Thisweekourlife4 20 17 inddp2

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Arts & Recreation April Issue

Discovering The Mature Lifestyle April 20 & 21, 2017

Poetry is a guilty pleasure for all ages Don’t pooh-pooh poetry. In an er a of te xts, Guest column twitter messa ges and sound bites , po... by Bob etry gets a bad r ap. It doesn ’t seem r elRamsey evant in today’s high tech en vironment. Besides, people think it’s boring. listen to n ursery rhymes and elFor e xample, m y dictionary defines a poem as “a ders put favorite verses on their verbal composition designed to tombstones. And poetry is e verywhere — from greeting cards convey e xperiences, ideas and emotions in a vi vid and ima gi- to mon uments and memorials . native way, characterized by the It’s also quoted in e very gr eat use of condensed language cho- prose writer’ s w ork. Lik e it or sen for its sound and suggesti ve not, you can’t escape poetry. What’s surprising is tha t popower and by the use of literary techniques such as meter, meta- etry is also a ca talyst for socializing and comm unity-building. phor and rhyme.� Huh?! Blah. Ho w boring and That’s w hy poetry classes and poetry clubs k eep popping up . stuffy is that? Forget all that! The truth is tha t poetry is a An e ven better e xample ha ppened in m y hometo wn a fe w powerful and popular outlet for all a ges. It can enrich e very years ago. After I wr ote a letter to the phase of life — especiall y the senior years. Poetry is for every- editor of our local ne wspaper one. You’re ne ver too y oung or suggesting our city should ha ve too old to enjo y it. Kids lo ve to a Poet Laureate, the F riends of

the Arts took up the idea and ran with it. And r an with it. They ended up coor dinating a year-long e vent la beled “Voices and Verses� designed to pull the community to gether thr ough poetry. They not only selected a Community P oet, they sponsor ed poetry w orkshops, a F avorite Poem Contest, the creation of a community “R enga� (J apanese for community poem) and a series of coffee house poetry jams. The event was a hit. Not bad for something that was supposed to be stuffy, boring and irr elevant. Poetry trul y is e verywhere and for everyone. The real beauty of poetry, besides its langua ge and ima gery, is its v ersatility. Poetry can tak e many f orms. It can rh yme. Or not. It can be length y or a bbreviated. It can be serious (Think Whitman) or silly (Think Silverstein or Ogden Nash). P oetry can be whatever we want it to be. But the most important thing about poetry is ho w it touches and moves us on a personal le v-

el. Most of us ha ve a lo ve-hate relationship with poetry . Man y of us declar e that we don’t like or understand it. Yet we turn to poetry in times of great emotion, like when falling in love, or losing a loved one. We e ven try to write our o wn poetry to e xpress our deepest feelings (admit it; you’ve written some bad verse at some point). Actually, writing poetry is a guilty pleasur e a t all sta ges of life. Ev en if our ef forts ar e less than perfect, ther e’s still good reason to do it, F or e xample, when someone once ask ed popular poet Bob Bl y, “W hy write poetry; why not just write prose? He r eplied, “W hy dance? W hy not just walk around?� Poetry says things we can’t say any other way. Some time a go, J ennifer Pitterle, editor of the St. Louis Park Magazine, shared a poem gi ven to her and her classmates on the first da y of their first gr ade in school by a gifted teacher. It was “Keep a P oem in Your Pocket� by Bea trice Schenk de R egnier.

The first verse said, “Keep a poem in your pocket And a picture in your head And you’ll never feel lonely At night when you’re in bed.� Pitterle ne ver f orgot tha t poem. It has been a gift tha t kept on gi ving. W hy not gi ve yourself a similar gift? Let the poet inside come out to pla y sometimes . Bring some poetry into y our life . R ead a little. Write a little. Memorize a little. If y ou do , poetry can help you “dance� in your own mind, even if you need a walker to get around; and just ma ybe “you’ll never feel lonel y a t night w hen you’re in bed.� Bob R amsey is a lif elong educator, fr eelance writer and adv ocate f or V ital Aging. He can be contacted at 952-922-9558 or b y email at jo yrammini@comcast. net.

Meet the Dragony bandmates DRAGONFLY - CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

to Starb uck. Dr agonfly’s website gives some insight about the background of each member: •Jay first learned f olk m usic from his guitar-playing father, who made singing part of evening baths for his small childr en. J ay’s been in man y chor al gr oups and sang “Doo Wopâ€? with the Fedoras. •A native of East Chica go, Bob played violin in the Y outh Symphony Or chestra. Near the end of WWII, he joined the Br ooklyn Navy Yard Glee Club and has been singing in choirs ever since. He is a Purdue engineering alum. •Beth endured piano recitals and enjoyed famil y har monizing on

road trips in her ear ly childhood, then bands and vocal ensembles in high school and college. She had a career in science. Her favorite part of Dragonfly is the group’s creative collaboration in the a bsence of musical scores. •Dan took over his sister’s guitar just before his high school gr aduation. A n un taught him a fe w chords, and he took it fr om there. He’s a f ormer member of Rochester’s Ba g o’ Dirt b luegrass band. Some of his har monica songs he learned as a child fr om his gr andmother. •Frank’s musical life began with a childr en’s choir, then piano and

French horn. He f ound his first guitar in the gar age a ttic and taught himself enough to accompany a high school f olk group. He was in the Harvard Glee Club, was part of the 1970s Chicago folk music scene, and has contrib uted one of his o wn compositions to Dr agonfly’s repertoire. •Iris has been making m usic since she stood on tiptoe a t the piano picking out melodies . Formal training in v ocal perf ormance led to nine y ears on the r oad playing and singing as a pr ofessional musician. Then came chur ch m usic directorships, choral direction and small ensemb le w ork both instrumental and v ocal. In ad dition to

D r a g o n f l y, she pla ys bass with the Good News Big Band and in pit orchestras for musicals. •Bradley bought his first drum set with earnings sa ved fr om tw o Minneapolis pa per r outes. He played along to rock LPs to learn basic bea ts and fills. Over the years he’s enjoyed making music in ‘50s bands and in church music ministry as drummer, guitarist, and vocalist.

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