You could see them walking along the road in the bright morning light, carrying backpacks, wearing t-shirts with strange logos and small metal multi-colored badges that would allow them onto the grounds of a historic New Jersey park. They had parked their cars on lawns after filling up the small parking lot. These people were not hippies, and this was not a rock concert, although there were scores of young people from high schools in states as far away as California. But there were hundreds, even thousands of other pilgrims coming to pray at this artists’ altar in the woods of Northern New Jersey – poets and poetry lovers, champions of English literature and the more or less casual readers, teachers and librarians, and ordinary souls.
All had come to meet the best and most famous poets in the country, and for this edition of the Geraldine Dodge Poetry Festival, these people would get to see poets who are considered among the top living talents in poetry today.
For the general public, a name like Stanley Kunitz might not sound as familiar as guitar legend Jimi Hendrix. And Robert Pinsky won’t be mistaken for Robert Plant. Rita Dove would never claim herself as well-known as Madonna, nor does Lucille Clifton remotely resemble Janet Jackson. Yet in poetry terms, these and others who appeared at the four-day Poetry Festival at Waterloo Village in Stanhope, N.J. are superstars, the best of the best poets in the county and perhaps the world.
And though crowds of young people didn’t chant “no more rain” as they did in 1969 rock concert Woodstock, many chanted more quietly or sat at the feet of their masters to learn the secrets of poetry and to pay homage to the people who have reached towering heights in the poetic arts.
Poets, who have come to this event since its inception in 1988, call it “Wordstock,” acknowledging the similarity to the famous rock concert of the late 1960s. And while poetry is in no position to challenge rock and roll in numbers – Woodstock saw 500,000 people – this event, which drew more than 15,000 people, is considered the largest of its kind in North America.
Hudson County was no exception in sending its poets to the event. While Guttenberg’s Laura Boss did not read this year – she read two years ago – she oversaw several of the numerous poetic sideshows, including two open readings.
“I’m just honored to be here,” she said while attending one of the discussion groups of what it means to live like a poet.
Sharon Griffiths, a Jersey City poet and an adult literacy teacher in Newark, read a poem about the poor she had encountered when teaching in Paterson.
Worshops, readings and discussions
The festival – which has been the subject of several PBS documentaries over the last decade – provides a variety of workshops, public readings and discussions set in the historic remains of the 18th century Waterloo Village. Hoboken’s Danny Shot, editor of Long Shot magazine, was among the Saturday, Sept. 21 crowd wandering along the paths past tents full of poetry and poetry talk.
Eliot Katz, co-editor of Long Shot, was one of the speakers during the Sunday “Poets Among Us,” series of readings and talks. Shot and Katz, joined by Hoboken poet Joel Lewis, attended one of the featured events Saturday night under the main tent, where about 20 poets read poems about the future.
“Imagine the future,” segment was an attempt to look ahead through poetry, tapping into that cultural timeline through which poetry seems to have an uncanny way of predicting future trends.
Jim Haba, the festival coordinator, credited the concept to New York poet Marie Howe, who had felt poets were underutilized in their ability to imagine the future.
Also working the event was long time Hudson County poet Jack Wiler, whose talents have been featured in several volumes and who is a regular contributed to Long Shot magazine.
Five laureates
This year’s main event, however, occurred on Sunday night, when all five of the living United States Poet Laureates – including Billy Collins, the current U.S. poet laureate and 97-year old Stanley Kunitz, the grandfather of contemporary American poetry. Also attending were Pinsky, a native of Long Branch; Robert Hass, and Rita Dove. U.S. poet laureates act as consultants to the Library of Congress. They often seek to promote poetry in some way, each establishing a particular venue.
If that was not enough, this event also featured two living New Jersey poet laureates: Gerald Stern and Amiri Baraka. They both served similar roles in promoting poetry in New Jersey as the U.S. poet laureates do for the nation.
David Messenio, a Secaucus poet and editor of Sensations Magazine, made the event for the grand finale.
“It was the first time in six years I had the opportunity to hear the Poet Laureates read,” he said. “I heard the full programs by Rita Dove, Robert Haas, Robert Pinsky, Stanley Kunitz, and Billy Collins. I thought Pinsky was the best of the five: his poem ‘The Shirt’ was fantastic, and a poem he did related to Sept. 11 was one of the best I’ve heard on the subject. I liked the different cultures and perspectives that Rita Dove brought to her work.”
The festival – of which two days and one evening are dedicated to education – was attended by about 1,500 teachers and 4,500 students this year from about 33 states, Haba said.
The Geraldine Dodge Foundation, which sponsored the festival, has been taking on a greater role in support of artists, although the foundation has broad interests from fine arts to animal care.
Has grown
The festival has grown in statute over the years, especially due to widely broadcast specials by PBS TV host Bill Moyers, and the festival has featured some of the more important moments in poetry history such as one of the final appearances of Allen Ginsberg in 1996.
Although this was the first festival since the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, poets and their poetry seemed more concerned with potential upcoming war in the Middle East, with numerous readings and translations compliments of Middle Eastern, Turkish and other poets.
This differed sharply from the sentiment expressed at the Long Shot reading two weeks earlier that had featured many of the same local poets, where grief and outrage at the Sept. 11 terrorist attack mingled with fear of war. The latest issue of Long Shot had featured a significant poetic response to the Sept. 11 attack, which was within direct sight of Hoboken and most of Hudson County. The area also saw a significant loss of life.