And, the winners are…..

general, Meetings, Poetry, , , , , , , , ,

We are excited to announce the winners of the Naomi Cherkofsky Memorial Contest and invite them and you to our annual reading in celebration of National Poetry Month, on Saturday, April 21, 11 a.m., at the Beverly Public Library.

They are:

1st. “Poem for Hilda,” by Catherine Stavrakas

2nd. “A Night-Time Long Ago,” by Yamilee Craven

3rd. “Let My Soul Blossom Like the Night Blooming Jasmine,” by Richard Samuel Davis

Honorable Mentions, in no particular order, are:

“Jack’s Pumpkin,” as well as “Revelations,” both by Diane Giardi

“Walking in the Arboretum,” as well as “The Commuter,” by Mickey Coburn

“Azure,” by Lee Lewis

“On a Budget,” by Johanna Maria Donovan

“Aftertaste,” by Megan Ouellet

“Going,” as well as “Storm,” by Catherine Stavrakas

We will first hear our winning poets read and then open it up to others in attendance. This annual event is always a lot of fun. We have light refreshments, and we encourage socializing as well as good poetry!

Please join us at the library, and tell your friends and family, 11 a.m. to about 1 p.m. Let’s celebrate National Poetry Month!

Enter the Naomi Cherkofsky contest!

Poetry, , , , , , , , ,

I have just rewritten the following poem, a habit I have, so that I almost never think my poems are finished. But, if you have the same habit, stop it! Send in that poem — or the other, or even the other — to the annual Naomi Cherkofsky Memorial poetry contest! And, tell your friends to do so, too. (Click the poetry contest tab of this blog for the info.)

Many of you have come to the annual reading, held the third Saturday in April, and you know what a great time we have. The winners of the contest read first, followed by an open mic. Please spread the word. It’s a sad truth, but newspapers are no longer spreading the word the way they did in the good old days. Readership is way down, and they are grappling with survival.

We need you, therefore, to tell everyone about the contest.

Here’s the poem I was telling you about, which has actually been published in a Mass State Poets anthology in a slightly different rendition. I’m sure you can do better! Pull out your pens, your computers, your thinking caps, and get going!

Dusk in Winter

By Cathryn Keefe O’Hare

 

The sky – blue, white.

The ground, etched in black macadam.

The houses cramped by

the big mall and the little malls

that grew up nearby.

……..

Still, the twiggy branches of the trees

surge

and the crisp clarity

of the ebbing day

pulsates with a swirl

of black birds billowing

in a pointillist arc,

alighting on a naked

maple, swooshing

up suddenly as though

the winter god shook them

off its solemn simplicity,

tickled them into replays

of their aerial vivacity

……..

While in the west

the sun blushes madly

in a last attempt

to brighten the day

…….

and the birds flock,

and flock again

before hiding somewhere

in the star-struck night.