Ragged Sky Press, an independent Princeton-based publisher, and Princeton Makes, the new Princeton-based artist cooperative located in the Princeton Shopping Center, are launching a monthly Second Sunday Poetry Readings at the co-op’s center.
The first event is set for Sunday, November 14, at 4 p.m., and features James Richardson, an emeritus professor of English and creative writing at Princeton University and the author of a new collection of poems called “For Now,” and David Orr, a professor of poetry and the practice of criticism at Rutgers University, critic for the New York Times Book Review, and the author of the forthcoming collection “Thorns.”
The free reading will be followed an open mic session for up to 10 audience members interested in sharing their original poetry.
Despite the pandemic, Ragged Sky Press has remained active and recently announced two new publications.
Its newest, “With Aeneas in a Time of Plague,” has regional significance. It is the last book by influential Bucks County-based poet Christopher Bursk, who died on June 21, 2021.
Bursk, among other titles and honors, was a nationally recognized poet and a fellow of Philadelphia’s Pew Center for the Arts & Heritage, which announced the poet’s death as follows:
“A prolific poet, Bursk published seventeen books of poetry (his most recent ‘With Aeneas in a Time of Plague’ was published posthumously in July), in addition to work published in numerous anthologies, magazines, and literary journals, including Paris Review and The American Poetry Review.
“Bursk taught composition, creative writing, and literature at Bucks County Community College from 1971 until the time of his death. He also volunteered at Bucks County Correctional Facility, teaching a creative writing course to incarcerated people for over 30 years. He wrote his 1997 book of poetry ‘Cell Count’ about his experience volunteering in the prison.
“In addition to his 1995 Pew Fellowship, Bursk received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. He earned an MA and PhD from Boston University, an MFA from Warren Wilson College, and a BA from Tufts University. He also received an AA from Bucks County Community College in 2021.”
Among the 58 recently written poems are two timely works that deal with the pandemic, including the following that brings us to its start with a quote from a newspaper article:
The Plague in Early Spring
In those early weeks of the pandemic, landscaping crews have been busy cutting away rotting branches – Philadelphia Inquirer, April 23, 2020.
The first week in the first year of the plague,
when we told ourselves there was no plague,
the flowers were more than willing
to confirm our opinion.
The second week of the plague
we were careful to remind ourselves
we did not have any symptoms
and only the old and infirm had to worry,
and the trees offered themselves
as emblems of how perhaps such culling was natural.
The fifth week of the plague
we flung open windows
and dared the virus to break into our houses,
some of us even tempted to embrace the fever
and get it over with.
The sixth week of the plague
we started hating tulips and daffodils
for flaunting themselves just outside our windows
as if there no such thing as a plague.
and the trees?
What high and mighty airs they still put on.
Our children convince us now that they’re dying
of boredom, glare at us
as if it’s our fault that we were all born
a lower evolutionary organism susceptible to disease.
Whole families stand at the windows
and wait for something terrible to happen
to the oblivious lilies of the valley,
complacent gladioli.
Today we hate wren and chickadee most of all.
It’s not just that they come and go
as they please. It’s their melodies old as Homer we resent.
The book ends with a note by the poet and self-proclaimed “proud grandfather of six’s” statement expressing “deep gratitude” to Lawrenceville-based poet and Philadelphia Inquirer book reviewer John Timpane “for his attentive reading” and “to Ragged Sky Press for publishing this, my final book of poetry, and to (Ragged Sky founder and publisher) Ellen Foos for her generous and careful editing, and to (Ellen’s artist sister) Jean Foos for her book design.”
With Aeneas in a Time of Plague by Christopher Bursk, 90 pages, $15, Ragged Sky Press
The press’ recent publication of “American Carnage” continues Ragged Sky’s interest in the poetry and prose of Steve Nolan. His other RSP titles include “Go Deep,” featuring the works of the late regional artist N.J. DeVico, and “Base Camp,” the latter informed in part by his service as the chief of combat stress for Paktika Province in Afghanistan.
In this latest book, Newtown, Pennsylvania-based writer, licensed clinical social worker, and veteran Nolan takes a professional and personal look at the presidency of Donald Trump and opens with a telling short chapter titled “When You’re a Star They Just Let You Do it. You Can Do Anything.”
On February 29th, in National Harbor, Maryland, the President of the United States attended the 2020 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). He strolled across the stage to the American flag, took it in his arms, gave it a squeeze, planted his lips on it and mugged for crowd approval. He mouthed the words, “I love you, baby.”
In 30 years of service to my country I never witnessed anyone hug the flag. There is a United States Flag Code that establishes advisory rules for display and care of the national flag. We have military honor guards trained in the appropriate handling of the flag, and it is indeed viewed as an honor, by those in uniform, to post the colors. The flag is treated ceremoniously for retirements, burials and other solemn occasions. The flag is never to touch the ground and when it is worn out the flag is folded into a trident and burned with dignity and respect – it is never to be discarded as trash. It’s not an object to be used for grandstanding or self-promotion. You don’t prove allegiance by physical contact; you probe allegiance by selfless service to country.
My mother, Lt. Katherine Flynn (Nolan), earned five battle stars during WWII for her brave service as a heavy casualty field hospital nurse in the European Theater. She treated survivors of the massacre at Gardelegan and the Nazi Concentration Camp at Bergen Belsen. She loved the American flag. She put it out every morning and took it in in the evening. It was done respectfully. There was something sacred about it. She had seen too many die defending it (the ideal for which America stands), she had seen it draped over too many caskets, including my father’s.
If there is one visual, one symbol, that could summarize a reality TV star’s presidency, if there is one act that could define the emotional deficits and limitless manipulation of the narcissistic personality, this is it. The first self-admitted sex offender to run for public office, grabbed the flag and used it for his own gratification.
American Carnage, Steve Nolan, 88 pages, $20, Ragged Sky Press.
Second Sunday Poetry Reading, Princeton Makes, Princeton Shopping Center, Sunday, November 14, 4 p.m. Free. For more information, contact Princeton Makes coordinator Jim Levine at princetonmakes@gmail.com.
