One Page Poetry Circle Archive

Welcome to the One Page Poetry Circle!

Date: September 9th, 2025
Theme: Poetry and Democracy
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 18th fall 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 1728 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.

Poets, like painters, celebrate light. Mark Strand, in his poem "The Coming of Light," equates love with light:

• Even this late it happens:
• the coming of love, the coming of light.
• You wake and the candles are lit as if by themselves,
• stars gather, dreams pour into your pillows,
• sending up warm bouquets of air.
• Even this late the bones of the body shine
• and tomorrow's dust flares into breath.

Abigail was reminded of the beautiful poem, "I Have a Rendezvous with Death," written by the American poet, Alan Seeger (uncle to the musicians Pete and Mike Seeger). In order to fight for democracy in WWI before the US joined, Seeger enlisted in the French Foreign Legion. True to the words of the poem, he died during the Battle of the Somme on 4 July 1916. The poem romantically contrasts the images of spring and the lover-like word "rendezvous" with the finality of death:

• I have a rendezvous with Death
• On some scarred slope of battered hill,
• When Spring comes round again this year
• And the first meadow-flowers appear.

AnnaLee thought of the biting words of Tony Hoagland who evokes Bob Dylan's song in his poem "Hard Rain" to remind us of democracy's excesses:

• After I heard It's a Hard Rain's Gonna Fall
• played softly by an accordion quartet
• through the ceiling speakers at the Springdale Shopping Mall,
• then I understood: there's nothing
• we can't pluck the stinger from,

• nothing we can't turn into a soft drink flavor or a t-shirt.
• Even serenity can become something horrible
• if you make a commercial about it
• using smiling, white-haired people

If you can make the September 9th meeting, we ask that you bring a poem with you on the theme of Poetry and Democracy, with copies for others if you can.

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

Whether a poem describes a democracy, uses the word "democracy," or suggests democracy to you, choose a poem that has meaning to you. Then email it to one of us by September 9th, with a brief comment on 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.

Fall Schedule
September 9: Poetry and Democracy
October 21: Poetry Rising and Falling
November 18: Occasional Poetry
December 16: Poetry and The End

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

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