Tag: Emily Dickinson

ArtWeek 2019 in Amherst, MA
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ArtWeek 2019 Highlights

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#ArtOfRainPoetry

It was a gloriously damp weekend for much of the start of ArtWeek, which meant good visibility for the Emily Dickinson Museum’s installation of rain poetry in downtown Amherst.  Below are some of the poems that I spotted walking around town (including mine!)

ArtWeek in Amherst MA
“To see the Summer Sky Is Poetry, though never in a Book it lie True Poems flee” by Emily Dickinson
Artweek in Amherst MA
“A man leaves his path written across the snow But more elegant and modest: silver tracings left by snails.” by Manuel Becera

ArtWeek 2019 in Amherst, MA
“Not that I have forgotten robins, playgrounds, the crocus’ imperial glow, nor breeze-tousled pondweed– still my camera catalogs the evidence: item: one budding branch; item: one lawn, indifferent green– to prove unto the jury of myself the truth of spring.” by Meg Winikates

Florence Poetry Carnival

Up the road from where I live, the neighborhood of Florence hosted their first ever “Poetry Carnival” on Saturday afternoon, which was fairly well attended despite the chill and damp. A number of local institutions sent representatives, including the Emily Dickinson Museum, the Forbes Library, the Freckled Fox Cafe, Poems2Go, and Perugia  Press. There were writing activities and poetry-inspired crafts, an open mic session, and a discussion/reading between the outgoing and incoming Florence Poets Laureate.  Though it was small, in the absence this year of the statewide MassPoetry Festival, it was lovely to spend an afternoon among other poetry readers, writers, and enthusiasts.

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This was my favorite activity brought by the Emily Dickinson Museum, which plays with Dickinson’s habit of using variants in her poetry (lines where there are options for more than one word to fill out the thought), and invites attendees to add their own variants to her poem “Water is taught by thirst.” I added “the return of dawn” as a variant to “Birds, by the….”
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Blackout poem by Meg Winikates, from a recycled book page provided by Northampton’s Forbes Library. The librarians were collecting the poems created that day for the library’s zine club to turn into a zine commemorating the day, so I left mine behind to participate. I also found out the library has a massive poetry collection, which I’m looking forward to exploring. 
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Looking forward to rain!

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A few weeks ago, when the Emily Dickinson Museum posted a call for short poems for potential inclusion in their #ArtofRainPoetry event for ArtWeek, I got very excited.  I’ve enjoyed the many photos I’ve seen from MassPoetry’s previous rain poetry installations, and I’m always in favor of projects that get poetry out into public view.  Last fall I had a haiku, “Robin and Rabbit,” selected to be part of the Minuteman Bikeway Public Art project, though sadly I never managed to get a good picture of it in situ, as the chalk paint was laid down one day and the next four days were heavy wind and rain, so many of the poems were obscured by wet leaves.

This spring, however, I can look forward to a rainy day, as my poem “If Spring (Recalcitrance)” was one of five selected from over 80 submissions to be part of the Dickinson Museum’s installation on the sidewalks of Amherst.

Starting this weekend, you can find my poem and 5 others, on the sidewalks of Amherst.  We’re due for rain both Saturday and Sunday, so keep your eyes peeled! (Bonus: my poem is going to be located only a block from Bart’s, so you can grab some ice cream at the same time!)

Rain poem map

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In praise of the sound of crunching leaves

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Graveyard, Arlington MA, October 2015. Photo by Meg Winikates
Graveyard, Arlington MA, October 2015. Photo by Meg Winikates

It’s autumn, and despite being an agreeably insane sort of busy right now, I had a chance to go out at lunch today and take in the seasonal delights. Peak foliage around town was actually probably the end of last week, but there’s still a lot of gorgeous to be had, and that brilliant invigorating bite in the breeze today is the sort that makes me glad to be alive.

And so in celebration of my favorite season, have a poem by fellow New Englander Emily Dickinson!

Besides the Autumn poets sing (131)
Emily Dickinson, 1830 – 1886

Besides the Autumn poets sing,
A few prosaic days
A little this side of the snow
And that side of the Haze –

A few incisive mornings –
A few Ascetic eves –
Gone – Mr Bryant’s “Golden Rod” –
And Mr Thomson’s “sheaves.”

Still, is the bustle in the brook –
Sealed are the spicy valves –
Mesmeric fingers softly touch
The eyes of many Elves –

Perhaps a squirrel may remain –
My sentiments to share –
Grant me, Oh Lord, a sunny mind –
Thy windy will to bear!

If you’re hungry for more autumnal poetry, you might want to check out this Wednesday’s Improbable Places Poetry Tour.  Imagined, organized, and hosted by poet and Montserrat professor Colleen Michaels, this month’s stop on the tour is at Green Meadows Farm in South Hamilton, MA, and a gathering of poets will be reading a selection of their works on the theme of “Harvest/Moon”– including me!

I’ll be there to listen, bask by the bonfire under the moon, and read one of my own night sky pieces.  Hope to see you there!