by Verandah Porche

For many years Verandah Porche has been a "peripatetic poet" teaching children in Vermont schools to find their own words and turn them into poems. Lately she has been engaged in a collaborative writing partnerships that she calls "Told Poetry." In her own words:

Told Poetry is collaborative writing produced by a willing narrator and a questioning, echoing scribe. I developed the process to enable people who need a writing partner to create and preserve personal literature. I pair my skills as a poet and facilitator--sensitivity to the interplay language, rhythm, imagery--with each partner's natural eloquence and need to transmit wisdom. I share my commitment to the strength and enduring worth of every individual's unique voice. The process provides a direct service to both partners, and the poems speak for themselves.

Alta Donovan, one of the profoundest of the "telling poets" was a farm worker, lay preacher and artist. I took down her words when she was a resident of the Gill Odd Fellows Home in Ludlow, Vermont, during the "Lifelines Poetry Project" funded by the Vermont Arts Council.

Flight

by Alta Donovan 10/94

Boy, I remember

when the geese go, they go.

With the point of the V

their leaders head in a straight line

and settle on the water

in great flocks.

Their honking rises and falls and

I have felt their changes

as they talk back and forth.

They settle on the water

to see if it suits them.

You can almost see in your mind

the sound--the great change

in the fluttering of their wings

if they are dissatisfied

with the pond and are going farther.

I first heard their honking,

I would run outside and locate them--

when I should have been cooking

or starting the fall cleaning

of the house.

Every flock is the same,

famous in the way they organize

so that new flocks

from the four directions

can join their flight.

That's how it seems in my mind--

you grow up, you have a family

and you put aside these thoughts.

Now they return around my birthday

flying with the geese.

LIFELINES: A VERMONT POET LISTENS