For Immediate Release September 2011 Dead Poets Society of America
Contact Walter Skold at chiefleaf@deadpoes.org
Maine Poets Inaugurate New Holiday For Dead Poets
What do you get when you mix Edgar Allan Poe, All Saints Day, the graves of Maine poets, and the Mexican celebration of El Dia De Los Muertos?
Why, Dead Poets Remembrance Day in Maine, of course.
This October 7th – from sunrise in Harpswell to sunset on Mt. Cadillac— a dozen Maine bards are going to usher in the first national Dead Poets Remembrance Day with readings from 36 past Maine poets.
The day-long celebrations are part of a nationwide effort of 20 State poets laureate and the Dead Poets Society of America to establish a new literary holiday they hope will become an annual tradition.
“Dead Poets Remembrance Day is a unique way to enrich our cultural commons by annually “digging up” the treasures of our poetic past and resurrecting them in the public imagination,” says Walter Skold, the Freeport-based founder of the Society.
“Thousands of tourists visit the graves of Longfellow, Poe and other literary luminaries each year,” says Skold. “But what of the hundreds of poets whose graves few people ever visit?”
The celebrations in Maine will take place in 5 major locations along the coast and end with a special sunset reading on Mt. Cadillac.
“We’ll be reading from diverse poets whose works span 150 years of literary history,” said Skold, a poet and filmmaker who set out 2 years ago in search of poets’ graves.
To help remember these poets Skold has enlisted the help of a dozen living Maine poets, including Annie Finch, Robert Farnsworth, Herb Coursen, Gary Lawless, Annaliese Jakimides, and others.
“Dead Poets Remembrance Day provides the perfect way to honor both the poets who have loved Maine and Maine itself,” said Annie Finch, a nationally-known poet who heads the Stonecoast MFA Creative Writing program at the University of Southern Maine.
“Poetry is a forest whose roots go down deep, and I'm excited to be participating,” said Finch.
In between the Harpswell sunrise and the Cadillac sunset, the route includes public readings in Wiscasset, Nobleboro, Camden, and Blue Hill.
“We are going to combine the poetry of Henry Longfellow, Celia Thaxter and Edna St. Vincent Millay with 20th Century greats like Robert P. Tristram Coffin, Richard Eberhart, Philip Booth, and May Sarton,” said Skold.
The Maine celebration is the kick-off event of a series of readings taking place in New Hampshire, Alabama, California and six other states in early October.
October 7th was chosen because it is the anniversary of Poe’s death.
“Part of the purpose of this whole holiday is to bring back into our literary imagination the works of many fine poets who deserve more attention,” says Skold.
As Maine examples, Skold cites poets Ruth Moore, Louis Coxe, Wilbert Snow, Rachel Field and Samuel French Morse.
New England is well-represented with a “Remembering the Poets of the Granite State” reading on October 10th at the historic Frost Farm, in Derry, NH., and the Great Boston Poetry Marathon taking place in locations around Boston on Columbus Day.
“It is fitting that contemporary poets honor the iconic poets who carved a path for American poetry, in the sacred places where they now lie,” says Marjory Wentworth, a native of Massachusetts who is currently the Poet Laureate of South Carolina.
“Sarah Orne Jewett is an ancestor of mine, and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to read her poetry in Gloucester,” said Wentworth, who will be at a sunrise reading at the famous Fisherman’s Memorial on Columbus Day.
It was during his trips in 2009 and 2010, when Skold travelled over 15,000 miles to document the graves of poets and meet state poets laureate, that the idea for the holiday developed.
And it was in Athens, Georgia, where he met Coleman Barks, the poet and translator of Rumi, whom Skold credits with being one of the instigators behind the idea.
"The areas around the tombs of Hafez and Saadi in Shiraz, Iran, are great continuous celebrations,” says Barks, who has visited the tombs on several occasions. “The same is true at Rumi's resting place in Konya, Turkey.”
“We have a lot to learn from those ancient cultures about how to enjoy our poets, and poetry in general," he says.
In the United States there are currently annual celebrations at the graves of Edgar Allan Poe, Theodore Roethke, Nicolas Virgilio, Anne Sexton and maybe only a dozen others.
“We’re out to instigate celebrations like this at the graves of more American poets,” says Skold, who has visited over 200 poets’ graves east of the Mississippi.
“This year we are kicking-off this holiday with both a bang and a whimper, with both large and small events nationwide,” says Skold. “In future years we hope people in all states will join the hunt to dig up the graves and the works of our forgotten poets.”
A fitting remark for a group whose slogan is “We dig dead poets.”
The Maine Dead Poets blog has a link to an online map that has the names of over 50 Maine-related poets on it, along with the grave location of half of those.
The events at the 5 coastal locations are free and open to the public and those wishing to attend one or all of the readings can find details on the “Remembering Maine’s Island Poets” blog, at:
http://deadpoets.typepad.com/mainedprd/
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Maine Locations for Remembering Maine’s Island Poets:
(see: http://deadpoets.typepad.com/mainedprd/
In Maine more than a dozen poets will gather on Thursday, October 7th, in 5 locations, from sunrise to sunset, to read from 36 of Maine’s past poets. Several of the community readings will take place in the most beautiful places along the coast, including
Giant Steps, on Bailey’s Island (6:15),
Chimney Farm, Nobleboro (9:30)
Mt. Battie, in Camden (11:30),
Blue Hill (2:30)
and the summit of Mt. Cadillac, on Mt. Desert Island (5:30).
