To the editor:
Let us impart (in part) a journal entry re an inspiring episode of the journey, transpiring Sunday, April 25 in Newburyport — at the former site of the Middle Shipyard (where the Waterside community could build a ship for three pence per ton) — followed by dynamic conversation at the "provisional Wolfe Tavern" (in this instance, Oregano's).
While few words could fully record its essence, perhaps quoting the renowned poet Robert Frost that "poetry is what gets lost in translation" might serve to express the extraordinary experience shared at the Eighth Annual Newburyport High School Favorite Poem Project. Organized by the illustrious and industrious educator, Debbie Szabo — who credits the source of inspiration as Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, along with the enthusiastic participation of her students and the community — each year this project culminates with an insightful and delightful event at the Firehouse Center for the Arts on the last Sunday of April (Poetry Month).
(In addition to instructing students as creative writers [and thinkers], Mrs. Szabo also serves as faculty adviser to The Record and Poetry Soup groups — and remains the driving force for various "vehicles" to guide students and the community-at-large [both here and "from away"] on "diverse adventures" in the learning environment: this project and "poets for hire" amongst others.)
This spring, Comity's submission as favorite poem also serves as the "favored proem" (the foreword of forward thinking) for the old-style (Julian) civic calendar year (March 25, 2010-March 24, 2011, termed "The Year of Boundless Ambitions"). The prose is a passage from Whitman's essay, often entitled "Absolute Balance," which is certainly entitled to be subtitled "The (Goal and) Apex of All Education."
The piece was previously referenced in one of the order forms "forwarded in a Motion of Comity" to the NHS "poets for hire" project last winter — engaging students to (pre)scribe a review and revision of public education (from the perspective of the "educated consumer"). In exchange with Mrs. Szabo before and after Sunday's event — and given the opportunity to reengage one of her engaging students during intermission — plans were (re)set in motion again this spring.
With the sense of "forward movement" (to lift an uplifting phrase from Mayor Holaday's inaugural and State of the City addresses) — we left this transformative experience with hearts overflowing with emotion, souls fulfilled with spirited cogency, minds filled with a cache of memories, and arms full of the precious cargo of Newburyport's precocious "supercargoes" (being prior and current years' editions of "The Record" and "Poetry Soup" magazines). Mindful of promises to keep, informative and formative "goodly conversation" would follow. With yet more progress on a horizon of "boundless ambitions" — indeed, "the Ship is ready" for the next leg of the journey.
(The unabridged version of this correspondence from the undersigned "committee of correspondence" can be found at Comity.org — where the reader is invited to SMILE (Seek More Information/insight Logged/linked Electronically) and join the ongoing conversation at the Virtual Wolfe Tavern.)
Ken and Dominique Dear
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Ann Naimie
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