Join
the song, music and poetry tomorrow night at Curley's to celebrate
the naming of PA's own William Hayden as Norwalk's new Poet
Laureate, succeeding Norwalk Community College English professor
Laurel S. Peterson.
The
new appointment was announced at the city's Annual Lit Crawl event,
organized by the Norwalk Public Library. As a poet,
singer/songwriter, Bill intends to complement the writer lectures and
other programs created by Laurel with new poet talks and
discussions, as well as ekphrastic poetry events--in response both to
Bill's own enthusiasm for the visual arts and the growing gallery and
entertainment scene in the community he has called home since 1970.
“It seems like there’s a move toward artistic and cultural energy
in town,” he said in a recent piece by Rachel Baron on nancyonnorwalk.com.
Acclaimed
for The Good Folk Coffeehouse, the folk music venue he and his wife
Brandi have run for the past 28 years in Rowayton, Bill is also
active in Monday Expressions East at New Haven's Neverending Books
and the Poetry Salon at the Fairfield Public Library.
 |
| Pete & Maura Kennedy will perform at Good Folk Coffeehouse in September |
A voracious reader (typically borrowing a dozen library titles at a time), Bill first developed a fascination for words through stabs at writing nature poetry while working as a lifeguard in his teens, maturing through his years in the international shipping industry, up to his latest contributions to 2018's Oysterville (Woodhall Press LLP), a digital recording and chapbook of Norwalk poets edited by Laurel, and the new PoemAlley anthology, Tuesday Night Live (Yuganta Press, 2018), edited by Ralph Nazareth and Catherine Ednie.
Writing
a
clean sheet, don't you know?the lines upon that knowing
stretch, with a tautness
seldom thought about
a
burst awaits, black torrential
forms, flowing secretly
the deeper the point plunges
the more meaning is secured
not at each end, but in between
where the images grow
to new blossomed freshness
forms, flowing secretly
the deeper the point plunges
the more meaning is secured
not at each end, but in between
where the images grow
to new blossomed freshness
each
starlight, poetic power
increases twenty fold
each other leaf's
a turning frame (to be)
setting, like a jeweler
in his way
increases twenty fold
each other leaf's
a turning frame (to be)
setting, like a jeweler
in his way
You
can keep up with Bill's musical and writing activites through his
Facebook page.
