Date: Fri 17-Sep-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

Polly-Brody-Wood-Thrush-Poets

Full Text:

A Volume Of Verse Takes Wing For Local Poet/Naturalist

(with photo & book cover)

BY SHANNON HICKS

A former Newtown resident will make the familiar trip back into town next

Tuesday evening for a poetry reading at C.H. Booth Library.

Polly Brody will be at Newtown's library on Tuesday, September 21, for a

reading from her new book, Other Nations . The soft-cover, 48-page volume is

the writer's first full-length poetry collection to have been released,

although Polly's work has been published in magazines across the country.

The library building where she will offer her reading is just a few doors down

from the property at 65 Main Street, where Polly lived from 1956 until the

spring of 1997. After 40 years in Newtown she moved to Heritage Village in

Southbury, but continues to maintain many of her local friendships.

Polly Brody actually wears two hats. She is a naturalist, with a master's in

vertebrate zoology from Southern Connecticut State University, in addition to

being a widely published poet and essayist. She has lectured on birds and

animal behavior for nearly 40 years, and has created and taught mini-courses

on animal behavior (as well as creative writing) for Newtown Continuing

Education seminars and upper grades in the Newtown public school system. She

has also lectured on these subjects for garden clubs and at nature centers

throughout the greater metropolitan region.

With this kind of interest and her educated background in the animal kingdom,

it should be no surprise that her first published collection should have quite

a large selection of prose devoted to just that subject.

In 1995, Polly told The Newtown Bee , "The natural world appears in my poetry

as material from which I can draw metaphors and symbols for something... that

might have to do with human situations." She has written at times, she said,

"specifically about something in the natural world that has resonance beyond

itself."

The cover of Other Nations , which was released in April, is a segment from a

work by the painter Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516) called "The Garden of Earthly

Delights." Human beings are seen throughout the large-scale piece, alongside

exotic animals.

"I saw that and thought, `Oh my gosh, how wonderful!'" Polly said recently.

The artwork is the perfect accompaniment for the writer's thoughts. The book

was published by Small Poetry Press, based in California, and the company

allowed Polly a lot of say in the book's final appearance.

"I like this very much," she said. "I'm very happy with it." The book is being

distributed through Polly via Wood Thrush Press. The Wood Thrush Poets is a

long-running poets' workshop that Polly co-founded. It began with eight

members in 1980 and the same writers continue to meet and work with each other

today, although with four of the group's members now living out of state the

meetings are not as frequent as they once were.

"We used to meet monthly, when everyone lived in Connecticut," Polly said.

"But we've stayed in touch with each other. We're still friends." In 1991 the

group self-published an anthology called Castings , which included a few

selections by each member. The 500-copy run sold out in less than a year.

Polly Brody began writing seriously in 1978. Her first published poem was

called "Marathon." It was a work that came out of what the author calls "an

epiphany experience."

At age 45, Polly decided to run in the 1978 New York City Marathon. She jogged

the entire course and does not remember where in the placements she finished.

The important point for her is that she finished. She ran the entire 26 miles

of the course.

The resulting poem from that grueling run first appeared in The Smith Newsart

, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based magazine. "Marathon" is not only a look at Polly's

recollections from that Sunday morning but also at what goes through the head

of another marathoner, The Golden Plover.

"Marathon" is told in two voices. Stanzas alternate from the voice/thoughts of

the runner to the voice of the ten-inch shorebird which migrates yearly,

non-stop from Canada's east coast to Venezuela, an overseas marathon of 2,400

miles.

The writing has been flowing continuously for over two decades now.

"I love language," she said one recent afternoon, after reflecting on the

amount of work she now has to her credit. "And for me, poetry writing is

succinct and very imagistic. I always hope the words on the page invite the

reader to use his or her imagination."

Her poetry, says Polly, is not inscrutable. "It's not hard to read at all,"

she admits. "But I do like to use metaphor. That also invites the reader to

find out what they see in my words.

"My thinking with poetry is the less said the better, not more. Show, don't

tell. I really live by that." The poetry in Other Nations certainly follows

that thinking. Most works are one page in length, averaging four or five

stanzas. Very few are much longer than that.

While Other Nations includes a few poems that are non-nature or animal in

immediate subject, most find a way to get nature involved in their telling.

"To a Child Who Cannot Endure the Sun" begins by addressing a child who cannot

go outdoors due to a birth defect that leaves the child with no ability to

bear sunlight.

In expressing sympathy to the child because it must live its life on

"playgrounds always floored" and always goes "house to house / swathed and

hatted and gloved / even in summer, especially in summer," the concern for the

child also turns to sympathetic descriptions of the things the child is

missing outdoors. "Bull frogs will plop into the pond / kicking sateen rippled

wakes," the poem continues, as nature once again finds its way into Polly's

writing.

Polly Brody's work has been published in more than 50 literary journals and

reviews across the country, and she has won numerous awards for her efforts.

She has received awards in international competitions, including first place

in the Connecticut Poetry Society's Winchell Award Competition and second in

the Cynthia Cahm Memorial Competition. She was a first place poet in a

competition sponsored a few years ago by the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary

Art in Ridgefield, and a finalist in the Sow's Ear Poetry Competition.

Recent writing efforts have expanded upon her essay talents. Polly says she is

now working more on "personal essays -- non-technical meditations on aspects

of a writer's surroundings, personal reflections on self or observing others."

In addition to her ongoing writing, Polly continues to teach creative writing

classes. She typically offers six-week workshops, and did a private seminar in

Southbury last summer. She is hoping to offer another workshop next spring,

but admits that is still very much in the planning stages.

Meanwhile, the writing continues, from pen to paper. There's no computer set

up at Polly's home in Southbury.

"Oh no, I still love the feel of pen on paper, of turning the pages in my

journals," she said. "I even love the typing."

Polly will be reading works from her new collection as well as other works on

Tuesday at the library. The reading is expected to last approximately 35

minutes, after which there will be a reception with the writer, who will sign

copies of her book.

"I have kept many friends here in Newtown," Polly said. "It's easy -- I don't

feel detached at all. It's just one town over. Fifteen minutes and I'm right

here."

If Polly Brody's name sounds familiar to those who may not know her

personally, her work with town organizations while she was a resident may ring

a bell.

Polly served on Newtown's Legislative Council for 2« years. She was a member

for six years of the Newtown Conservation Commission when the group was first

getting started (she also served for a term as the group's chairman), and also

put five years in to the Water Pollution Control Authority back when that

organization was beginning the town's sewer district planning.

While she may no longer live in town, she certainly enjoys returning for

visits. Perhaps most important of all, writing for a living is still very

enjoyable to Polly.

"I enjoy doing readings. I prefer to just sit in the front of the room and

read, rather than stand at a podium, and I feel completely relaxed," she said.

"This is fun for me. I'm only in [writing] because it's immensely exciting.

It's not for an assignment, it's for me. And I just want to share that."

Polly Brody's poetry reading will begin at 7 pm at C.H. Booth Library, 25 Main

Street in Newtown.