‘Timeless pleasures of imagery and sound’
‘There is currently an exciting resurgence of enthusiasm for poetry, and it comes not a moment too soon,” says Alexandrina Sergio, who served as Glastonbury’s first poet laureate.
The sizable attendance at numerous poetry events organized by Sergio for the community in Glastonbury and beyond has proved her point.
“Beyond poetry’s timeless pleasures of imagery and sound,” she says, “the art has special relevance in today’s world as a unique means for communicating on intellectual, emotional and visceral levels.”
She is the author of three poetry collections, “My Daughter is Drummer in the Rock ’n Roll Band,” “That’s How the Light Gets In,” and “Old Is Not a Four-Letter Word.”
Sergio believes poetry is best experienced out loud. Her work has been performed multiple times by a professional stage company and she herself frequently performs her poetry, often accompanied by her husband, pianist David Sergio.
She considers poetry a two-part process, involving poet and reader (or listener) equally. Sergio believes that “the reader’s life experience unavoidably colors the poet’s words, and thus a poem’s meaning and impact become personal to each person reading or hearing it. If a poet’s words are well crafted and true — not manipulative or forced — they can allow one to perceive others with a deeper understanding and recognize shared human connections.”
She says that a writer earns the label of “poet” if his or her written words touch others in a meaningful way.
— Ginny Lowe Connors, former poet laureate of West Hartford