Shelter Island poet Virginia Walker and three distinguished Long Island poets bring the joy of poetry to the library during the Varney Memorial Poetry Reading.
Joining Walker for the Friday Night Dialogues presentation are Kathaleen Donnelly, Daniel Basil Kerr, and Robert Savino. It takes place via Zoom on Friday, June 17 at 7 PM; use the library’s online form to register at least two hours before the start. The program is free and the library gratefully accepts donations.
Walker curated the reading, which features works recently published in “Paumanok-Transition,” an anthology of poetry and photography edited by Donnelly.
Echoes of Whitman
Paumanok, which means “fish-shaped”, is believed to be the name for Long Island used by indigenous people. Long Island’s celebrated poet, Walt Whitman, used the name in his poem “Starting from Paumanok,” which begins his “Leaves of Grass” collection.
Whitman’s poem also sets the stage for “Paumonok-Transition,” a year-long anthology, with each month prefaced by a Whitman poem conveying personal transitions of mind and body.
Cynthia Shor, Executive Director of the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association praised the collection, which is available to purchase online.
“A tour de force — an impressive performance [by] Whitman’s fellow travelers … who vividly relate their transitions with spontaneous awareness or aching recall — involving a movement or shift that is transformative for both poet and reader.”
Varney Memorial Poetry Reading
The poets will read from “Paumanok-Transition,” and read selections from the library’s Varney Collection. Walker will speak to the memory of Richard Varney and interview the poet-readers about their own favorites and ideas in poetry.
Varney grew up in Garden City, summering on Shelter Island, and was educated at Harvard where he served on the board of its Poetry Journal. After moving back to the Island full time, he was the facilitator of the library’s popular Art Barnett poetry appreciation program, named in memory of its creator.
After Varney died, the group renamed their weekly gathering the Art/Rich Poetry Roundtable. He was also the inspiration for the library’s Richard Varney Poetry Collection.
“His brilliance was startling,” said Walker, who has described him as a Buddha — calm and enlightening. “He read prodigiously and believed that good poetry held the best of philosophy and the best ideas of humanity.”
About the poets
A resident of Hay Beach, Walker has been a finalist for Suffolk County Poet Laureate and her work has been widely published, locally and nationally. She has mentored many poetry workshops on Long Island for Live Poets, has been a visiting poet in East End Middle Schools, and has created numerous events at Dowling College for East End Poets.
She earned a Ph.D. from New York University and teaches English and Humanities courses at Dowling College and Suffolk Community College. She is co-author with Michael Walsh of “Neuron Mirror”, which raised more than $10,700 for the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research and Cure.
Donnelly is a Nurse Practitioner in Cardiology at Stony Brook Hospital who writes very moving poems. In addition to “Paumanok-Transitions,” she produced “Paumanok, Poems and Pictures of Long Island,” and “Paumanok Interwoven.” Her work is published in many anthologies.
Kerr is a Certified Public Accountant, holds a Ph.D., and writes hilariously funny poems. He works as a cross-cultural consultant and teaches accounting at St. Joseph’s College and Suffolk Community College. He is the moderator of the monthly All Souls Church “Second Saturday Poetry Readings” and is also widely published.
Savino, Suffolk County Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017, serves on the board of the Walt Whitman Birthplace and Long Island Poetry & Literature Repository Center. He was awarded the Oberon Poetry Prize and is the co-editor of two bi-lingual collections of Italian American poets. He is a wonderful mentor to young poets.
Questions? Call the library at 631-749-0042.
Next Up: Jim Dougherty, on the late Nancy Dougherty’s book, “The Hangman and His Wife,” on Friday, July 1 at 7 PM
