Poet of the Month

August's Featured Poet: Jack Prelutsky

Jack Prelutsky (1940-) hooks kids on poetry. He honors their feelings and encourages them to think with formal and informal poetry that’s funny — frightening funny, scary funny, strange funny and everyday funny. He reaches kids without false sentiment or talking down, building vocabulary with laughter. Last year the Poetry Foundation officially named him the first Children’s Poet Laureate — a well-deserved honor.

The Bogeyman
In the desolate depths of a perilous place
the bogeyman lurks, with a snarl on his face.
Never dare, never dare to approach his dark lair
for he's waiting . . . just waiting . . . to get you.

He skulks in the shadows, relentless and wild
in his search for a tender, delectable child.
With his steely sharp claws and his slavering jaws
oh he's waiting . . . just waiting . . . to get you.

Many have entered his dreary domain
but not even one has been heard from again.
They no doubt made a feast for the butchering beast
and he's waiting . . . just waiting . . . to get you.

In that sulphurous, sunless and sinister place
he'll crumple your bones in his bogey embrace.
Never never go near if you hold your life dear,
for oh! . . . what he'll do . . . when he gets you!

Further Reading: Our library’s children’s section has 32 titles by Jack Prelutsky that make fun reading for parents with kids at their sides. Among them: The Frogs Wore Red Suspenders, Pizza the Size of the Sun, My Parents Think I’m Sleeping, New Kid on the Block.

Coming in September: Lucille Clifton

Content Developed by local resident and poet Leland Jamieson

East Hampton Voices

The Poet Behind Our Poetry Posts
Throughout April 2007, National Poetry Month, our blog featured "poet of the week" entries. Poetry posts are now a monthly feature, owing to your comments (verbal and electronic) and something we never expected: clear demand to read and learn more about poets and their poems.

As you may have noticed in the closing byline of each post, the content is developed by Leland Jamieson, a local resident and poet in his own right. His published volume of poetry, 21st Century Bread is available at our library. Read for yourself poems about which critics say... "Fabulous capsules of feeling.... Admire the hand-flawlessly-fitting-in-a-snug-glove-tone of your lines...." "They Electrify...."

About the Author
Leland Jamieson, poet and author of 21st Century Bread: Poems, is a one-time performing arts center manager now living and writing in East Hampton, CT. A native of Miami, FL, he is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As managing director of Bushnell Memorial Hall Corporation in Hartford from 1978-85, he turned around a large operating deficit, and facilitated the conversion of the family-centered board of trustees into a modern, representative governing entity. He oversaw two major building reconstruction projects. He resigned to pursue other business interests until his retirement from business in 2000.

Poet of the Month

July's Featured Poet: Sharon Olds
Sharon Olds (1942–), a widely-read contemporary poet who has long taught at NYU and won numerous critical awards, in recent years used her celebrity status to make a political statement (as did Marlon Brando, declining an Oscar Award, Robert Hughes declining a White House Invitation from Lady Bird Johnson, and many others). She turned down Laura Bush’s invitation to read her poetry at a festival of 85,000 people. In a long detailed Open Letter she concluded, “I could not face... breaking bread with you... who represent... this war...its continuation...torture... I could not stomach it.”

The Unborn
Sometimes I can almost see, around our heads,
Like gnats around a streetlight in summer,
The children we could have,
The glimmer of them.

Sometimes I feel them waiting, dozing
In some antechamber servants,
half Listening for the bell.

Sometimes I see them lying like love letters
In the Dead Letter Office.

And sometimes, like tonight, by some black
Second sight I can feel just one of them
Standing on the edge of a cliff by the sea
In the dark, stretching its arms out
Desperately to me.

Further Reading: Olds, Sharon, Strike Sparks: Selected Poems 1980-2002; Olds, Sharon, The Wellspring (1996), both in our library.

Content developed by local resident and poet Leland Jamieson

Friends of Lake Pocotopaug Launch Web Site

A Place Like No Other
The Friends of Lake Pocotopaug, a non-profit, all volunteer group dedicated to improving Lake Pocotopaug and its environs, recently announced the launch of their new web site. The site is chock full of information about the Friends' fundraising activities and their many coordinated efforts to help improve the water quality of our community's most precious asset.

We recommend adding this site to your list of web site favorites. Surf the site early and often to find out what's new on the lake front and to learn more about how to become a friend of a friend in need.

A Listener's Feast

Rhyme and Meter, Rhythm and Blues
The second annual national poetry recitation contest, sponsored by the National Arts Endowment and the Poetry Foundation, concluded on May 1st at the George Washington University Lisner Auditorium in Washington, DC. Duke Ellington School of the Arts senior Amanda Fernandez took the top prize by riveting audiences with her reading of Ma Rainey*, a vibrant portrait of rural African-American life by poet Sterling A. Brown.

The contest is administered in 50 states and the District of Columbia; winners advance to school-wide competitions, then to the state competition, and ultimately to the National Finals. Over 100,000 of our nation's youth participated in this year's competition, representing more than 1000 high schools.

For Your Listening Pleasure
Visit the Poetry Out Loud website which includes video and audio clips of the 2006 contest winners (you'll need Windows Media or Real Player) as well as photos of contestants by state. Also try a BBC website for audio clips of interviews with and readings by renowned poets.

*Gertrude "Ma" Rainey [1886-1939] was inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.
Rainey is widely known as the "Mother of Blues".

"If we had no Winter, the spring would not be so pleasant.."

June's Featured Poet: Anne Bradstreet
Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672) was married at age 16, and as a bride set sail from England for Massachusetts Bay. There, facing the stark hardships of the frontier and recurrent illness, she raised eight children and without support of any women — "I am obnoxious to each carping tongue
Who says my hand a needle better fits"—
wrote poetry published England in 1650 as The Tenth Muse.

In Honour of . . .Queen Elizabeth [excerpt]
Now say, have women worth? or have they none?
Or had they some, but with our Queen is't gone?
Nay masculines, you have thus taxed us long,
But she, though dead, will vindicate our wrong.
Let such as say our sex is void of reason,
Know 'tis a slander now but once was treason.
But happy England which had such a queen;
Yea happy, happy, had those days still been.
But happiness lies in a higher sphere,
Then wonder not Eliza moves not here.
Full fraught with honour, riches, and with days
She set, she set like Titan in his rays.
No more shall rise or set so glorious sun
Until the heaven's great revolution:
If then new things their old form shall retain,
Eliza shall rule Albion once again . . . .

Further Reading: Bradstreet, Anne (edited by Jeannine Hensley, foreword by Adrienne Rich) The Works of Anne Bradstreet, 1981; Gordon, Charlotte, Mistress Bradstreet: The Untold Life of America’s First Poet — both in our library.

Content developed by local resident and poet Lee Jamieson

Painting by Ladonna Gulley Warrick

Poetry Posts Back by Popular Demand

Now Appearing on the This Blog: Poet of the Month Charlie Simic
We'd like to thank all of you who took the time to offer your encouraging comments about April's poetry posts. Though our formal celebration of National Poetry Month (April) has passed, we'll offer Poet of the Month posts for all you folks who enjoyed the celebration and would like to party on...

Charles Simic (1938-), born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, writes contemporary free verse in a laid-back surrealistic MFA style characteristic of the academy (currently dominant in the U.S.). He has won numerous national awards for his poems and translations from Croatian, French, Macedonian, Serbian and Slovenian. The poem below shows how acute an observer he is of contemporary U.S. culture and its fractured disconnects:

Hotel Starry Sky
Millions of empty rooms with TV sets turned on.
I wasn’t there yet I saw everything.
Titanic on the screen like a
birthday cake sinking.
Poseidon, the night clerk, blew out the candles.

How much should we tip the blind bellhop?
At three in the morning the gum machine
in the empty lobby
With its freshly cracked mirror
Is the new Madonna with her infant child.

Further Reading: Simic, Charles, The Voice at 3:00 a.m.: Selected Late and New Poems, 2003; Simic, Charles, Jackstraws: Poems, 1998; Ratiner, Steven (Editor and Compiler), Giving Their Word: Conversations with Contemporary Poets — all in our local library.

Coming in June: Anne Bradstreet

Content developed by local resident and poet Lee Jamieson

Selected ICONN Services Now Just a Click Away

The Power of ICONN
For those of you who may not know, your tax dollars fund ICONN, the State of Connecticut's digital library. ICONN provides you with free, secured access to a variety of information resources; all of them highly regarded, kid-safe and commercial free.

Now Just a Click Away...
For your convenience [no double logins], you may now use our local catalog to directly link to six selected ICONN resources. Links to these statewide resources, as well as many local links, appear in the resource box on the bottom half of the page. Knowledgeable staff and a take-home pamphlet on how to select and use these and other ICONN resources are available at the library.

EBSCO History Reference Center
For: High School students and up
For history buffs, class projects and assignments, this is the first place to look! Provides articles from magazines, journals, reference and non-fiction books; biographies, documents and speeches; maps and photographs. Also includes film and video clips of social, political and cultural historical events of the 20th Century from 1893 to 1985.

EBSCO Science Reference Center
For: High School students and up
Start here for science projects and research needs! Provides articles from scientific reference books, magazines, journals, biographies and images. Topics covered include: biology, chemistry, earth & space science, environmental science, health & medicine, physics, technology, and wildlife.

InfoTrac Onefile
Large collection of articles from magazines, newspapers, academic journals and trade publications. Titles include: Consumer Reports, Prevention, Forbes, Atlantic Monthly, National Geographic, and Popular Science.

HeritageQuest
Designed for: Genealogy Researchers Search U.S. federal censuses, family and local histories, and primary-source documents such as tax lists, city directories, and probate records. Materials date back to the 1700s.

Hartford Courant
Search issues of the Hartford Courant published since 1992. Use the Hartford Courant - Historical database for coverage from 1764 - 1922. Please note: the years 1923-1991 are not yet available online.

What Do I Read Next?
A readers’ advisory service of highly recommended adult, young adult and children's books in various genres: inspirational, mystery, romance, science fiction, fantasy, horror, western and historical novels, general fiction, classic fiction and nonfiction.