It is Monday, my first day back to work from a marvelous, week-long vacation. Monday is a day that adults often have trouble embracing. The Mamas and the Papas sang their blues over it, winning heartfelt, dittoed laments across the generations. In fact, many of us feel the way we did when we were small, during the school year. Remember? Which brings to mind one of my children’s favorite poems when they were small. I can still hear them laughing over…

Sick

by Shel Silverstein

"I cannot go to school today,"
Said little Peggy Ann McKay.
"I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash and purple bumps.
My mouth is wet, my throat is dry,
I'm going blind in my right eye.
My tonsils are as big as rocks,
I've counted sixteen chicken pox
And there's one more--that's seventeen,
And don't you think my face looks green?
My leg is cut--my eyes are blue--
It might be instamatic flu.
I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke,
I'm sure that my left leg is broke--
My hip hurts when I move my chin,
My belly button's caving in,
My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained,
My 'pendix pains each time it rains.
My nose is cold, my toes are numb.
I have a sliver in my thumb.
My neck is stiff, my voice is weak,
I hardly whisper when I speak.
My tongue is filling up my mouth,
I think my hair is falling out.
My elbow's bent, my spine ain't straight,
My temperature is one-o-eight.
My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear,
There is a hole inside my ear.
I have a hangnail, and my heart is--what?
What's that? What's that you say?
You say today is. . .Saturday?
G'bye, I'm going out to play!"

Members have agreed on the following schedule for the coming year. We’ll fill in the program blanks at our September meeting, during which we will also have gentle critiques of one another’s poetry. The schedule will also be on the separate Meeting & Event page, with the updates.

Please join us!

And, because I want to be sure this blog is interesting, I am sharing one of my favorite Stanley Kunitz poems. It is called ….

Touch Me

Summer is late, my heart.
Words plucked out of the air
some forty years ago
when I was wild with love
and torn almost in two
scatter like leaves this night
of whistling wind and rain.
It is my heart that’s late,
it is my song that’s flown.
Outdoors all afternoon
under a gunmetal sky
staking my garden down,
I kneeled to the crickets trilling
underfoot as if about
to burst from their crusty shells;
and like a child again
marveled to hear so clear
and brave a music pour
from such a small machine.
What makes the engine go?
Desire, desire, desire.
The longing for the dance
stirs in the buried life.
One season only,
and it’s done.
So let the battered old willow
thrash against the windowpanes
and the house timbers creak.
Darling, do you remember
the man you married? Touch me,
remind me who I am.

Meetings are held at the Beverly Public Library unless otherwise noted. Members bring food to share, such as cookies, little sandwiches, etc.

Sept. 19: Members read their own poems for gentle critique and a back in the swing of things gathering

Oct. 24: (A week late, to accommodate the MSPS meeting on the 17^th)

Nov. 21: (Thanksgiving is the following Thursday)

Dec. 5: Holiday party with Mass State Poetry Society; most apt poem contest for Yankee Swap

March 20:

April 17: Poetry reading in celebration of National Poetry Month, featuring winners of the Naomi                                 Cherkofsky annual contest. (March 1 deadline, any form, any subject, 40 lines, over 18)

May 15

July: summer outing, to be announced. Read your poems – or any you like – and bring food to share.

http://www.dodgepoetry.org

I am sharing a link to the Dodge Poetry Festival, because it is such a fantastic event, held every two years since 1986. But, earlier this year its sponsor, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, reported a loss of $90 million of its $306 million base, adding that it would have to cut costs. Among them, the festival in 2010.

Some of you may have seen on PBS or read the Bill Moyer’s book based on the festivals, “The Language of Life.” I have it beside me as I write this. It includes some of my favorite poets, like Stanley Kunitz and Jane Kenyon and Li-Young Lee. And, it inlcudes a whole bunch more I like, including Linda McCarriston, Robert Bly, Robert Haas, Galway Kinnell, Adrienne Rich, and many more. And, it introduced a lot of people to the joy and thrill of poetry.

Anyway, the festival may go on after all, since many people are responding to the notice of cancellation with horror and contributions to keep it going.

On the website, if you click on the You Tube info, you can actually hear some of the poets from past festivals, including Billy Collins (another of my favorite poets, not included in the Moyers book), and Ted Kooser and Maxine Kumin. (Thanks, Marcia Molay, for leading me to this!)

I leave you today with a poem by Mary Oliver (not included in the Moyers book, either. See, there’s just so much out there!).

Wild Geese

———————-by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile, the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the word offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting—

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

The North Shore Poets’ Forum was created in the mid 1970s as an informal group of poets who were interested in learning more about the art and craft of poetry. It is still dedicated to this purpose.

The group provides workshops at each of its seven meetings. All forum members are invited to prepare workshops, which could focus on anything from a particular form of poetry, a poet, a theme, or any other facet of poetry that strikes the presenter’s fancy.

Members also offer gentle critiques of one another’s poetry, and enjoy camaraderie during the meetings.

The North Shore Poets’ Forum sponsors a nationwide contest once a year, named for a longtime member Naomi Cherkofsky. Winners are asked to read at the annual reading in honor of National Poetry month, during which attendees are also invited to read if they wish.

Meetings are usually held at the Beverly Public Library on the third Saturday of September, October, November, March, April and May, depending on how holidays fall.

In addition, the forum shares a Holiday meeting with the Massachusetts State Poetry Society, of which it is now a chapter, usually the first week of December.

See our Meetings and Events calendar for more information. See also the Massachusetts State Poetry Society for more information about that organization.

We hope to offer poetry from among our members. To kickstart the page, see Introducing, at the top of this page.

Please share your comments, questions, and enthusiasm.