Who would have thought my shriveled heart

Could have recovered greenness? It was gone

Quite underground; as flowers depart

To see their mother-root, when they have blown,

Where they together

All the hard weather,

Dead to the world, keep house unknown.’

— George Herbert, ‘“The Flower”

Here at the Library, looking forward to spring and our new programs, “recovered greenness” is what I feel. Reaching out to the writers, poets, biographers, scholars all, in our community whose programs had to be cancelled due to the pandemic, I feel a sense of renewal and hope for new beginnings.

In his memorial tribute to Elizabeth Bishop, James Merrill quoted the Italian poet and essayist Eugenio Montale — “The ancients said poetry is a staircase to God” — maybe with our 21st century sensitivity we might say it is a staircase to new ways of seeing.

It is this new way of seeing that stands out as a theme in all that is happening around books old and new and friends old and new here at the Stonington Free Library.

Which leads me to “the famous eye” of Elizabeth Bishop that Merrill refers to, quoting Robert Lowell, and the upcoming book about the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop by our neighbor and friend of the library, Jonathan Post, that will be published by Oxford University Press later this year. We eagerly await his study of this, one of the greatest of American 20th century poets.

Post’s other works include a critical study of Anthony Hecht, “A Thickness of Particulars,” and he is the editor of Hecht’s letters. He has written extensively on English lyric poetry of the early 17th century as well as Milton and Sir Thomas Browne and is a distinguished Shakespeare scholar. In 2019 he gave an illuminating talk at the library on his book “Shakespeare’s Sonnets and Poems — A Very Short Introduction” that is also a very engaging read, a delightful page turner for this general reader!

Continuing on the theme of seeing, our friend and neighbor Willard Spiegelman had his talk on his collection of essays on art — “If You See Something, Say Something” — postponed by the pandemic and we look forward to the day when we can once again all gather in the library and enjoy another of his lively and informative presentations. Meanwhile, however, Spiegelman is working on a biography of the poet Amy Clampitt which will be published early next year.

He writes: “AC was an inspiration to many because she was a patron saint for late bloomers. She lived in total obscurity for almost 40 years before appearing on the literary scene. She made a splash, and was a major figure, but only for a decade and a half. Between 1978 and 1994, her poems appeared in The New Yorker. She gave readers things they had not seen in years, if ever. And even if she had never achieved fame, she would be an admirable figure in her private capacity as a reader, thinker, and consumer of high culture.”

Something we can all look forward to — meanwhile I find our collection is sadly wanting when it comes to Amy Clampitt’s books and this is being rapidly addressed! Spiegelman’s books of delightful and surprising essays can be found in our catalogue, as can the books by Post and those of all the writers mentioned here.

More immediately, James Longenbach and Joanna Scott, former Merrill Poets in Residence and now neighbors, both have new books. Scott, author of several acclaimed novels, has a collection of short stories, “Excuse Me While I Disappear,” coming out in April. Longenbach has a book of criticism “The Lyric Now,” was recently published (as he explains, Now is a noun, “inviting readers into a nowness that makes itself new each time we read…”) and his new poetry collection “Forever” is being published in June. They will be giving a library Zoom talk in June — many will remember their reading at the library two years ago which gave us a foretaste of their new books — it is very exciting to welcome them back again!

On Sunday, March 14, Stuart Vyse, former Connecticut College professor, author of many books, Stonington resident, a familiar friend of the Library, will give a talk — this time via Zoom — that was postponed a year ago on his book “Superstition: A Very Short Introduction” — one of the Oxford University Press Very Short Introduction series. (We own quite a selection of this series and will be adding more.)

In his book, Vyse “explores the nature and surprising history of superstition from antiquity to the present. …..He looks at the varieties of popular superstitious beliefs today and the psychological reasons behind their continued existence, as well as the likely future course of superstition in our increasingly connected world.” Guaranteed, we will find ourselves looking at old things in a new way.

Then, on Sunday, April 11, (Poetry Month!) Connecticut Poet Laureate Margaret Gibson, long time colleague and friend of the Library, will present a program of Connecticut poets reading from a new anthology, “Waking Up to the Earth” that addresses the urgent and painful challenges of climate change.

Gibson also has a new book of poetry, “The Glass Globe,” coming out in August and we hope very much to be able to welcome her to an in-person reading in the early fall.

So my friends, I give you, from the heart of the library, in this winter moment, thoughts of “recovered greenness” and Montale’s staircase and hopes for a new day for us all.

Belinda deKay is the recently retired former director of Stonington Free Library.