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  • ARTISTS ROOM
  • Category
  • BLOG
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    • Artist Members
  • SVA GALLERY AND GIFT SHOP
  • EXHIBITS

APRIL IS POETRY MONTH - 2021

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Here are two additional poems included in the Poultney Poetry Walk. These poems are featured in the storefronts on Main Street in celebration of National Poetry Month!
​
EARLY MORNING LIGHT

The tape recorder floated on your pillow, a buoy in an ocean of hospice
Spinning out Robert Frost, reciting his best of, and your favorite, “The Road Not Taken”
 
Years earlier, you had pointed out the green-and-gold marker to your son
Honoring Robert Frost that you had written, as you had other markers
 
Stopping the car on snowy evenings to read the script that you oh-so-carefully crafted
Never using a hyphen at the end of a line, even when the line went begging
 
But you just turned your buggy of words around
How proud I was of you then, Dad, and how proud your son is of you now
 
Swaddled in bed clothes, like in your first photograph
Ninety years ago, as you brought your raft about
 
To take on the headwinds far from the easy cove of coma
And out into the open sea of your brain tumor
 
All hands-on deck, but only these two from your far-flung past
Your wife of sixty-five years, your son twenty less than
 
But both pulling for you these last thirty days
Remaining vigilant by your moored craft
 
“How much longer?” I asked the nurse
Standing in the shade of the mainsail, she placed her hands
 
On the fallen warrior’s yellowing feet: “I would spend the night,” she intoned
Her words filling up the silence in the late afternoon sun of the hospice room
 
“Nothing Gold Can Stay”
 
 Burnham Holmes
 Poultney, VT

 
As Winter Wanes…
 
Stunning whiteness blankets the land.
Little bird prints scamper  
On a fluff topped crust
Where, outside my door
A cup of seed I thrust
The birds puffed up, round balls with beaks
A sign on this mid February day
The temperature has peaked, is dropping-
But not for long, or should I say,
Don’t be forlorn?
Spring is coming round the bend of the moon
It will be here soon
And so our gardens will adorn
The forgotten snow
With blossoms having supped the melt,
Offering colorful jewels
In the season of renewal.
 
 
Ruth Hamilton
Poultney, VT

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Today we feature two more local poets. April is the month to celebrate poetry and we have again organized a Poultney Poetry Walk in the storefront windows downtown. We hope you enjoy getting out on these lovely spring days and finding the poems posted along on Main Street. 

Self-Care
Some days it feels like a foreign language
I'm asked to practice, with new words
for happiness, work, and love. I'm still learning
how to say: a cup of tea for no reason,
what to call the extra honey I drizzle in,
how to label the relentless urge to do more
and more as useless. And how to translate
the heart's pounding message when it comes:
enough, enough. This morning, I search for words
to capture the glimmering sun as it lifts
above the mountains, clouds already closing in
as fat droplets of rain darken the deck.
I'm learning to call this stillness self-care too,
just standing here, as goldfinches scatter up
from around the feeder like broken pieces
of bright yellow stained-glass, reassembling
in the sheltering arms of a maple.

James Crews
Shaftsbury, VT

Orion's Belt
Orion’s Belt holds us
The three sisters
We sister three 
Love life
Love love
Love us sisters three
Bonded by the stars
Bonded by our light
We sisters three
Give life 
Give love
Give strength together 
I Alnitak
She Alnilam
She Mintaka
We look to the Night's sky
Visible in early hours
Through the Northern Winter
And again by the Southern Summer
Alnitak An I am first   
Joining our strength and love
Protecting our history 
Alnilam my little sister
Most luminous as the sun
Her beauty known to all
Massive across the sky's center
Little Mintaka
Completes our celestial history
She embraces the light and continues our story
Portent of our good fortune
We sisters three shine together
 
Krista Rupe, Poultney

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Here are two more wonderful poems that are part of our Poultney Poetry Walk. We are celebrating poetry throughout the month of April. 

"The Good Cat"

I watched the cat torment
A mouse under paw
An enjoyable treat
For his tooth and his claw

How had the mouse sinned
That God killed it so?
I pondered on this
'Til the good sun sank low
 
“My Journey"

The snow came down
In the deepening gloom
The mountain kept watch
Staring down at the doomed

When the sun returns
I will travel on
When the sun returns
I will wander long

A gift to the damned
Is that journey
 
Chris Edwards       Putnam Station, NY

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April is the month to celebrate poetry. Again this year, SVA has created a Poultney Poetry Walk. As you walk through town you can spot the amazing poems from our community in the local storefront windows. 

Here is one of the poems submitted. Enjoy!

​The Path of Poetry
 
My shadow tells me there is light, and so all morning,
I follow it. Finally, a high-noon moment of clarity,
truth, always here right under my feet. But truth
cannot save me. Confusion, like my shadow,
has a mind of its own and soon returns. No rest,
it seems eager to reach out, to engage darkness. 
 
And so it goes with writing a poem. You lay
out a path of broken lines and follow them
down the page, trying to say the unsayable.
Just when you think you've got it, you realize
another line, a next word even, will obscure
all meaning. Still, you cannot help yourself.
 
In time, you arrive back where you began,
only to discover that while you were gone
nothing changed, yet everything is different.
The end is always a good place to begin again.
 
David Mook   Poultney, VT

EKPHRASTIC POETRY READINGS 

 An introduction to the Ekphrastic Poetry event at Stone Valley Arts, by David Mook, and Poems by BURNHAM HOLMES and DAVID MOOK in response to
​RUTH HAMILTON'S MURMUTATIONS
https://vimeo.com/446232607

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EKPHRASTIC POEMS by BURNHAM HOLMES 
in response to two pieces of artwork by JOAN CURTIS

https://vimeo.com/446233551

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 A SONET WRITTEN by BURNHAM HOLMES
in response to a COLLAGE by W. DAVID POWELL

https://vimeo.com/446233550

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EKPHRASTIC POETRY by DAVID MOOK
in response to art by Janie Cohen
https://vimeo.com/446855032​

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EKPHRASTIC POETRY by BURNHAM HOLMES 
in response to a painting by Dick Weis
Video:
https://vimeo.com/446231499​

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BURNHAM HOLMES reads a SONET 
in response to Dick Weis' painting 

vimeo.com/446853063

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DAVID MOOK READS TWO HAIKUS 
written in response to art by Dick Weis
https://vimeo.com/446232051

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EKPHRASTIC POETRY by BURNHAM HOLMES 
in response to a HANDSTICHED QUILT by NANCY WEIS

https://vimeo.com/446856764

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A SONET by BURNHAM HOLMES
in response to a HANDSTITCHED QUILT by NANCY WEIS 
​
https://vimeo.com/446856107

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~~~​~~
​ARTIST'S RESPONSES TO COVID19

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Click on the image above to watch a video in which Erika Schmidt shows a series of monotypes she made in response to the pandemic during March and April 2020. 

.............................................................................................................................

​Emily Mulder, Pandemic People, spray paint on slate

"I think was trying to portray a universal openness and helplessness that I feel from all of the kids on my children's Google classrooms"

As a glimpse into how Emily works on her art, we show two versions of each portrait. The first working piece (on the left) and then after Emily worked more on each (on the right).  "As is always hard, I was not sure if they were "done" and played with more repetition and reflection between the pieces, as well as clarifying them.'



​If you have created art in response to the pandemic and would like to share it here, please contact us at StoneValleyArtsCenter@gmail.com. 
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 Tara Verheide in response to Covid-19


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Thank you to the poets for sending your poems for our annual Poultney Poetry Downtown. We are happy to say they are now on display on Main Street in Poultney.

Most of the poems are displayed at 188 Main Street in the windows of the Journal Press Building. A few are in the window at Williams True Value Hardware and a couple more are at Hermit Hill Books. Thanks to Bob Mitnik, Bob Williams and Patty McWilliams for placing this wonderful collection of poems in their storefront windows!

Visit the village of Poultney, take a stroll on Main Street, and enjoy reading the poems. Be sure to practice social distancing should a large crowd amass reading poetry at any one location. Be safe, allow space, and wait your turn. Poems will be on display the whole month of April and into early May.  We will also contine to share poems here on our blog. 

We invite the artists among us to respond to any of the poems with your own art: painting, drawing, sculpture, collage... any medium.  Share your art with us by emailing us at  stonevalleyartscenter@gmail.com

Once the virus is behind us we can safely gather at SVA at Fox Hill for a live poetry reading and exhibit of the corresponding works of art.  Meanwhile, stay safe, read poems, write poems, share poems, make art, be kind, and be well!

"Poetry is a life-cherishing force. For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry." - Mary Oliver

Many thanks to the followinfg poets for their work and participation in this year's Poultney Poetry Downtown! We celebrate your voices and creativity!

Poultney Poetry Downtown 2020
"Spring Inventory"                     Pamela Ahlen
"Art That Time Sculpts"            Pamela Ahlen
"On Hatred"                                          B Amore
"The Days are Lost, Counting"         B Amore
"Great Expectations"             Marcia Angermann
"Early Morning Timbrels"     Peggy Brightman
" From the Thicket"                Peggy Brightman
"Red, White, and Blue?"        Toby Bush
" Sugar Shack Squirrel"          Toby Bush
"ALONG THE DOUBLE YELLOW"          Vivina Ciolli
" WALK IN EARLY MORNING YARD"     Vivina Ciolli
"Shameless Hymn"                 James Crews
"Free Day"                                 James Crews
"Beckoning to Spring"             Bob Eberth
"Dreamtime"                              Bob Eberth
"Dawn"                                       Debby Franzoni
"His Silence"                              Debby Franzoni
"Parity"                                       Alice Wolf Gilborn
"Dead of Night Dances Differently"    Ruth Hamilton
"A View From The Bridge"                     Ruth Hamilton
"IN LOCO COLLEGIUM"            Burnham Holmes
"POETRY MONTH OR THE CRUELEST MONTH—APRIL"     Burnham Holmes
"Consequences"                        Wilma Ann Johnson
"Breaking Forth"                        Wilma Ann Johnson
"Princess Grace of Lake Sunapee"       Luke Krueger
"Autumnal Burlesque"                            Luke Krueger
"Sarah's Moon"                           David Mook
"The Path of Poetry"                 David Mook
"Journey’s End"                           David Quesnel
"Hardscrabble Rural, a Poem" David Quesnel
"HIDDEN TREASURE"                David Rynick
“D O W N sizing”                          Eileen Strickland-Holtham
“Childhood 1960’s”                    Eileen Strickland-Holtham
"The Turtle"                                   Joyce Thomas
" Nocturne"                                   Joyce Thomas


More Poems for National Poetry Month!

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In recognition of National Potery Month in April. We will continue to share the moving words of our local SVA poets. Today's poem is from David Rynick. Enjoy!

  "By making us stop for a moment, poetry gives us an opportunity to think about ourselves           
  as human beings on this planet and what we mean to each other.”  - Rita Dove


HIDDEN TREASURE

For my mother on her 90th birthday

A small boy walks home from school
alone, slowly shuffling and kicking at
stones along the way. Head down,
he evenly sees what has been cast aside;
appreciating that which is of no use. 

Now and then, something shiny 
catches his eye: a colorful bottle cap,
a soda can flattened by a passing car,
an especially round stone. He stops
and stoops to examine more closely,
forgetting for a moment, his destination.

What intrigues him still, he picks up
and carries home for presentation
to his waiting mother. She greets
his little bits of the world as the treasures
they now are and praises him
for his careful eyes and tender heart.

Her delight with him and his world
becomes the treasure that guides
and sustains him across oceans
and decades as he walks 
the many roads of his life.

By David Rynick



Celebrate National Poetry Month with SVA!

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April marks National Poetry Month. At SVA, we want to share the prose of our local poets. Let their inspiring words, give us moving reflection and bring us beauty and comfort during this trying time. We will soon be posting the poems throughout town so people can enjoy them as they walk down Main Street in Poultney. If you have a poem you'd like to share with us, send it to stonevalleyartscenter@gmail.com.

To start off the month long poetry celebration, we share a poem from our own David Mook. Enjoy!

"I have nothing to say/ and I am saying it/ and that is poetry/ as I need it."  - John Cage
 
The Path of Poetry
My shadow tells me there is light,
and so then, all morning, I follow it.                                                                                                         
Finally, a high-noon moment of clarity,
truth, always there right under my feet.

But truth cannot save me. Confusion, 
like my shadow, has a mind of its own                                                                                                   
and soon returns. No rest, it seems eager                                                                                                    
 to reach out and join the coming darkness.  

 And so it often goes with writing poems.
You lay down a path of broken lines
and follow them down the page,
trying to say the unsayable. 

Just when you think you've got it,
you realize that another line, a next
word even, will obscure all meaning. 
And still, you cannot help yourself.

So you arrive back where you started
only to discover that while you were gone
nothing changed, yet everything is different. 
The end is always a good place to begin again.

By David Mook - Poultney, VT
 

  

 
 

STONE VALLEY ARTS BLOG 

Welcome to Our Blog! Take a Virtual Tour of Museums!

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"The Starry Night" by Vincent van Gogh on display at Museum of Modern Art. New York, NY. Take a virtual tour of the MOMA​ here.
We find ourselves in hard times for our nation and world. At Stone Valley Arts, we want to let you know you're in our thoughts and hearts. As your local arts center even though we can not open our doors and invite you into our gallery during this coronavirus pandemic we are committed to sharing positive vibes with our community. We wish to inspire our stong artistic group to connect each other through starting a blog. We will share positive news and encourage you to share with us what you are facing, what you are creating. Even though we can not see each other face to face we ask you to send us imagines of your new work, photos of nature your capture, new poems, and inspiring stories of neighbors coming together to help others. We hope this interaction with provide comfort to our community as we are in this together keeping the greater good in mind in the coming weeks.
Friends, we send you strength, hope, comfort and inspiration. 

If you have something to feature on our blog, email us at: stonevalleyartscenter@gmail.com .

While you're at home you may wish to take a virtual tour of one of our amazing museums to see highlights of their collections. Follow this link to explore the online galleries of museums such as:

National Gallery of Art: Washington, D.C.
Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, Washington D.C. 
Museum of Modern Art, New York City
 
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
American Museum of Natural History, New York City
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
High Museum of Art, Atlanta
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
​Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico

We Continue to Feature Local Poets!

4/27/2020

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We hope you are enjoying hearing from our local poets in celebration of National Poetry Month. Today we feature a new poem from Burnham Holmes. 

IN LOCO COLLEGIUM

The college anchored the end of Main Street,
Lending the town its flair, its joie de vivre.
Stationed there for almost two hundred years,
A fixture in the way things were, we believed.

It changed as was needed with the times:
Women’s, coed, women’s, coed again;
Liberal arts, then ecological.
This last turnaround failed. Gains turned to pain.

When you excise the raison d’être, what’s next?
The town is left to reinvent itself.
Meetings of citizens, group after group,
Explore issues substratum to slate shelf.

And that is where we find ourselves today,
Searching to secure our self-identity.
Some have moved away; others have joined the fray.
It is not one size fits all, nor to a T.

But succeed we will in spite of setbacks,
Too much history in this town to back down.
So buckle up my friends, let’s get to work,
As Poultney once again achieves renown.

Burnham Holmes
Poultney, VT

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More Poetry to Enjoy!

4/23/2020

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Today's wonderful poem comes from B Amore. We hope you enjoy her 
amazing poem. 
​
“Poetry is here to heal the race, almost on the same scale as prayer.”   - Derek Walcott 

On Hatred 

A familiar face
looks at me as if I don’t exist

Where did she learn such lessons?
How is it that the heart 
pumping life throughout the body
can turn so against life?

Palestinians immolate themselves to kill Jews
Serbs rape Muslim women
Hutu murder Tutsi and vice versa

Truth and Reconciliation seeks to suture 
the wounds of a Nation’s war against itself
The Dalai Lama moved Tibet’s heart 
to Dharamasala

What about the human heart
pumping life
pumping love
pumping hate?

How do we find the center place
where wrongs and wounds are laid to rest
where the breath of every day
subsumes the hurt 
and Life again 
is pumped 
into Life?

B Amore - Brandon, VT
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Another Amazing Poem for You!

4/20/2020

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Today we bring you a wonderful poem from Marcia Angermann as we continue to celebrate National Poetry Month. Enjoy!

Great Expectations

I know it’s foolish
even thinking of them
on this cold, grey day
deep into winter’s tight-fisted grasp,
while they sleep
buried beneath a hard, frozen earth,
where I planted them
with great care
on a sunny October day.
Already, I’m uncertain of the exact spot,
the wonder of surprise when
one day in early April
they raise their heads
slowly open, display
a posy of purple, yellow, and white blooms
catching the eye of
those who pass by, who will 
stop and smile.

It’s the ultimate act of faith
the expectation
that they will bloom
in the far off spring and
I will live to see them.

Marcia Angermann - Poultney, VT 
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Inspiring New Work for Erika Lawlor Schmidt!

4/15/2020

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Today we'd like to share some amazing new work from our SVA Director Erika. It's beautiful, inspiring and moving work. Enjoy!
If you have new work to share, please email us at stonevalleyartscenter@gmail.com.

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Another Poem to Celebrate National Poetry Month!

4/12/2020

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Here's another poem to inspire and lift your spirits written by Toby Bush. Enjoy!
Sugar Shack Squirrel

If squirrels weren’t forgetful,
Mighty Oaks wouldn’t be born.
Life would be quite sorrowful
with a forest, not so adorned.

Sugaring amongst the Maples, 
The yellows and the reds.
Putting syrup on the table
 and the sugar shack to bed.

Bring us your leaf peepers,
You yellow, red, and cedar green.
No more sightings of the Creepers,
​we won’t see them again till Spring.
        
By Toby Bush - Poultney, VT

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April 12th, 2020

4/12/2020

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Awakening by Ruth Hamilton

4/10/2020

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​
Heading toward the crest of Long Hill
Down Into the opening Champlain Valley
There was a silvery band along the horizon
Like a fat ribbon on a gift
Below a thick bevy of dark gray clouds
The Valley spread out streaked bands of melted snow
Old corn rows     some timid turkeys foraging
And the trees, the trees were standing so tall
Limbs uplifted
Reaching, the tips turning
Hues of pink and burgundy   
I felt those limbs
Lifting my own
 
Those trees  
Unwavering in their tether to earth.  Tall tall trees
Who have born the long harsh winter
Wind snow sleet animals passing
As they would and could for shelter
But the trees there, always there
 
Strong    tall   arms now risen   
Welcoming  Spring  
Their uplifted hallelujah  Yes
Bring it on   they say  
And I join them
Blushed with the rush of awakening
Yell it to the Valley
Yes      
Bring it on
Bring it on
We are ready.      
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April 09th, 2020

4/9/2020

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    Author

    Ruth Hamilton is an artist and poet that lives in Poultney

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