The region’s poetry community is emerging from the pandemic with a renewed focus and a new edition of US1 Worksheets, a publication that has connected poets and poetry lovers for nearly five decades.
While the poem below by Pittsburgh-based writer David Ades gives readers a taste of the book’s artistry, the following preface note by Princeton-based poet and advising editor Maxine Susman brings the group’s efforts into perspective:
The pandemic brought changes to US 1 Poets Cooperative, along with everything else in our lives. Our group, one of the oldest poetry cooperatives in the country, was started in 1973 by Princeton poets, among them Alicia Ostriker, Elizabeth Socolow, and David Keller.
Every Tuesday evening for nearly 50 years, poets along the Princeton-US 1 corridor have gathered in each others’ homes to critique each others’ work as well as to enjoy food, drink, and each others’ company. We became an enduring community of poets and friends.
In June, 2020, not long after the lockdown began, the weekly critique meetings migrated online to Zoom, an effort initiated by Lois Marie Harrod and Coleen Marks, supported by 15 hosts and compilers and visited by 50 or so poets. Virtual critiquing expanded our membership beyond central New Jersey to New York, Georgia, and Canada. We now include a mix of the members who previously attended in-person meetings, those who Zoom in, and those who want to do both. In the future we plan to continue remote sessions but also return to live meetings.
Spring 2021 brought another change to US 1: in April, we voted unanimously to merge with the Delaware Valley Poets, which has been in existence since 1952 and is the oldest poetry critique group in New Jersey. We are now the nonprofit DVP/US1 Poets Cooperative.
Even before the merger, we had a long history of working together: US 1 Worksheets has always published the work of poets from both groups; for more than 10 years the two groups co-hosted the poetry series at the Princeton Public Library; and in fact, some poets have belonged to both groups.
As we emerge from the pandemic lockdown, we are publishing the next US 1 Worksheets under the leadership of Lew Maltby as managing editor. The editorial board of US 1 Worksheets 66 has dedicated this issue to four poets from US 1 who have made substantial, crucial contributions over many years: Betty Lies, Elizabeth (Mimi) Danson, Dave Worrell, and Nancy Scott.
As longtime senior editor, Betty lent a steady hand and clear vision to our journal. She blends creativity with sanity in her editorial approach, as she does in her poems, and has helped US 1 Worksheets weather many changes over many years. For years, Mimi kept records of membership and book sales, deposited checks, and mailed out the Worksheets. She was often a gracious host at meetings in her Princeton home. An active member of the cooperative and a fine poet, she has also given generously of her time and expertise through the years in the editing and production of Worksheets. Dave kept the membership informed about weekly meetings, members’ readings and publications, and other community poetry events through his weekly listserv newsletter, which he produced singlehandedly for years.
As managing editor of US 1 Worksheets for the last 14 years, Nancy steered the anthology to wider recognition in New Jersey and beyond. Under her strong leadership, the anthology grew to include many more poets outside our own membership and evolved into a handsome publication with many more readers.
To repeat what has been said throughout the pandemic and continues to be said: poetry is a solace, a pleasure, and a way to make sense of things. It has helped keep us grounded, giving us somewhere to breathe and think creatively when our personal lives have been disrupted and the public sphere has often dismayed us. Poems are “the best words in the best order,” that is why they are useful. We hope you will find this true of the poems in the new US 1 Worksheets.
US 1 Worksheets Volume 66, 127 pages, $15, DVP/US 1 Poets. A launch party, hosted by Princeton Public Library, takes place virtually via Zoom on Sunday, November 7, from 2 to 4 p.m. Register online at www.princetonlibrary.org. For more information, visit us1poets.com.
