Wagner - Something to rest on: Poems from my time as The Poet Laureate of Amesbury

Something to rest on Poems from my time as the Poet Laureate of Amesbury Stephen R Wagner
Copyright 2020 Stephen R Wagner All rights reserved.

DEDICATION This book is dedicated to The Good People of Amesbury. Good People of Amesbury, this book is for you.

INTRODUCTION Ive written and discarded several introductions to this book. Theres too much I want to say at once. Too much that comes off as heavy-handed.

Too many buzzwords like cancer and laureate floating around, which Im simply not capturing correctly. Though, I can tell you this, I dont think Ill write another book of poetry again. Nothing against poetry, its just that, however strange it may sound, all of the poetry I have written has, essentially, been need-based. My first three volumes of poetry were really just reminders to my co-workers to submit their time sheets, and this volume, well, this is just a short collection of poems written by a poet laureate, as that is what poet laureates do. Its possible Im shortsighted, but I dont see anything calling to me to write further poems, and I dont write poems for the sake of poetry, so, this will likely be it.

Event Poems There werent a lot of specific events that I wrote for.

Event Poems There werent a lot of specific events that I wrote for.

I was shy and it wasnt really asked of me. (The Amesbury Poet Laureate Support Committee does not try to dictate what the focus of any particular laureate should be, they simply try to support the laureate in the direction the laureate chooses to go). So, it was up to me to commemorate more specific events. I tried to make a point of commemorating all sorts of things, but, in the end, I came up a little short. Here are the moments I did capture.
An Inspirational Poem * Good people of Amesbury! We are gathered here tonight To celebrate! Three hundred and fifty years ago The Town of Amesbury was incorporated And then, at one point, it became a city It has the formal legal and legislative structure of a city And that is a good thing It has the connectivity, social arrangements and the bonds Of a town And that is a good thing, too It is a community governed by care for The Community That is what has made it strong That is what has allowed it to survive and strive It is growing and developing, as it should But it remains rooted to its past, as it should It is a good place, cared for by good people And who, I ask you, are those people? They are you They Are You You, the collected people gathered here tonight You are its caretakers Do not fool yourself, this, tonight, is a municipal event The people who go to municipal events Are the people who care about The Municipality You are the caretakers of the city, and perhaps More importantly, the town The town has been carried and cared for For three hundred and fifty years By good people, such as yourself And tonight, you raise that mantle Tonight, we raise that mantle to you And heres the thing I will tell you right now I think you are going to do great! I have faith in you Because you care And because it counts It counts, so much As you pass through the inauguration and beyond Remember the city and remember the town Both its future and its past And you do what you need to do You do what you need to do To make it last! We shall step shortly into the night As trustees, council people, housing authorities, mayor, poet laureate, and observers alike To strike sparks in the dark To strike sparks in the dark That others may be guided and see the light May the year rise to meet you And may you keep it, and its budgets, in your sights Thank you, and Goodnight! *This poem was written for the swearing in of the mayor and other elected officials in late December of 2017 (technically a few days before I officially became the poet laureate).

The person organizing the event asked me to write An inspirational poem so I decided to run with that.
Brownie Bridging Ceremony Oh, Brownies No frownies For today From Brownies to Juniors You fly Upholding law and honor You are beacons of light and right The very suns In our family skies
Amesbury Incorporation Day Three hundred and fifty years Is a long time A lot of lives come and gone All sorts of happenings The incorporation of a town On the one hand That sounds like a very legally thing to do Very businessy But there is always more to things And there are other definitions To cause to merge together into a united whole* Yes, that it is another And that is what we have done That is what they did Three Hundred And fifty years ago And that is what we still hold together, today And in that Lies all the beauty and gold You could need *definition courtesy of www.thefreedictionary.com
Ribberfest* [The corner of Woodman and Pennycook] A festival of ribs Not far from here The Powwow And The Merrimack rivers Meet But it is right here That you shall find Ribs falling from bones Behind contesting clouds Of curling smoke With chatter and laughter Woven through Music above And below The patter Of feet *This isnt an official town event, but rather an annual barbeque contest held at a friends house. I initially thought the event was called river fest hence the water references, but I decided to keep them in, as nothing in Amesbury is truly far from The Powwow or The Merrimack. I was also determined to write this without actually using the word meat just to keep things interesting, which led to the somewhat awkward feet at the end.
Amesbury Pines Music Festival* [140 Friend Street, Amesbury] A celebration At the edge of the woods Evergreen and coniferous The pines themselves rise, resinous and stout Into the higher reaches of the sky Towering above towering While down On the ground The bandstand itself Sings out the songs Of ninety years As the very throngs rise Children, families and couples All to the crest of the hill Into the woods As the pond and the fronds and the pines All resonate And sing *This was the second and final year of the festival. I wrote the poem ahead of time.

It rained unexpectedly heavily on the actual day, the DJ refused to play, and only a few people beyond the organizers showed up, but those who did banded together around the beer truck and sang enthusiastic acoustic sets with members of one of the bands that was slated to play.
Whittier Grave Rededication Not far from Spruce Ave In Union Cemetery Lies a great seer He is there with parents, siblings and others Beneath a stone veneer We gather at their graves At the markers which mark That they were here And tend the grounds around them Maintaining them through the years That we may better remember them all But more so than any other It is the words of John Greenleaf Whittier To humankind a brother That we need to hear and rehear For he spoke so bravely of freedom and equality For race and gender in times of hatred and fear He is gone now But not gone at all So long as we speak the words to call him near To the next hundred years Of graveside maintenance! As the sign above the stones recounts With grave importance it does announce Here lies Whittier His truth stands loud and clear!
The Holiday Parade [From the corner of Greenleaf Street to Market Square, Amesbury] A politically neutral celebration Of the winter and the town A festive procession Of childrens groups And local businesses Minutemen firing their guns As sports teams And classic cars Stream behind First responders Police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances Blaring their sirens Into the cold afternoon Affirmations of life The thrum and strum Of the crowd And the welcoming of The Seasons delights
Art at city hall poems I wrote poems for all of the art shows that the Amesbury Cultural Council held at City Hall during my term as the laureate. Each show had a different theme, as chosen by The Council beforehand. The title of each poem is simply the word or phrase that constituted the particular theme for that particular show, with the exception of the first show, which didnt have a theme, so, for a reason I cant remember, I went with walnuts.