Falls Village celebrates National Poetry Month

FALLS VILLAGE — Nearly a dozen students from Lee H. Kellogg School crossed the lawn to the David M. Hunt Library on Friday, April 25, to celebrate National Poetry Month with readings of published and original works. Adults joined students for the all-ages event.

Library director Meg Sher welcomed attendees with a reading of Wendell Berry’s “Peace of Wild Things.”

Among the student presenters, Lev Sadeh and Eli Sher delivered a crowd-favorite and spirited performance of Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky,” a nonsense poem from “Through the Looking-Glass.”

Eli followed with Shel Silverstein’s “Sick.”

A group of students then shared their own short poems, touching on subjects ranging from school, a red squirrel, to imagining life as a wolf.

Kent Allyn, a 1961 graduate of Lee H. Kellogg, delivered a poem he wrote about a decade after leaving the school. The untitled poem was about the sights and sounds of nature. In it, he asked readers if they had experienced moments like“water of a splashing brook laughing.”

The poem concluded:

“Listen and you will hear

Touch and you will feel

Look and you will see.”

Community member Mark Gozonsky read his own poem, “I’m Sorry I Killed You,” about an unsuccessful attempt to grow squash.

John Holland, also a member of the community, recited William Carlos Williams’ “The Red Wheelbarrow” and Ezra Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro.”

Near the end of the program, Lev and Eli returned with a trick up their sleeves. They returned to the stage, barely suppressing grins, and read another Silverstein poem, “It’s Dark in Here.”

The twist was the boys read it with each taking every other word.

Anna Pattison, the children’s librarian, wrapped up with her own poem, which she said came to her in the shower.

It was a catalog of interesting things, ending with “all can be found at the library.”