The Catskill Chronicle

Story and photos by Ted Waddell

[MINISINK] – The Upper Delaware Writers Collective (UDWC) and the Green Heron Poetry Project presented “Hope in the River – Celebrating the Return of the Green Heron” on Sunday afternoon, September 13. It was held at the Sullivan County residence of the Margolis Brown Adaptors Company on the New York side of the famed Delaware Aqueduct, now commonly known as the Roebling Suspension Bridge, as it was designed and constructed under the supervision of John A. Roebling, future designer of the Brooklyn Bridge in NYC.

The UDWC was founded in 1993 by Mary Greene, a published poet, writer and associate editor of the River Reporter newspaper of Narrowsburg. The two-part afternoon of the arts kicked off on the Pennsylvania side of the river on the grounds of the Lackawaxen Inn with a outdoor theatre dance performance created by Tannis Kowalchuk, co-founder and artistic director of the North American Cultural Laboratory (NACL) of Highland, NY.

At the conclusion of the introspective dance featuring 10 women and girls swaying to drum music while holding red flowers, petaled wishful offerings that were later tossed into the swirling Delaware River, the assemblage marched across the ca. 1847 bridge – the oldest existing wire bridge in the United States – to the New York side of the river for an original storytelling performance accompanied by qigong movements and the reading of several poems by award-wining poets.

As the musical procession wended its way along the wooden pedestrian decking of the old bridge, they were led by drummers and folks holding poetically inclined posters designed in honor of the heron project.

The second part of the event, held at the Roebling View, the restored Roebling Inn, now converted into a multi-use artist’s space by its new owners, the Margolis Brown Adaptors Company, began with Kazzrie Jaxen performing an original story titled “The Girl Who Dreamed Dresses”, a work accented with haunting  qigong movements. Tom Holmes followed with a brief musical interlude on a homemade lyre.

Next were several poets reading their original works penned for the UDWC’s Green Heron Poetry Project (GHPP), designed to promote poetry in public spaces in the county.

“In addition to promoting poetry, we were committed to involving area artists to interpret the theme of the project – create the reality that you are hoping for,” said Marcia Nehemiah, UDWC member and GHPP coordinator.

The UDWC selected the green heron (Butorides virescens), a stately bird observed more frequently in the Upper Delaware River Valley, as inspiration for the creative project.

“We choose the green heron as our symbol because our beautiful home faces enormous challenges, and according to Native Americans, the bird embodies important qualities of self-reliance, determinati on, aggressive adaptability and innate balance, qualities necessary for our own species to face the challenges ahead,” said Nehemiah.

The UDWC received more than 100 entries from 39 poets, and the 12 winners were determined by a panel of three judges: Paul Austin, founder and artistic director of the Liberty Free Theatre, novelist Joe Freda, and Kowalchuk.

The poets and their worksincluded: David Crews “Spring Song”, Rees Davis “Love Birds”, Mimi Moriarty “Quilting”, Lorraine A. Davis “The Garden” (read by Nancy Wells), Will Nixon “Saying Cheese, 1960”, Matthew J. Spireng “The Flower”, Judith Lechner “Revision”, Emily Nelson “If I Had a Rooster”, Marcia Nehemiah “New World”, Georganna Millman “Seduction”, Diane Feula “Cappadocia”, and Mary Greene “Cape May, January”.

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“New World” by Marcia Nehemiah

Soon, I will wake in a different woods.
I will lift myself from this pine-needle bed
where I have slept too long
in the darkest night.

A clear path will lead me
to green, sun drenched river water,
silver minnow flashes,
bass, heron, eagle.

Every thing
Any living thing needs is
here, where life and death
move in the eternal dance.

I am suddenly made wild.
No words.
Only ecstatic song
Flung from my burning throat.

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“Cape May, January” by Mary Greene

The earth will shrug us off –
but first, split the oak, tend the fire.

The earth will shrug us off –
but first, get your paints, render the sky.

Green surface of the earth
tugged down by the weight of monastery walls,
Green surface of the earth
obliterated by the white worms of blizzards.

The earth will crack at its polar edges
and we’ll be as shells, smashed

to bits, hardening to glass. But first –
the fog is lifting. Waves break, shapely and silver.

A young girl holds a white cup.

She is about to begin.

To view more photos or to purchase prints from Hope for Herons and Humanity visit the Chronicle on Zenfolio.