Area Groups Support the Art of Poetry
Agh, poetry. Even the word holds a particular charm that somehow elevates it and brings about a whimsical quality. It seems romantic and profound. And it is.
But that doesn’t mean it’s too high-brow for some, and shouldn’t feel inaccessible for the everyday.
“Poetry is not something to be feared. Most of our first experiences with poetry came in high school, with complicated rhyming verse written by old white guys that we struggle to make sense of,” Cathryn Cofell, Appleton Poet Laureate and Lead Coordinator of Poetry Unlocked, explains. “Poetry today is so much more diverse and accessible, emotive and inspiring. And often, it’s funny, musical and thought-provoking.
“All too often someone who says they ‘don’t like poetry’ will come up to me after an event and express surprise at how much they enjoyed it. Yet, poetry is the thing we often turn to for those special life moments—weddings, births, funerals—my hope is that people will turn to it more often, every day, just because!”
“Poetry unleashes the potential of language to connect with ourselves, each other and the world,” Sophie Bebeau, who runs the Poetry Book Club at Lion’s Mouth Bookstore in Green Bay, adds. “It’s not just words, but sound, movement, silence and relation. Many people think of poetry as a solitary pursuit, and while it can be that, it is also a deeply communal and relational experience. It is always in conversation—with its reader, with its predecessors, with the world it exists in.”
“Poetry is a meditative form of wordsmithing that connects the writer with their innermost thoughts and feelings on various topics in a way that often paints a picture for the reader,” Amy Mazzariello, owner of Lion’s Mouth Bookstore, says. “(You) don’t need to understand the meaning of the poem to gain a perspective of their own.”
Read on to learn about how the Fox Cities is fostering and keeping the art of poetry alive.
Poetry Unlocked
Poetry Unlocked, of which Cathryn Cofell is the lead coordinator, “is a collective of area poets who ensure that there is a thriving poetry community in the Fox Cities.” Collective members are Cathryn Cofell, Katie Chicquette and Sarah Gilbert from Appleton, Laura Winkelspecht from Green Bay and Bobbie Lee Lovell from De Pere.
It is also a program of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets (WFOP), and occasionally offered “grant support to pay poets who travel, but beyond that, its readers come for the community of art lovers, to be heard, to hear and to sell books.”
How do you describe poetry in terms of it being a form or art? Poetry is one of the oldest forms of art, an oral tradition, that allows us to voice our culture, retell our myths, express ideas, emotions and values. Poetry is an extremely creative act that allows the writer and receiver to explore our innermost feelings and perspectives, and to make sense of the senseless or complex with a minimal number of words.
Why do you think it’s important to preserve poetry’s presence in the community? Wisconsin’s state government is, regrettably, nearly last in support of the arts, despite the empirical data that shows the arts create jobs, attract tourism, grow the tax base, build community and provide our youth with skills in critical thinking, communications and creativity. For all these reasons, and more, the city of Appleton chose to establish the poet laureate program. A single poem can educate and inspire, can evoke anger, joy, pain and delight all at once. What one person experiences from a poem, a laureate can amplify to many, connecting this community in a powerful way.
“Appleton has a rich history of nationally-recognized poets, with two state laureates from Appleton: Ellen Kort and Karla Huston. Huston won a Pushcart Prize (like the Oscars, for poets). Cofell won a national book award and founded the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission, working with Governor Tommy Thompson.”
Who can participate, and how? Poetry Unlocked readings are free and open to the public. We welcome non-poets who enjoy the art form, as much as we do poets looking to share their work.
Poetry Unlocked meets most months on the second Monday at 6:30 p.m. at ACOCA Café & Roastery in Appleton for in-person events, and holds Zoom meetings January through March. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/poetryunlockedappleton or to receive periodic emails about our events and other poetry events in the area, email [email protected].
Poetry Book Club at Lion’s Mouth Bookstore, Green Bay
The Poetry Book Club at Lion’s Mouth Bookstore focuses on contemporary poetry collections that cover a wide variety of styles and topics. Each month, we read our selected book and then gather on the second Sunday of each month to discuss the book together. Our discussions usually last about an hour. We dive into the content of the book, themes, poetics, craft, and anything else that comes up organically as we discuss. It’s a really diverse and welcoming group that brings so many different perspectives, which makes for a really great conversation.
How do you describe poetry in terms of it being a form or art? Language is an imperfect tool, but it’s all we have to try and articulate the ineffable. Because poetry doesn’t often follow the rules of more traditional prose writing, it can give us entirely new perspectives. Yes, there are more constrained poetic forms like the sonnet or haiku, and like any artistic craft, there is technique involved. But more than any other written medium, it leaves ample space for play and exploration. The more poetry one reads, the more the world opens up.
Poetry is not necessarily “hard” or inaccessible. Poetry is for everyone. I promise you, there is a poet or poetry collection out there for you, even if you don’t think poetry is your thing. There’s a wide world of soul-shattering, soul-nourishing, illuminating, silly, and downright weird poetry out there. I encourage people to shake off what they might think poetry is and explore what contemporary poetry has to offer them.
Why do you think it’s important to preserve its presence in the community? Because poetry holds very little value as defined in a capitalist society, it defies the systems that seek to overwhelm us into apathy, commodify all aspects of our lives, and alienate us from ourselves and others. Poetry urges us to reject that which would seek to destroy our souls. What could be more valuable?
Appleton’s Sidewalk Poetry Program
Launched in 2014, Appleton’s Sidewalk Poetry program is a growing collection of poetry, written by Appleton residents and students, stamped into the concrete beneath our feet, transforming our city’s sidewalks into an open book of poetry.
“This was the third year the Appleton Public Library teamed up with the City of Appleton’s Department of Public Works to select which of the year’s submitted poems would be stamped into sidewalks,” Peter Kotarba, Adult Services and Engagement Librarian at the Appleton Public Library, says.
How do you describe poetry in terms of it being a form of art? Poetry is an art form and an expression that has the capability to promote cultural understanding, strengthen our community’s shared narrative, and inspire. Sidewalk concrete is a special medium of printing poetry with its ability to invite everyone passing by to participate. When someone reads a sidewalk poem, they step into the words and experiences of their neighbors and are even offered an opportunity to see themselves reflected in a new light.
Why do you think it’s important to preserve its presence in the community? Poetry has the capability to promote cultural understanding, to strengthen our community’s shared narrative, and to inspire. The Sidewalk Poetry program creates easy opportunities for each of us to learn more about our neighbors, how their thoughts reflect our own and how they differ.
“There is poetry that YOU will like! There’s incredible diversity in the artform. Somewhere there is a poem that captures those feelings you feel deep inside that you’ve never quite figured out how to express. And if you can’t find it, try to write it for the next person!”
Today there are 64 poems, written by 64 poets, stamped in over 200 locations throughout the City of Appleton!
Who can participate, and how? Submission is open to all Appleton residents and Appleton Area School District Students. Each year the City of Appleton announces a call for submissions.
Appleton: A Love Story
By Cathryn Cofell, Appleton Poet Laureate
I had a crush on you first through a boy
I had a crush on in college. Both
elusive, mysterious, strung me along:
with free beer and death metal Dylan,
with stories about the Viking and Valley Fair Mall.
He didn’t love me back enough
but Appleton hung on
like a rip cord, a tether, a kite that caught the wind
but flew away
until three bad jobs in three lesser cities later I caught
the tail and reeled you in.
Ahhhppleton:
City of four homes and two husbands,
(only one until death do us part).
City of my only son who awes like the first Hearthstone bulb.
City of my first poetic break and a thousand lyric mistakes,
city of symphony and sidewalk poems,
city of occasional cracks:
Sundown and suicide watch,
the society of John Birch.
City of Apollon and ACOCA and Christmas at Cleo’s.
Fox this and Fox that
(and Fox this and Fox that) . . .
of Alicia and Pierce and Lutz and the locks,
of Ho-Chunk and Menominee,
of magic, of Marathon, of mills and gulls.
Oh farmer’s market, oh Paradise Club,
oh city of delights and despairs
of my grief and my livelihood,
certainly not my first crush but possibly my last:
city of heartache, and my heart.
“I see my role as Poet Laureate as a champion for all art forms and am working intentionally to collaborate—from programming at the Trout Museum of Art, to the Appleton Public Library, to planned activities with the Fox Valley Symphony Orchestra and Appleton Downtown Inc.,” Cofell says.
“A couple of weeks ago my husband and I were at a local restaurant, enjoying an appetizer and beverage at the back bar. We got talking to the couple next to us, and my husband, as he likes to do, bragged to them about my position as Appleton’s poet laureate. As often happens, the couple said “The what?”
“This has become one of my favorite encounters because it opens the door to an incredibly rich conversation about the importance of the arts to any community, but especially this community and especially through poetry.
“The City of Appleton established the Appleton Poet Laureate program in 2024, to inspire artistic expression, nurture cultural understanding, and enrich our community’s shared narrative. My goal, our goal is to engage with as many people as possible to help foster a community that is more literate, more creative, more connected, and more mentally healthy.
I’m so honored to have been selected as the first in what I hope is a long line of laureates for Appleton. As the city’s laureate, each year I am expected to create a minimum of three new programs, two original poems and appear at two Common Council Meetings.”