Sharing Stories, Building Community
Victoria Dym
Joyce Carpenter
Not everyone dresses up to read poetry aloud, but we have to say that we admire the touch of elegance it adds.
Last week we let Nick Graves and Gianna Russo share both their poetry and their writing process with you. This week we have two more poets to share: Victoria Dym and Joyce Carpenter. We’d tell you more here, but we’d just be cribbing from their own self introductions. Click the button to get right to the good stuff!
OLLI Connects continues its annual celebration of National Poetry Month with a selection of poems by four different writers. Thematically linked through images of flight and trees, this edition is entitled “The Aviator, The Fledgling and The Crow.” Please click on the button below to enjoy the poems of Pindie Stephen, Linda Dunk, Morrey Grymes and M.A. Sinnhuber.
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Nick Graves
Gianna Russo
Reading a well-crafted poem to yourself–silently or aloud–can be a powerful experience. Hearing a poet read his or her own work can be even more moving. They know exactly which words to stress and precisely how long the pauses last. And, if you’re fortunate and they’re in a good mood, they might share with you what the process of creating a poem feels like for them.
As it happens, we have two poets who will do exactly that today: Nick Graves and Gianna Russo.
Cath Mason, Evelyn Romano, Kathy Winarski
For National Poetry Month, Tampa made a call to the city—send us your Tampa poems! The overwhelming response included more than 60 submissions celebrating pirates, the Lightning, Bucs and Rays, the old brick streets, the sights and smells of Ybor and the natural beauty of Tampa Bay. Among the winners were two OLLI poets, Cath Mason and Evelyn Romano, whose winning odes to Tampa are featured in today’s edition of OLLI Connects.
J. Marie Dolphin
Morrey Grymes
Every year we devote our April issues to poetry for National Poetry Month. Then we seem to ignore poetry for the rest of the year. That hardly seems fair. So, in this week’s issue, with National Poetry Month nowhere in sight, we’d like to share poems by two new poets.
We hope to see more of their work in the future. Enjoy. (More…)
Theresa D’Aiuto Sokol
OLLI Connects is almost three years old, and in its short lifetime, we have shared a wide variety of your fellow OLLI members’ contributions: powerful stories, rich personal experiences, fascinating nuggets of history, and humor. We’ve taken you on trips to other parts of the United States and journeys to other parts of the world. We’ve shared technology, book reviews, poetry and more. We’ve had posts that were all photographs with no more words than were needed for context.
But we’ve not had a post that was almost all video. Until today.
Theresa D’Aiuto Sokol has shared two of her blog posts, and now she shares some of her video work. (More…)
We hope you’ve enjoyed the poetry we’ve been able to share with you in our past three issues. National Poetry Month for this year is almost over, but you don’t have to give up poetry until next April rolls around. Check out our Events and Resources page. While April has seen a surge in poetic activity, there are many events and resources that celebrate poetry all year long.
And while you’re being inspired by the poetry of others, we hope you’ll also be “inspired” to write some poetry of your own. And give us the chance to publish it next year. We’re OLLI Connects, not the Lithuanian Literary Gazette. Our purpose is to give OLLI-USF members an opportunity to share their creativity. Hmmm…, make that your creativity! So, let’s give you a little more inspiration right now. (More…)
What makes a good poem? Melissa Donovan tried to answer that question, and you can read her thoughts here. But before you dash off to get someone else’s opinion, pause for a moment and think about what aspects of a poem make you say, “Now, this is a good poem!”
Is it economy of language? Not a single word in it that isn’t critical to its wholeness? Imagery? Words that paint vivid pictures? Powerful language that moves you? A sense of sound and rhythm that makes reading the poem aloud an experience far beyond just seeing the words on paper? Authenticity? The sense that this poet is sharing a powerful and private truth with you?
Got some thoughts? Good! Take them with you as you enjoy this week’s issue. (More…)
We can’t actually take you to a live Poetry Slam or introduce you to Nikki Giovanni, but we want to broaden the way you usually think of poetry. In this issue, we’ve added more OLLI members reading their favorite poetry aloud. If you missed seeing and hearing Shelly Belzer and Simone Leal last week, you can catch up now. And enjoy another poem from Shelly plus a reading from Dylan Thomas by Barbara Brown. You’ll find the link to that and more at the end of today’s issue.
But, wait! There’s more! Can you say “ekphrasis“? Two of our poems for this week bring in works of art by Vermeer and Dali as their inspiration. The poems, in and of themselves, are powerful. Seeing the paintings that inspired them makes them even more so. So, join us today for a multi-media poetry issue. (More…)
“Launched by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996, National Poetry Month reminds the public that poets have an integral role to play in our culture and that poetry matters. Over the years, it has become the largest literary celebration in the world, with tens of millions of readers, students, K–12 teachers, librarians, booksellers, literary events curators, publishers, families, and, of course, poets, marking poetry’s important place in our lives. In 2021, the Academy of American Poets looks forward to celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of this annual celebration!”
OLLI-USF has a strong tradition of studying and celebrating poetry and other literature. So, for National Poetry Month, we’ll be showcasing our own poets, while also linking your to celebrations of poetry nationwide. And, for something new to OLLI Connects, we’ll feature OLLI members reading some of their favorite poetry aloud. Look for it on our special Poetry Month Resources page. You’ll find a link to it at the end of this issue’s poems. (More…)