The Birth and Growth of The Tuesday Evening Poets

Like many experiments during the pandemic years, the Tuesday Evening Poetry Workshop at the Westwood Library made its debut over the Internet in January 2022. When I first suggested a poetry workshop for adults to library director Lizzy McGovern in 2021, I was unsure if many folks would be interested in subjecting their writing to the scrutiny of others. But once the workshop was listed in the library events calendar, registration soared above the limit before we even began. During a COVID surge, we began by meeting on Zoom with a group of 11 participants. Some had written poetry for years, while others had never written a poem but wanted to try their hand.
 
We shifted to in-person meetings in the library in February of that same year. By April, the group had expanded to 12 members, some having left, others joining. In our first town-wide poetry reading and open mic that April, 11 Tuesday poets bravely stood at the lectern in the library meeting room and read, some for the first time publicly. By then, a few poets from nearby towns had discovered our group, and for the past two years we have had a stable core. The four original members—Mike Dwyer, Marilyn Gove, Karen Michelson and Avi Glaser—were joined by our second wave of faithful participants—Debra David, Brian Mich, Elizabeth Johnston, and Sherri Stepakoff. Journalist Jan Brogan spent a year with us, stepped back to finish her book about women whalers in New England, and rejoined recently. Johanna Herren joined the workshop in 2023. A small handful came for a few meetings and disappeared. Whenever this occurred, someone on the waiting list woul leap to take that spot.
 
Anyone who attends the workshop on a Tuesday evening with an eye towards joining this workshop quickly learns that these writers are devoted to their art. Our poetry discussions sometimes venture into philosophical discussions or emotional matters, but aren’t always about serious, deep subjects. Our group includes poets who focus on the comic, the humorous, the satirical, as well as those who return to poems about nature, loss, or family—sometimes tender and poignant. Group members show up every two weeks with poems they’ve written on the assigned prompt, delive honest feedback to their fellow authors with tact, and undertake multiple revisions. Several poets have had their work selected for publication in journals, including Hale Magazine, Passager and Verse Vertual; a few have won prizes in local and national poetry contests.
 
In 2023 we published a chapbook, An Anthology of Poems, by the Tuesday Evening Poets, now part of the Westwood Public Library collection with copies at the main library and the Islington branch. This fall we followed up with a new, more expansive collection. As the inaugural Poet Laureate of Westwood, I am delighted to lead this group, and am excited to read the poems they create as we approach the third anniversary of this literary venture. If you’re interested to see them in action, I invite you to come on the evening of next April 15, to the town-wide Poetry Reading & Open Mic at the Westwood Library, to celebrate National Poetry Month.
 
Lynne Viti is the inaugural Poet Laureate of Westwood, with a term through May 2025. Her most recent book is The Walk to Cefalù: Poems (Cornerstone Press, University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, 2022)