Greenwood Festival August 2012

The Wolfeboro Summer Boarding School holds an annual  Poetry and Prose Festival, in memory of George Greenwood, beloved English teacher at Wolfeboro and at The Episcopal Academy in Pennsylvania. On the occasion of the August 2012 festival, I wrote the poem below:

IN THE FACULTY GROVE

In memory of George Greenwood

Benches have been arranged,
A kind of tabernacle;

New Hampshire pines and oaks

Filter August light

As if through stained glass.

We have gathered for a reading

And note the absence of

Fathers and mentors,

Teachers and friends,

How they would have urged on

These young people, seeking after

Poetry, in words new to them.

I tell the dark-haired boy:

You have written a poem;

That makes you a poet.