Written down, forever alive

First poem unveiled in part of Poet Laureate’s healing project

Derek Kirk

Posted 3/29/24

I mmortalized on a plaque were the words of Sullivan County poet Darla J.E. Palombo as part of the 2022-2024 Poet Laureate Dr. Sharon Kennedy-Nolle’s recent art initiative; Catskilled Poetry …

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Written down, forever alive

First poem unveiled in part of Poet Laureate’s healing project

2022-2024 Sullivan County Poet Laureate, Dr. Sharon Kennedy-Nolle.

Contributed Photo

Darla J.E. Palombo with the plaque that is inscribed with her poem — “Josie, I remember – For My Grandmother”

Contributed Photo

Posted Friday, March 29, 2024 6:10 am

Josie, I remember For My Grandmother

The aroma of Salems and rich tomato sauce,

always a pot on the stove, an ashtray nearby

placemats, dark green with daisies

that matched the graceful silk butterflies

hovering above the sink

you, on the porch

sitting on the white wicker settee,

your dark brown hair, never a strand out of place

your hands always reaching up,

touching my face with delight

you, playing garbage and crazy eights,

a fresh deck of bicycle cards, always blue, on the glass table.

the slap and soothe of the deck as you shuffled.

You hated it when I would win.

When you lose someone, you don’t lose them all at once,

rather, it’s in bits and pieces –

scoured ashtrays, empty settee, folded butterfly wings,

the blue cards idle, nothing by decoration on the glass table.

Derek Kirk

Immortalized on a plaque were the words of Sullivan County poet Darla J.E. Palombo as part of the 2022-2024 Poet Laureate Dr. Sharon Kennedy-Nolle’s recent art initiative; Catskilled Poetry for Healing. The unveiling of the work was put on in part by Liberty Public Library.

Darla’s poem, “Josie, I remember – For My Grandmother” focuses on memories shared with her grandmother competing in various card games, and highlights the images frozen in time that reflect a life lived in the moment. Her poem is the first of 13 works so far to be transliterated onto a plaque and displayed in permanent installations both indoors and outdoors throughout the county.

“Darla’s poem represents one of the first and really finest examples we have here of what writing can do for someone who is facing truama and grief, and beginning to work through that,” Kennedy-Nolle said.

Funded by an American Academy of Poets Laureate Fellowship and made possible by the Mellon Foundation, the Catskilled Poetry for Healing project aims to address the county’s mental health and substance use crisis through writing poetry as a therapeutic tool to self-empower individuals and their families affected by this crisis.

Leading up to the unveiling, Kennedy-Nolle has hosted bi-weekly poetry workshops for the past six months where wordsmiths were invited to gather, write and inspire one another as they continue their literature endeavors together. Writers from the ages of 21 to 75 utilized the resources of the community.

“So many people got involved with the project,” Kennedy-Nolle said. “The amount of work to be displayed exceeded the 11 public libraries, and counting...”

Kennedy-Nolle said that other cultural locations expressed interest in housing the local works, including the Delaware Valley Opera Center, the North American Cultural Laboratory and SUNY Sullivan Community College.

The project will feature an interdisciplinary symposium on May 24 at Hurleyville Performing Arts Centre (HPAC), starting at 8:30 a.m.

The Poet Laureate noted how exciting it is to see poets share their stories of healing, all which vary greatly from one another, complete with different tones, voices, messages and meanings.

Kennedy-Nolle said that “seeing the positive, appreciative reaction of librarians and civic leaders has gone a long way” for herself and the dedicated writing community as their works are to continue to be forever etched in metal for all to share.