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Having a poet in the family is usually considered a mark of distinction, but how about two? How about four? How about eight? How about an even dozen? Twelve’s the number of family poets that Miriam Herwig of Randolph Center has brought to light and brought to life in a remarkable compilation she has published, called "Cadence of Freedom." This is a book that starts with a sort of family tree that is necessary to help the reader keep track of all the family connections of all the poets. Each writer, in order of birth, is then introduced with brief biography and a photograph. The biographies alone paint a fascinating portrait of family. They start with Caroline "Carrie" Miner Farr, born in Vermont in 1861, who worked in the 1890s in the famous Lowell, Mass., textile mills to support her two boys. Carrie, who was Miriam Herwig’s grandmother, was extraordinarily independent for her time, setting a world record for speed typing, counseling unwed mothers, publishing stories and poems, and becoming a minister and evangelist—all in a lifespan of just 48 years, shortened by cancer. Carrie’s two poems are in the heroic mode, including a tribute to President McKinley on the occasion of his assassination and beginning, "Sleep, noble chieftain, sleep/ Earth held no fear for thee…" From Miriam’s grandmother Carrie, the book continues with her mother Mildred Farr Boyce and then to Miriam herself, long a stalwart of the Vermont Poetry Society. It includes poems by all four of her daughters—Merrilee, Daphne, Christy and Holly—and by her nephew Adam Boyce. Finally, there are poems by four of the next generation—Miriam’s grandchildren Kiev Rattee, Crystal Roberts, Christopher McTighe, and Kelly McTighe, the youngest, who was 18 when the book was published. Of the 12 family poets represented, eight have been previously published. The 83 poems in this volume unabashedly demonstrate how different family members can be, even when they share a verbal talent. The most sophisticated offerings, perhaps, are by Kiev Rattee, who once took an American Poetry Center sponsored trip to the Soviet Union and has published a chapbook of moving exchange poems with his father. His are often philosophical, as in a poem for his own daughters: "Even when we’re grown/ There is no balance between the truth/ and what we know of it …Our perception of what is real is enhanced/ by how many people we convince in our beliefs/ and what better candidates than our children?" At the other end of the scale is a lighthearted ditty in rhyming couplets by Merillee McTighe after the Wall Street Journal (apparently) proposed blowing up the moon: "Blow up the Moon? That guy is sick—/ He’s got to be a lunatic!’ it starts, then proceeds to: "There’d be nothing to be bayed at by Rover,/ And nothing for the cow to jump over … So Twinkle, twinkle, crazy guy—/ Leave the moon up in the sky!" Miriam ("Mim") Herwig herself is represented by some 18 poems (a tiny portion of her total output) which range through a huge variety of topics inspired by her life. She’s also represented in at least two of the poems of the younger generation, including daughter Holly’s tribute, "My Mother." Although many of the poems in this volume are cheerful and descriptive, some, running through all the generations, turn to deeper thoughts that carry real emotional content. These include especially "To Understand Me" by Christy Herwig, and a trio of unbearably sad poems by Crystal Roberts that were this reader’s favorites. In "Dance of Life," for instance, Crystal, who was in her early 20s, relates how her "faded dreams" are: "Aging my soul beyond these years, Hoping one day there will be an end to these tears, Wishing that the flower would bloom again, Folded petals, still soft, wait to reopen, Praying and hoping, but not knowing If a seed that never sees the light will keep on growing." Surely the seed of poetry in the Farr-Boyce-Herwig family has seen plenty of life. May it continue to blossom! |
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