With Laughter On His Hair: Dale Shaw Remembered

Dale Shaw (left) with Ralph Nazareth

If artistic expression is at its best when it casts a playful, reflecting light on the conventional, then Dale Shaw was all about basking in it, right to the end.

Recalls Ralph Nazareth, visiting Dale in Fairfield February 5, two days before his passing at 94, “I saw him appear suddenly next to me. 'Ralph',” he said, 'look, the ducks are flying backwards!' That was vintage Dale, with eyes to see the miraculous on the back of his palm!"

Ralph's friend Lynda Sorensen, who worked extensively with Dale, along with Ralph, similarly marveled at how his personal whimsy and wonder translated into his work. "Dale was a living poem, moving through this world on his legs of poetry, his heart of rhythm, his vision of light, and his soul of magic."

First encountering him over forty years ago, Ralph collaborated with the former Field & Stream writer on numerous poetry projects over the years, becoming “a steady and wonderful presence in my life and in that of (my) little family.”

Upon learning of the sad news, Lynda drew attention to the closing, elegiac line from “I Am One”, one of Dale's contributions to the 1986 companion anthology to his workshop, On This Crust of Earth (Yuganta Press), which was co-edited by Ralph and Lynda: “'I am the one with no shoes and no horse', and so Dale takes his leave; we live on, holding close our memories of him, as if they are a precious bowl that we hold high between heaven and earth.”

When the PoemAlley group meeting at Curley's Diner began sharing their work via Zoom in 2020, Ralph introduced his friend with a brief tribute during one reading: “'I am the one with laughter on my hair',” says Dale Shaw. He had it when I first met him in 1980, and he still does, now at 93—laughter on his hair, a twinkle in his eye, a chuckle in his throat, and surprising, often stunning, wisdom on his lips.”

A poet and poetry guide par excellence, Dale led an impressive group of writers with fellow poet Janet Krauss, including Doris Lund, author of the national bestseller Eric, children's book writers Freya Littledale and Ruth Krauss (collaborator with Caldecott Award-winning illustrator Maurice Sendak), author of The Carrot Seed. 

PoemAlley co-founder
Ann Yarmal

Ann Yarmal credits the discipline of Dale's weekly Clay Place writing workshop with nothing less than giving her the strength to rebuild her life: “He never let us get away with anything. If we wrote it, we owned it... We had to examine what we wrote and thought and intended and we had next week to work for.” In partnership with Catherine Ednie, Ann went on to found PoemAlley at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in 2000.

From the 1980s to the mid-1990s Dale's role in the Westport and Norwalk poetry communities lit up every kind of venue, be it someone's living room, an art gallery, or a town hall, anticipating today's popular “performance” poetry scene by many years.

Ralph alluded to the gift of Dale's continuing impact on peers and creative aspirants, alike: “His original combination of “gnomic sayings, a seemingly quirky but original vision and love of all things (oddly) human, distinguishes him among

most teachers of poetry.”

As many in PoemAlley will recall, his style of delivery, so laced with irony and embracing humor, was so much of a piece with his writing that to read “the following sample of his work is to get only a faint impression of the real Dale phenomenon,” says Ralph. “I know you’ll enjoy it all the same!” 

Bread

bread of sun, sun bread rising

            wheat of the dawn, dawn-wheat

bread of the mother’s belly

            sweet bread belly

bread of the sea, lifting

            upon the rock, bread rising

crash of the sea bread, rising

            bread of grass, growing

out of the bread loam rising

            bread loam rising

bread of child, bread of moon, on

            cooking hill baking

bread of brain, thought rising

            thought shining, moonbread

in the brain, hill, cooking

            sun bread and dawn bread, belly bread

and sea bread, bread of money

            in the oven bank lifting

bread of the forest in the heat of ages

            green growing, bread of streets

filling, bread of night, fermenting

            bread of laughter, leavening

bread of dreams, pocketed with fear

bread of duck loaves and chicken loaves

            rooting, bread of autos parked

in asphalt pans, bread of graves

            bread of friendship,

best bread of all

            bread with

                        raisins

I Am the One

I am the one who makes mathematics the dark angel

                     I am the one who burrows the earth

I am the one with laughter on my hair

I am the one to butter bread with steel

I am the one wired to the wings of dead birds

I am the one playing darts in a cave

I am the one with strings on my nose

I am the one laughing in the cathedral

I am the one with money in my eyes

I am the one with snakes in my hair

       I am the one who has tattooed my whole body

I am the one who has scalded my babies

I am the one peeking through ferns

I am the one who sees what you are doing

I am the one who must wonder aloud

I am the one who asks why you can stand this

I am the one with the puzzled expression

I am the one with no shoes and no horse

The Returning And The Cherished

Opening with Kaaren Whitney reading tomorrow evening at 7:15 at Barnes & Noble's Open Mic program in the Stamford Town Center, this week features two consecutive events recognizing seasonal and foundational members of the local poetry community.

Following on two prior autumnal appearances to the area (click here and here), Kaaren, a UK resident originally from  Connecticut, practices homeopathy and is active in the English contemporary universalist community. She will be reading selections from The Turning Of the Year: A Book for 8 Seasons (Solstice-Equinox Press, 2016), a chapbook collaboration with Jim Nind of forty-four new pieces, accompanied by full-color photographs.

Among her credits as part of a body of work honoring the natural world, the environment and the urgency of our better stewardship of it, Kaaren has contributed to  Voicing Visions, a 2009 DVD/booklet release featuring assorted artists and poets, England's 2006 National Poetry Anthology and Moonwise Diary (2007 through 2009).

Kaaren has also appeared at the Halesworth Fringe Festival and open mic programs in England, the United States and Australia. Below is her reading from Aldeburgh Beach in UK’s Suffolk County of “The Coming of Light” by the late Mark Strand as part of the 2015 National Poetry Day:

Hosted by Frank Chambers, Barnes & Noble Open Mic meets the second Monday, each month in the cooking section on the main floor of the Stamford bookstore. For more information and directions, contact:

Barnes & Noble
100 Greyrock Place, Suite H009
Stamford, Ct 06901

203-323-1248

A retired professor of literature and peace activist at Nassau Community College, Ralph Nazareth has generously extended his academic chops as moderator/facilitator and creative nurturer to PoemAlley's eclectic assortment of poets and other artists for well over ten years, now, consistently introducing members to new expressive perspectives spanning art, foreign affairs, family, travel, illness and other topics through his energetic organizing of special public readings and frequent appearances of guest readers and performers at Curley's Diner.

In appreciation, the Tuesdays At Curley's group has decided to return the favor by asking Ralph to be this week's featured poet, reading work from his new collection Between Us The Long Road (Owlfeather Collective, 2017).

Ralph is managing editor of of Stamford-based Yuganta Press and president of Grace Works International, a charitable foundation involved in outreach in the developing world (proceeds from the sales of Between Us will be donated to GWI). Ralph has participated in poetry festivals in India, the Middle East, and in Latin America and has placed work in numerous books and magazines both in the United States and abroad, including Indivisible: An Anthology of Contemporary South Asian American Poetry (University of Arkansas Press, 2010) and Multilingual Anthology: The Americas Poetry Festival of New York 2014. His collection Glass: Selected Poems, was published by El Quirófano Ediciones in Ecuador in 2015.

He uses the title poem from the latter to examine the multi-layered role of metaphor in this clip from a 2009 discussion for the Bent Pin (http://BentPin.net):

All are welcome to hear this patient, inquisitive and dedicated advocate for the importance of engaging in, and being engaged by,  the written and spoken word in upholding the human in human affairs.

Poems For A Feverish Planet: An Evening Of Readings & Conversation With Kamala Platt

In a special PoemAlley engagement tomorrow night at Curley’s Diner, beginning at 7:30, environmental feminist, visual/performance artist, author and adjunct profesora Kamala Platt will share and discuss material from her various collections, including Weedslovers (Finishing Line 2014) and On the Line (Wings Press, 2010), as well as the “green rascuache” lifeways by which she seeks footholds of dignity, well-being and sustainability defying industrialism, militarism and other toxic -isms driving a simmering world’s accumulating crises.

While Kamala’s concern for ecology and human rights owes

its roots to a cross-cultural childhood in Orissa, India and in the Kansas Mennonite community, her knowledge has been enhanced through her work with the Esperanza Center for Peace & Justice, the Climate Reality Leadership Corps, Texas Women Farmers’ Holistic Management and other organizations.

Her creative and social activism finds expression in The Meadowlark Center, a rural venue for community arts, education, environment and social justice activities, situated on the Meadowlark Homestead in Kansas built by her grandmother in the 1950s, as well as Kamala’s complementary Eastside Barrio home in San Antonio, affording guests an all-in-one native habitat/garden, library and studio, where nopalitos, loquats and other seasonal produce are served up in equal measure with books and art.

Kamala has attained fellowships with the Feminist Research Institute at the University of New Mexico and the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center (Gateways) in San Antonio. Holding several degrees, including an MFA in poetry from Bowling Green State University, Ohio and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature (University of Texas, Austin), Kamala served as compiler on Kimientos (Wordsworth, 1992) and contributor to Wild Things: Children's Culture and Ecocriticism (Wayne State University Press, 2004).

Explore Kamala’s blog, ”artists vs death penalty” here; you can also click here to find out more about her.

___

Further Reading:

Adams, Carol J., Ecofeminism and the Sacred (Continuum, 1993)

Diamond, Irene, Fertile Ground: Women, Earth, and the Limits of Control (Beacon Press, 1997)

“                     “, Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism (Sierra Club Books, 1990)

Pandey, S, Emergence of Eco-Feminism and Reweaving the World (MD Publications, 2011)

Shiva, Vandana, Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace (North Atlantic Books, 2015)
 

A Fall Celebration Of Poetry And Music

Following-up on last winter’s cozily snowbound and well-received program of readings, music and singing (delivered with delightful off-the-cuff verve by Jane Wickham and Ralph Nazareth on the piano, respectively), as well as a video presentation on the life of Emily Dickinson, Jane has put together another PoemAlley presentation for this weekend, this time celebrating Autumn.

A resident of the Mapleview Towers senior apartment complex (around the corner from the Stamford Town Center), Jane is known as much for her handmade jewelry as for her thoughtful selection of photography and art used to spot illustrate the, by turns, locally- and Continentally-flavored pieces she shares at Curley’s.

Open to the public and PA members, alike, all are encouraged to bring a favorite poem to share, or to just to come by for a listen and to enjoy complimentary refreshments. Wear a costume, if you dare!

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Where:

Community Room

Mapleview Towers

51 Grove Street (Corner of Broad and Grove)

When:

Sunday, October 26, 2014

3-6 pm

Contact:

Jane Wickham, 203-274-5474

Sponsored by PoemAlley and Curley’s Diner, this event is free; only on-street parking is permitted, unless you have a Mapleview Towers Parking Permit.