August 20 is the deadline to sign up for the online open mic August 23.
Poetry
October 24, 2020
The West Tisbury Library presents an online poetry reading with local poet Amarylis Douglas, Wednesday at 5 p.m.
November 10, 2020
The online reading is scheduled for Nov. 22 and all are welcome to listen and take part, according to an announcement from the West Tisbury Library.
April 6, 2021
Island poets are invited to take part in the April 25 reading.
2014
April 3, 2014
LAX creates somniacs or worse.
Promised wifi is a lie. We lay
to wait connection, a continuation home.
March 27, 2014
Winter solstice was hardly a comfort, for those of us who suffer from SAD while enduring our endless days fading daylight.
2013
October 3, 2013
I appreciate the prayers and kindness shown to me and my family during my daughter’s illness. So happy to be back on-Island. So grateful. The following by Naomi Shihab Nye, from The Words Under the Words: Selected Poems, captures perfectly my sentiment at this time.
September 30, 2013
The following poem is by Warren Woessner, a birding enthusiast and bard who wanders the shorelines of the Island.
August 15, 2013
What if a deceased dog could talk? What if hippos went on holiday?
Those are some of the questions asked and answered by the former U.S. poet laureate and Island favorite Billy Collins in a reading of new and selected poems at Featherstone Center for the Arts last Friday evening. Among other disparate themes, he explored parenting, animal-human relationships, endearing soap bars and the experience of a traveler who arrives in a foreign place and is immediately told he has arrived too late in the year to witness the peak of the natural beauty.
August 8, 2013
He shows me the way
A boy in a dog suit
On a scent
Innocent
His marble-sized eyes
Soft brown nougats
Warm Black Crow centers
Anchored in opposing tear drops
At rest
Lying sideways
Between the weight of the world
And a profound sense of loss
He has seen it all
And regrets most of it
Eyes rimmed as if with kohl
It’s a look, a look that cannot be denied
You want to give him everything
You will give him anything,
Anything that will make his tongue come out
And swipe his snout
Or make him sweep the floor with his tail
Call his name
Tell him he’s good
Ask him if he wants food
Ask him if he wants a ride
Tell him Mommy’s coming
Tell him anyone’s coming
For God’s sake just say hello
As Quixote upon seeing a windmill,
He tilts his head
He pumps an eyebrow
He’s ready to follow you
To the ends of the earth or the driveway,
Whichever comes first.
“Mommy, why is that doggie so sad?”
The little girl pumps her mother’s hand,
Her finger wags at Floyd
“He can’t help it,” I say in a sing-song way.
“His eyes are shaped like sadness.
His brows slope down,
Like a seesaw always down.
He always looks this way,
Even when he’s happy
And he’s always happy.
Isn’t that right, Floyd?”
Tilt
Pump
Lick
Wag
Giggle
The little girl runs over and hugs Floyd,
Squeezing his scruff with arms of grace in training.
He looks at me as if to say,
“Is this the ends of the earth or the driveway?”
