poetry and the schuylkill river in pottstown in october.

since we're still doing our best to soak up and appreciate non-cold weather before the season takes a serious dive into chillier temperatures, my traveling poetry class spent a mid-october friday at our beloved somewhat hidden spot along the schuylkill river in pottstown.

and we were fortunate enough to have laura catalano visit us for the start of our class. she is the communications director for the schuylkill river national & state heritage area which has its office very close to where we meet when we're sitting by the water in this particular area.

we were also thrilled to have local retired art teacher arline christ join our class as a new student.

the photography below is grouped into sections. it is courtesy of laura catalano, then sam traten, and lastly me as the instructor. we had a lot of sun and shade blending across our faces and the leaves of the trees above this exact morning.

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student barbara tucker brought along a poem which she crafted almost exclusively from pulling out noteable sections of language from newspaper articles referencing hurricane matthew. here is the poem.

tidbits from daily newspaper

by barbara tucker

North Carolina rising rivers pose mortal risk

                                                 valley below Wood Lake dam in danger of falling

 swollen Neuse river threatens         

                                                deadly aftermath of hurricane Matthew

“we’ve had too many deaths!”

                                                man says he’ll be applying for FEMA assistance

full scale evacuation from threatened places

                                                reinforced but still in danger of failing

once the water flows it’s too late      

                                                I’ve never seen this and I’m a water and sewer guy

aid begins to reach Haiti after storm

                                                tens of thousands of people… life is completely destroyed

cleared tree limbs from streets of Les Anglais

                                                scraps of wood to start rebuilding home

going days without food        

                                                “we’re looking out for each other.”

bottled water, bleach and other vital items from UK

                                                worsening shortages as prices jumped by as much as 25%  

80 to 100% of Les Cayes’ crops lost

                                                “crisis is not a strong enough word to describe it.”

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and we enjoyed arugula, prosciutto, and burrata salad at the end. burrata is a form of mozzarella which is creamier in the middle. nommm and a half, agreed.