Ancient Masks, Artist Unknown |
Anonymous painting of Paradise Pond taken from a postcard, 1905
Poet Phyllis Katz has published four books of poetry: All Roads Go Where They Will 2010, Migrations 2013, Finding Ithaca 2018, and Ghost Orchids 2020. She now resides in Northampton, Massachusetts but makes frequent trips to her much loved town of Norwich, Vermont. Phyllis writes of her work: "Poetry has metamorphosed from object to subject for me, in that it sustains my emotional and my intellectual life. In the creation of a poem I find challenge and solace. I love the process of losing myself in the writing of a new poem, of finding the right words and images, of shaping its beginning and ending. I’ve learned to revise and revise!"
Paradise Pond
Look back before Smith College grew,
to a time when the pond
was surrounded by woods,
in its own solitude and quiet,
refuge for bountiful fish, birds, and otters,
back to when a famous
Swedish singer, Jenny Lind
who loved Northampton,
was married there, and gave
the pond its name.
Part of a poem by Phyllis Katz published in
The Straw Dog Writers Guild Poetry Anthology,
Compass Roads, Poems About the Pioneer Valley , 2018, Levellers Press,
Paradise Pond
Look back before Smith College grew,
to a time when the pond
was surrounded by woods,
in its own solitude and quiet,
refuge for bountiful fish, birds, and otters,
back to when a famous
Swedish singer, Jenny Lind
who loved Northampton,
was married there, and gave
the pond its name.
Part of a poem by Phyllis Katz published in
The Straw Dog Writers Guild Poetry Anthology,
Compass Roads, Poems About the Pioneer Valley , 2018, Levellers Press,