An invitation to The Poetry Ritual

The Poetry Critique Meet-Up has been running twice per month since June of 2018. It’s hosted by the Northampton Center for the Arts with the support of Straw Dog Writers Guild. Usually, about eight of us meet for two hours, each person getting a chance to read one original poem aloud and get feedback from everyone in the group. I do not present a poem, but as facilitator, my role is to help create an atmosphere where a kind of instant community can be formed. As I tell the participants before the feedback sessions, “It’s not about you, it’s about the poem.” We are there in service of poetry, to make the poems the best they can be.

It is difficult, nearly impossible, to write a really great poem. But we dedicated poets continue to try. We observe our inner and outer worlds, scour them for beauty and misery, and transfer our discoveries to a page, with varied success. And it is so difficult, nearly impossible, to be objective about one’s own writing. But as a community of writers, in a Meet-Up such as this, we remind one another where we are succeeding, and where we can polish the places that aren’t quite yet reflecting truly.

There is something gratifying, comforting even, to be in a group of poets for a couple of hours. In the service to art and to each another, I find the worries of the world outside the door seem a bit more distant. Afterward, when we leave the room, whether real or virtual, I hope the others in the group feel similar to me – that I am no less vulnerable than before, but I can bear my vulnerability with less loneliness.

See the attached poster and RSVP to poetryritual2021@gmail.com to join the poets of the Poetry Critique Meet-up for a group reading on June 10 at 6pm. It is free and open to the public.

Below is a list of the participating poets: