On April 15, 158 Edgartown fifth to eighth graders attended the Student Day of Poetry, sponsored by MassPoetry.org. According to a press release, five Vineyard poets shared their poetry with the students. Led by Don McLagan from MassPoetry.org, they presented and discussed their poems in the gymnasium with an attentive audience. Students split up by grade, then traveled to separate locations and were prompted by the poets and supported by the teachers in writing their own poems. Student poems revolved around prompts of dogs, dragons, salt, and vacation. Then students returned to the gymnasium and eagerly shared their poems with the whole group.
Anne Fligor, the assistant principal, said, “What a joy it was to walk around and see students and staff working together, all in the name of poetry … to watch as hands were raised for an opportunity to read what they wrote … to ‘listen’ to the quiet as poems were read and hear the applause afterwards.” One student wrote, “I felt happy to express my feelings.” Another student wrote that he was “amazed that some people got so deep with their poems.” Still another student wrote that he felt that he is “better at writing poetry than I thought and that my class is more creative than I thought.” “It was so gratifying to see the kids all so excited about poetry,” beamed one of the poets. It was the perfect segue to the school’s April break and a stealthy way for the school to brush up on poetry just before the state testing sequence begins.
About the poets
Ellie Bates
Ellie is a retired teacher from the Edgartown School. Ellie taught students the elements of crafting poetry, and as former chairwoman of the MVPS Writing Committee, she helped teachers and adults by offering workshops to find their “voice” and to support their efforts. She was asked to judge the Poetry Out Loud Contest at the regional high school and to be a participant at Writers’ Week, sponsored by the English Department. Ellie now is involved with the Martha’s Vineyard Museum, Cleaveland House Poets, Martha’s Vineyard Poets’ Collective, Martha’s Vineyard Poetry Society, Featherstone Center for the Arts, and Pathways Institute.
Rachael Convery
Rachael is a self-proclaimed classicist and wandering gypsy with far too many books and a ridiculously fluffy cat named Molly Hooper. She notes that her first name is spelled Rachael (with an ‘ael’ like the other old biblical names — Samael, Raphael, Michael, etc.)
Tom Durawa
Tom compares his love of poetry to being on a warm sunny beach without the dangers of ultraviolet rays. He reads or works at it daily, and has done so since he retired from teaching at the Edgartown School more than ten years ago. His goal is to use familiar ideas in new, concise ways. His poems are short and focus on humor, the spiritual, and the digital age. He likes to include mysteries that cause readers to do further research. He meets regularly with other poets in the “Martha’s Vineyard Poets’ Cooperative,” but has no great desire to publish the hundreds of poems he has written.
Don McLagan
Don’s book of poetry, “Tug at the Knot,” was published in April 2016. His poems have appeared in Boston.com, “Cleaveland House Poets: 50 Years,” “Martha’s Vineyard Collective: New Poems 2013,” and the Martha’s Vineyard Gazette. He is a member of the Concord Poetry Center, the Cleaveland House Poets, the Martha’s Vineyard Poets’ Collective, and is a member of the board of directors of Mass Poetry. Don lives and writes on Chappaquiddick and in Sudbury.
Jennifer Smith Turner
Jennifer Smith Turner is a New England–born writer. She is the author of two poetry books, “Lost and Found, Rhyming Verse Honoring African American Heroes,” published in 2007; and “Perennial Secrets, Poetry & Prose,” published in 2003 and nominated for the 2004 Connecticut Book Awards. She recently finished her third poetry collection, for which she is pursuing publication, and is working on the second draft of a novel.
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