2011 Fall Poetry Reading at Barnes & Noble
September 27, 2011
Barnes & Noble and Ramapough Poets present…
2011 Fall Poetry Reading
with Ramapough Poets
at
Barnes & Noble
4416 Palisades Center Drive
WestNyack,New York
November 10 at 7:30 pm
Fall into Poetry
with Ramapough Poets and friends!
Community participation is welcome.
The program is free, open to the public and wheelchair accessible.
For more information, call 845-348-4701.
Come join us for some great poetry, and to share your own–
student poetry readings are being offered
on Nov 3 and Nov 17, and again in the spring!!
Summer Poetry Reading August 4, 2011
July 22, 2011
Valley Cottage Library and Ramapough Poets present
POETRY in the GARDEN
A Summer Poetry Reading
by Ramapough Poets and
Friends
Thursday, August 4, 2011
at 6:30 PM
During this unique evening of words and music, Ramapough Poets and friends will collaborate to perform the words and music of poetry, followed by an open reading.
Community participation welcome!
In case of rain or excessive heat, program moves inside.
In the Garden of Valley Cottage Library
110 Route 303, Valley Cottage, New York 10989
845-268-7700
March Thaw Poetry Reading
March 4, 2011
The Pomona Cultural Center and Ramapough Poets present
March Thaw Poetry
A MARCH THAW POETRY READING BY RAMAPOUGH POETS AND FRIENDS
Featured Artists will include:
Musicians Gde Arsa Artha and Bobby Deitch
and
Poets Jane Craig Sebok, Marty Levine,
Ted Mascola, Greg Roman,
Harry Waitzman, and Diane Weber
Sunday, March 20th, 2011 at 3:00 PM
During this relaxing afternoon of words and music,
Ramapough Poets and friends will collaborate to perform
the words and music of poetry, followed by an open reading.
Come listen to music and poetry,
view the art on exhibit in the gallery,
and join the celebration!
Program is free and open to the public.
In the Gallery of
Pomona Cultural Center
Route 306 (just north of Pomona Road), Pomona, New York
For more information, call 845-362-8062.
Poetry Readings with Rockland’s Young Poets
November 15, 2010
Barnes & Noble and Ramapough Poets present…
Poetry Readings
with Rockland’s Young Poets
at
Barnes & Noble
4416 Palisades Center Drive
West Nyack, New York
Fall Kick-Off Event for the New School Year!
Thursday, November 18, 7:30 pm
Clarkstown North High School Poets
Readings are hosted by Diane Weber of Ramapough Poets,
and will be followed by open readings.
Community participation is welcome.
The programs are free, open to the public and wheelchair accessible.
For more information, call 845-348-4701.
Come join us for some great poetry, and to share your own–
more poetry readings will be held in the spring!!
Rachel Wetzsteon (1967-2009)
April 5, 2010
(From the New Republic, Dec. 31, 2009)
In Memory, and Admiration, of
Rachel Wetzsteon
Adam Kirsch, Senior Editor
With great sadness, we at the The New Republic learned this week of the death of Rachel Wetzsteon, our poetry editor. Rachel only joined TNR a few months ago, and she had just begun to make her mark on the poetry we publish. But we admired her own poems for years: at 42, she was one of the best poets of her generation, distinguished by her natural gift for form, her tough urban romanticism, and her appealing combination of melancholy and wit. Her three books of poems—Other Stars (1994), Home and Away (1998), and Sakura Park (2006)—show a steady increase in mastery and feeling, as she took on the inheritance of Larkin and Auden (about whom she wrote a critical study, “Influential Ghosts”) and made it her own. Sakura Park, named after a park on the Upper West Side of Manhattan where she lived, is a lovely and moving book about romance and disillusion, conjuring a life that is at once intellectual and glamorous and heartbroken. We had looked forward to working with Rachel, and reading her, for many years to come, and we join her many readers, friends, and colleagues in mourning her loss. In her memory, we present two of her poems below.
Short Ode to Morningside Heights
Convergence of worlds, old stomping ground,
comfort me in my dark apartment
when my latest complaint shrinks my focus
to a point so small its hugely present
but barely there, and I fill the air
with all the spiteful words I spared the streets.
The pastry shop’s abuzz
with crazy George and filthy graffiti,
but the peacocks are strutting across the way
and the sumptuous cathedral gives
the open-air banter a reason to deepen:
build structures inside the mind, it tells
the languorous talkers, to rival the ones outside!
Things are and are not solid.
As Opera Night starts at Caffe Taci,
shapes hurry home with little red bags,
but do they watch the movies they hold
or do they forego movies for rooftops
where they catch Low’s floating dome in the act
of always being about to fly away?
Ranters, racers, help me remember
that the moon-faced fountain’s the work of many hands,
that people linger at Toast long after we’ve left.
And as two parks frame the neighborhood—
green framing gray and space calming clamor—
be for me, well-worn streets, a context
I can’t help carrying home, a night fugue
streaming over my one-note how, when, why.
Be the rain for my barren indoor cry.
–Rachel Wetzsteon
Commands for the End of Summer
i.
Deepen,
leaves, not with what
has made us sorry but
with what was profound about that
sorrow.
ii.
Make me
spontaneous,
gathering winds, but don’t
blow so giddily I teeter
too much.
iii.
Songs I
listened to all
summer long, accept my
thanks: to regress is not to move
backward.
iv.
Splash of
patchouli on
my wrist, remind me that
in this cauldron there is a world
elsewhere.
v.
Smile! Those
days of humid
agony have earned you
the right to a hundred purple
sunsets.
vi.
Come, fall,
I can feel you
stirring, I can hardly
wait for the things that will happen
come fall.
–Rachel Wetzsteon
The Pomona Cultural Center and Ramapough Poets present
March Thaw Poetry
A MARCH THAW POETRY READING BY RAMAPOUGH POETS AND FRIENDS
Featured Artists will include:
Musicians Gde Arsa Artha and Bobby Deitch
and
Poets Jane Craig Sebok, Marty Levine,
Ted Mascola, Greg Roman, Irving Sherman,
Harry Waitzman, and Diane Weber
Sunday, March 21st, 2010 at 3:00 PM
During this relaxing afternoon of words and music,
Ramapough Poets and friends will collaborate to perform
the words and music of poetry, followed by an open reading.
Come listen to music and poetry,
view the art on exhibit in the gallery,
and join the celebration!
Program is free and open to the public.
In the Gallery of
Pomona Cultural Center
Route 306 (just north of Pomona Road), Pomona, New York
For more information, call 845-362-8062.
Spring 2010 Poetry Readings with Young Poets
March 3, 2010
Barnes & Noble and Ramapough Poets present…
Spring Poetry Readings with Rockland’s Young Poets
at
Barnes & Noble
4416 Palisades Center Drive
West Nyack, New York
March 25, 7:30 pm— Clarkstown North High School Poets
April 8, 6:30 pm— Congers Elementary School 5th grade poets
April 22, 6:30 pm— Lakewood Elementary School 5th grade poets
May 6, 7:30 pm— Suffern High School Poets
May 20, 6:30 pm— Felix Festa Middle School Poets
June 3, 7:30 pm— Clarkstown South High School Poets
*Please note the earlier starting time for the Elementary and Middle School readings.
All readings are hosted by Diane Weber of Ramapough Poets, and will be followed by open readings. Community participation is welcome. The programs are free, open to the public and wheelchair accessible.
For more information, call 845-348-4701.
Come join us for some great poetry, and to share your own!!
Beside the River Images of Rockland Life
August 2, 2009
Valley Cottage Library and Ramapough Poets present:
Beside the River
Images of Rockland Life
by Ramapough Poets
with photographs by
Alice M. Hughey
On Exhibit August 1-26, 2009 in the Gallery at Valley Cottage Library
A walk around Rockland Lake, a trip into New City for ice cream, the Nyack Street Fair, Piermont on a sunny day. These are just a few of the many excursions through Rockland that the Ramapough Poets take in their poetry, exhibited here at the Valley Cottage Library as visual art.
Come share this journey through Rockland County. The work on the walls, personal views of life in Rockland, encompasses its geography, its history and its people. Two very different media are represented in these views: photography and poetry. The interplay between words and images provides the visitor with a unique experience of life in our county.
The poems are written by eight Ramapough Poets, and range from scenic views of Rockland County present and past, to experiences of life here. The participating poets are: Barbara Hurley, Martin I. Levine, Ted Mascola, Greg Roman, Jane Craig Sebok, Irving Sherman, Harry Waitzman and Diane E. Weber. The black and white photographs are by Rockland based photographer Alice M. Hughey, whose work captures the environment in which she lives and the activities that occupy her.
Please join us
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009
Artists’ Reception at 5:30 pm
Music and Poetry Performance at 6:30 pm
with Ramapough Poets and Friends:
Jake Allyne, Gde Arsa Artha, Bobby Deitch, Alice M. Hughey,
Martin I. Levine, Timothy Licht, Ted Mascola, Jane Craig Sebok,
Irving Sherman, Harry Waitzman, and Diane E. Weber
Come listen to music and poetry, view the art on exhibit in the gallery,
and join the celebration! Program is free and open to the public.
Community participation welcome! An open reading will follow.
In the Community Room and Gallery of
Valley Cottage Library
110 Route 303, Valley Cottage, New York 10989
845-268-7700 www.vclib.org
Memorial Service for Barbara Hurley
April 15, 2009
MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR BARBARA HURLEY
DATE: April 26, 2009 (Sunday) 2PM
PLACE: New Hempstead Presbyterian Church Sanctuary
484 New Hempstead Road, New City, NY 10956
http://www.nhpchurch.org
