Edgartown has named its first poet laureate. The title was bestowed upon Steve Ewing at the board of selectmen’s meeting Monday.
According to the selectmen, Mr. Ewing’s primarily responsibility as poet laureate is to read a poem at the annual town meeting. Mr. Ewing accepted the job, but took exception to the title. “I don’t know what to say,” said Mr. Ewing. “I’m really honored. Poet laureate is kind of a fancy term ... I’m just a local kid who likes to write.”
Islanders will have a say in selecting the first Martha’s Vineyard Poet Laureate.
Year-round poets must submit five poems of any genre, style or form. A jury of judges will read all submissions, and nominate five finalists. The winning five poets must be willing to participate in a public reading that will be videotaped and distributed on the Martha’s Vineyard Poetry Society’s Facebook page; MVTV; YouTube and through other Island media and agencies.
How did Tina Chang become the Poet Laureate of Brooklyn? By writing the following words:
“I walk the streets of Brooklyn looking at this storefront and that, buy a pair of shoes I can’t afford, pumps from London, pointed at the tip and heartbreakingly high, hear my new heels clicking, crushing the legs of my shadow.”
Well, actually that is a mere sampling of her work taken from her poem Duality. There is so much more to choose from.
Poet Laureate Reads
Don’t pass up the chance to see Poet Laureate Fan Oglivie of West Tisbury read in her native land. Ms. Ogilvie, along with poet Patrick Phillips, will be reading at the West Tisbury Public Library on Sunday, Dec. 5 at 4 p.m.
Ms. Ogilivie has taught workshops at the Featherstone Center for the Arts and at the Dukes County House of Correction. She has also published several chapbooks, most recently Poems from the Gray Bar Hotel (2010).
Following the recommendation of the West Tisbury public library trustees, the West Tisbury selectmen voted recently to appoint West Tisbury resident Fan Ogilvie to the position of town poet laureate.
First, start somewhere familiar. Chopping parsley in the kitchen.
Listening to headphones on 44th street. Observing three-year-olds throw
insults like Big Sewerface at a birthday party.
Then, follow a trail of crumbs into the woods. Better yet, find a
rabbit hole and jump down it. Or pull the candle stick on the mantle in
the haunted house and slip through the bookcase when it swivels around.
Enter the less familiar, somewhat weird, darkly funny, sometimes
frightening.
