Authors & After Words

When April with its showers soft and sweet
Comes round again the thirsty earth to greet,
New blossoms grow and open to the sun
As poets to the winged horse do run
To meet the world made once again anew
With song and dance and poems, all right and true.
(Spring Doggerel courtesy of H.C.T.)

Which is to say that it’s already National Poetry Month once again, and this year we’re celebrating the local members of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets (WFOP). Of course, the fellowship is statewide and describes itself as “an organization of men and women who are interested in poetry, who write poetry and/or who are willing to work to make Wisconsin Poetry conscious and conscious of its own poets.” The mission is described as three fold:

Over the course of the last fifty plus years (see sidebar) the fellowship has developed a number of ways of meeting these missions. Perhaps its most dramatic achievement was the establishment of a Poet Laureate for the state of Wisconsin. Two Wisconsin poets have been so named since the creation of the office in 1999, formerly Ellen Kort and currently Denise Sweet. According to Ellen Kort, the bulk of the laureate’s time is taken up “encouraging the study of poetry in the schools.” (Goal “C”.)

Goal “B” seems to have a life of its own, at least in the northeast part of the state, as poetry workshops crop up consistently in adult learning centers such as The Clearing, Bjِrklunden and NWTC. In turn, these workshops are extended through local poetry groups that meet regularly for the purpose of helping members improve their craft. If these formal classes and informal workshops are not always sponsored or facilitated by WFOP, as they are at their state-wide meetings, they are frequently taught by WFOP members. Furthermore, writing techniques and suggestions frequently appear in the quarterly newsletter, appropriately entitled “The Museletter.”

The means of meeting Goal “A” – securing recognition – would seem obvious; simply publish as many different ways as possible. But anyone who has tried to get published, let alone produce their own publication, knows that it takes a great deal more than imagination to achieve such a goal. Still, over the course of the last fifty plus years, in 1956, ’61, ’67, ’69 and ’80, WFOP nurtured fully bound and formally presented volumes of Wisconsin poems and poets. The fourth volume, in 1969, was edited by one of Wisconsin’s literary giants, August Derleth, under the title, New Poetry out of Wisconsin. This volume is of special interest for it contains a photograph of Louise Leighton, the founder of the WFOP, a photo of the early governing board of WFOP, and two photographs of little reviews and “underground” papers which were published in Wisconsin in the 1960s. Just such a publication has appeared in Door County recently under the rubric “Knock” but these days such “underground” efforts are more likely to emerge in the form of blogs on the Internet.

According to our WFOP sidebar, which was lifted – with all of the subtlety of an undergraduate writing a term paper – from the WFOP web site, it was in 1986 that the fellowship “assumed” the publication of the Poets’ Calendar and has done so annually ever since, so far as I know. The Poets’ Calendar is a remarkable achievement – in effect a yearly anthology of Wisconsin poems that more than overflows the boundaries of a simple date book. One hundred fifty one poets appear in the 2007 calendar, plus the 2006 winners of the WFOP Student Poetry Contest winners. The poems in the calendar are selected from submissions by WFOP members. The calendar is formatted as a weekly date book, with the days of the week on the right, the poems of the week on the left. One hundred and fifty poets divided by 52 equals 2.9 poems a week, but hey, it’s your date book; you can read them three a week or a whole month at a time, whatever suites you.

Door County users of the WFOP poem bearing date book will recognize several names, some of which appear frequently, others only occasionally. My collection of date book/anthologies is minuscule – there must be a complete collection somewhere, but by their very nature, calendars pass away with each new year. Nevertheless, within the last five or six years, our Door County poets have been well represented. Here’s a roll call, as full as I’ve been able to gather – with the help of June Nirschl and Nancy Rafal. Any omissions must fall to yours truly, so if I’ve missed anyone, let me know. In any case, the following Door County poets have appeared at least once in the annual WFOP Poet’s Calendar: Anita Beckstrom, Loraine Brink, Sue De Kelver, Michael Farmer, Hanne Gault, Jude Genereaux, Phil Hansotia, Barbara Larsen, Estella Lauter, Peggy Lott, Ralph Murre, June Nirschl, Nancy Rafal, Judy Roy, Peter Sherrill, Patricia Schutz, Sarah Taylor, and Joan Traver. These poets have all been invited to come to the Sister Bay/Liberty Grove Library Building Saturday, April 5 at 11 am for the library’s annual Poets Readathon, refreshments to follow. This is a great way to usher in National Poetry Month.

And here are our best wishes to all poets: May your paper thrill to the point of your pen and may the ink in your pen never, ever run dry.