Talk to most writers and there are familiar complaints. Lamentations about how hard it is to meet deadlines and how solitary the writing process can be. The Cleaveland House poets, however, tell a different story.
“I think the best thing I like about this group is this is the first time in my adult life I haven’t been in an environment that was competitive,” said Ellen Martin Story.
“To be part of a group that meets every two weeks that expects you to show up with a poem you’ve written or been working on… it encourages originality,” added Warren Woessner.
The group was founded in 1963 by Dionis Coffin Riggs in the parlor of her home, the Cleaveland House in West Tisbury. For 58 years, generations of Island poets have gathered biweekly there — or on Zoom, during the pandemic — to share their work with each other. The home is owned now by Dionis’s daughter, Cynthia Riggs.
Recently, the group released a new anthology, In the Company of Poets, its first since 2013.
“One of the nice things about publishing a poem is you no longer tinker with it,” Annette Sandrock said.
But there are of course more poems to tinker with as the group is not resting on its laurels. Last Wednesday, the group was back in action working on new poems. The poets sat in a circle in the Cleaveland House’s backyard, an ancient Maple tree providing shade and a brief respite from the August heat. The group spoke about the power of gathering at a home steeped in literary heritage.
“There’s something here in this place,” Peter Ledermann said. “It’s in the trees, it’s in the grass, it’s in the house. And you step into it, and it puts you in a different place,”
Each meeting has a set format. First, a poet reads his or own work out loud, and then another member of the group reads it out loud again.
“You automatically start hearing whether or not it’s advisable to start tweaking away,” Arnie Reisman said of hearing his verse in someone else’s voice. “So it has a workshop aspect to it. It does help you. It is educational in terms of how to create.”
“We have met so regularly and often we seem to know each other’s voices and poems,” Fan Ogilvie, the group’s facilitator, wrote in the introduction to this year’s anthology. “With that knowledge we are able to address the poems with intimacy and care.”
Each writer brings a different perspective and background to the sessions. Some have been writers for 50 years, some were once journalists, and some did not start identifying as a writer until they joined the group.
“I think there’s a big difference between writing poetry and considering yourself a poet. It’s a gift word,” Georgia Morris said. “I’ve always written poetry but for some reason I never thought that I could call myself a poet. Here, I’m a poet.”
One thread that weaves together all the group members is their shared connection to the Vineyard. The poems are not always about the Vineyard, but the unique character of what it means to live on an Island seeps into their work and their writing process, they said.
“I do not write about the Island that frequently, but I write because of the Island,” said Mr. Reisman.
“This place creates a symphony out of a cacophony,” added Mr. Ledermann.
The Cleaveland House Poets anthology is available at Edgartown Books and Bunch of Grapes Bookstore. The group will host public readings of the anthology on Aug. 31 at 4:30 p.m. on Zoom through the West Tisbury library; in-person on Sept. 10 at 3:30 p.m. at Behind the Bookstore through Edgartown Books; and in-person on Sept. 22 at the Martha’s Vineyard Museum at 4 p.m.
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