When I was invited to join the New England Poetry Club, founded in 1915 by Robert Frost, Conrad Aiken, and Amy Lowell, I wondered: what would be a good contribution for me to make?
Of the three founders, Amy Lowell (the club’s first president) was the most local to me, and perhaps the most familiar. Born in Brookline in 1874, she did not have much resonance with her time. A lesbian in those iron days for anyone who had that "lightness," let's call her a disseminator of poetry. Although she belonged to an influential family, she had to use her force of gravity to move through a man's world. She was very wealthy, but she did not dedicate herself to business, choosing instead a life in verse. She was often disrespected, being a large woman, inevitably masculine, and a smoker of tobacco. Ezra Pound infamously associated her with a hippopotamus. But she imposed herself nonetheless.
Her final resting place is in Cambridge’s Mount Auburn Cemetery. When I visited her a number appeared — 2024 was the 150th anniversary of the poet's birth. That was my invitation, and along with Denise Provost (Co-President of the Club) and Linda Conte our tribute to Amy Lowell began with a birthday visit to her grave, February 9th, where we recited her poems. One admirer, Peter Desmond, offered her tobacco. We also gathered videos of Amy Lowell’s poems being read — not just by poets, but even by the likes of Maura Healey, Governor of Massachusetts. Poets from other latitudes and languages also contributed their voices: Katariina Vuorinen, Finland, Gina Saraceni, Daniela Camozzi, Dzvinia Orlowsky.
Below are just a few of Amy Lowell's poems spoken in the voices of her peers: Maura Healey, Naomi Shihab Nye, Jane Hirshfield, Julia Kasdorf, Marie Howe, Amy Gerstler, Sophie Cabot Black, and James Fraser from Grolier Poetry Book Shop.
To learn more you can also visit www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/amy-lowell