One Page Poetry Circle Archive

Welcome to the Virtual One Page Poetry Circle!

Date: February 20, 2024
Theme: Poetry and Paint
Time: 5:30 – 6:30 pm
Place: St. Agnes Branch Library, 444 Amsterdam Ave, 3rd Fl. Or by email (see addresses below)

Find a poem! Show up! Or, send a poem by email!

We're back for the sixteenth spring season of the One Page Poetry Circle where people examine the works of established poets. While there is no instructor and this is not a workshop for personal writing, once a month OPPC gives everyone a place to become teachers and learners to explore the form, content, language and meaning of poetry. Since the circle began, participants have selected and discussed 1564 poems and have read countless others in pursuit of poetry that speaks to them.

GOOD NEWS:
The One Page Poetry Circle has returned to the St. Agnes Library.
In addition, for those who are unable to attend, you will still be able to participate by email.

If you can make the February 20th meeting, we ask that you bring a poem with you on the theme of Poetry and Paint, with copies for others if you can.

Plutarch wrote, "Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks." Both are art forms, one oral or written and the other is visual. "Poetry and Paint" may be about artistic materials, the painter, or about the act of painting. One type of poetry, ekphrastic poetry, describes works of art, either actual or imaginary works.

Abigail loves Ford Madox Brown's short verse describing his 1855 painting, The Last of England, and predicting the changing future of this family: "She grips his listless hand and clasps her child,/Through rainbow tears she sees a sunnier gleam,/She cannot see a void where he will be."

AnnaLee loves Canto I of Wallace Stevens' 1937 poem "The Man with the Blue Guitar." The poem ponders Pablo Picasso's 1903 painting "The Old Guitarist" and the ways in which the artist alters and finds reality:

• The man bent over his guitar,
• A shearsman of sorts. The day was green.

• They said, "You have a blue guitar,
• You do not play things as they are."

• The man replied, "Things as they are
• Are changed upon the blue guitar."

• And they said then, "But play, you must,
• A tune beyond us, yet ourselves,

• A tune upon the blue guitar
• Of things exactly as they are."

If you're unable to attend, send us the poems you've selected with a comment on why you chose them. We'll share the poems with you in person, by email, and through our blog.

Whether a poem concerns paint or just paints a picture, choose a poem that has meaning to you. Then email it to one of us by February 20, with a brief comment of why you chose it. Can't locate a poem you want to send? Check out Poetry Foundation or poets.org.

In the meantime, please blog with us at onepagepoetrycircle.wordpress.com.

Spring 2024 Schedule
February 20, Poetry and Paint
March 19, Poetry and Rabbits
April 16, Poetry and Insects
May 21, Poetry and Growth

Abigail Burnham Bloom, abigailburnhambloom(at)gmail(dot)com
AnnaLee Wilson, annalee(at)kaeserwilson(dot)com

The One Page Poetry Circle sponsored by the New York Public Library is open to all. St. Agnes Branch Library is handicap accessible.