HOWELINGS
Arriving in life
“I think I have arrived.”
So writes Kirby Congdon, Key West’s very first Poet Laureate (and still so).
Kirby spends his summers on Fire Island, N.Y. from where he sends us this latest news:
“We had a kind of poetry festival here at Fire Island Pines on the first weekend in July. I was the featured poet, being the first to read a poem (and that’s all) while 16 other poets read a poem but were asked to read one that Frank O’Hara had written in order to commemorate his death here some 50 years ago.
“There were luncheons, cocktail parties and dinners throughout the weekend. We were socializing one night after one of these dinners in a garden next to Long Island Sound when a stranger came up to me to talk. He was a librarian from the Beineke Library at Yale who’d come here for the first time.
“We talked about libraries and he invited me to leave my papers to the Beineke collection. I said yes and we shook hands on it.
“I’d read just one poem at the event (‘Discus Thrower’) but he said he had my bibliography —it came out last year — and was familiar with my work as well. His library is having some remodeling done and his offer could not be official until that work is done.
“I explained it would take a truck to move my files from Key West and I could not think of any place that would provide one. He replied, ‘Oh, we have trucks!”
“I have to tell you, Mark Howell of Howelings, that after championing me for so many years I think that I have, as they say, arrived!
“With my best regards — Kirby Congdon.”
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Frank O’Hara was one of America’s greatest and wittiest contemporary poets who died on July 25, 1966, after being struck by a dune buggy on the Fire Island beach.
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Another Key West resident who spends time up north is Joe McKay, whose “Crazy About Words” blog teases the nation with definitions of English words.
“I know the math is there,” he writes in the introduction to his new book from local publisher Absolutely Amazing eBooks, “but I’m still astonished that the 12,000 to 25,000 words that average people use today, plus the thousands more in the dictionary, are constructed from variouscombinations of just 26 letters in our alphabet.”
To Howelings, Joe writes recently from the north fork of Long Island: “I was more astonished than ever when I participated in a First Annual Community Spelling Bee up here, which turned out to be a romp beyond the pale. The 24 multi-generational spell contestants knew we were in for it when it was pointed out that the dictionary being used was the Merriam-Webster Unabridged, the most comprehensive ever printed, with 300,000 more words than the abridged editions most of us use.”
The Bee was held in the Jamesport Meeting House (built in 1731) as a benefit for the preservation and restoration of the stately county church building at the center of the small village.
“The last spelling bee I was in, many, many years ago, I lost in the final round by misspelling raspberry. I’ve never forgotten that silent ‘p’ since! So, I was ready for it this time. Meanwhile, my friends suggested I beware of concupiscence, columbarium, peignoir and segueing (an Italian musical term with three consecutive vowels) and my dear partner, John, having tutored me for weeks in advance, woke up in the middle of the night hollering ‘hemorrhoids’ — what a word!”
So, first round: Ready. Set. Go!
“Peirastic” (it means experimental).
“Isohyetal” (it means a line drawn on a map connecting points of equal rainfall).
“Nnidifugous” (it means a newborn bird or animal).
Finally, “Illth” (a word made up by English art critic John Ruskin in the 19th century, to contrast with wealth and not yet accepted into dictionaries other than Merriam-Webster).
But in the final round, concludes Joe, “I went out on ‘oryx’ (a species of antelope), trying to spell it phonetically but moving further and further into the abyss with each letter that came out of my mouth. As the elimination bell tolled for me, I recalled from doing crossword puzzles that the word came from the Greek for stonemason’s pickax due to the animal’s long pointed horns (of course!).
“I fantasized throwing a tantrum, beating my fists on the floor and screaming, ‘Please, please, I know that word, I really do!’ But there were children present and in my heart of hearts I knew that actions speak louder than words.
“So I graciously surrendered.”
Readers can get in touch with Joe at [email protected]
His book is available from Absolutely Amazing eBooks through Amazon.com.
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Quote for the Week:
“Remember: We are here for a good time, not a long time.
“So enjoy yourself and everyone you meet.”
— Capt. Eddie,
Conch Republic Navy Conch Horn Corps
Photo/
Capt. Eddie
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