By James Lomuscio
When it comes to literary lions, Westport has two standouts right on its front steps — F. Scott Fitzgerald and J.D. Salinger.
New Westport Poet Laureate Diane Lowman: “There must have been tons of poets (in Westport.)” (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
But poets? Who are the prominent poets whose names are worthy of being chiseled near the front steps of the newly renovated Westport Library?
These questions left a number of people scratching their heads after the town recently named its first poet laureate — Diane Meyer Lowman. The memoirist and daily writer of haiku began her two-year, unpaid position on July 1 after being selected by the Westport Art’s Advisory Committee (WAAC).
Even Lowman, a town resident of 22 years who has an M.A. in Shakespeare Studies from the Shakespeare Institute at the University of Birmingham, UK, as well as WAAC members, cannot come up with the name of one notable town bard.
Connecticut has had a state poet laureate position since 1985. Currently it is Margaret Gibson, a UConn professor emerita and author of 12 poetry books. Also, 24 other municipalities have poet laureates, the nearest one is Norwalk’s Laurel Peterson, an English professor at Norwalk Community College.
“The fact is there are no historically known, celebrity poets, but certainly in this town with a rich literary and cultural artistic history, there must have been tons of poets,” said Lowman.
Seated at Starbucks downtown, she had copy of James Joyce’s “Ulysses” at her side. She was set to leave for England this weekend for a two-week immersion into the writer’s work.
First Selectman Jim Marpe, when he announced the new poet laureate position, said it was “a long overdue acknowledgment of the importance of the written word to Westport’s artistic and cultural heritage.”
That being the case, as Lowman put it, “Everyone is a poet.” In her position, she wants to create poetry slams in town, have intergenerational poetry sharing and collaboration between members of the Westport Center for Senior Activities and elementary school children, and have poetry billboards spread through town.
Judging from information provided by WAAC’s Kelle Ruden, the “everyone is a poet” position includes Westport’s revered prose writers who at some point tried writing poems.
“These folks wrote poetry,” Ruden said.
The list includes authors and one-time Westport residents: Howard Fast, Robert Stone, Sinclair Lewis, Stephen Herz, Erica Jong, and not to forget, Agnes Lewis Mitchell whose poem “The Minute Man” was read at the dedication and 100th anniversary of the monument in 2010, says Ruden.
According to http://www.topoemhunter.com, Fitzgerald wrote seven poems, but stopped after deciding he was not that good at it.
Though one-time Westporter, the late Rod Serling did not make the list, few would argue that the words that flowed from his pen and monologues were prose poetry in the form of dialogue.
Serling, who reportedly wrote “Requiem for a Heavyweight” in the old Westport Library, where Starbucks is now located, also used Westport for the setting of the “Twilight Zone” episode “Stop Over at Willoughby.”
Lowman should take comfort in the fact that Salinger, too, tried his hand at haiku in “Seymour — An Introduction.” It reads: “The little girl on the plane, Who turned her doll’s head around, To look at me.”
Lowman, who has written more than 1,600 haikus, said she was drawn to that poetic form because “it’s a snapshot.”
“It forces you to take a thought or an image and to condense it into 17 syllables,” she said.
Her 2018 memoir “Nothing But Blue” is longer — 195 pages. It choreographs her weeks working aboard a German container ship in the summer of 1979.
If anything, Lowman is eclectic. A divorced mother of two grown sons, she relishes the role of being a stepmom to the nine-year-old son of her remarried ex-husband and his wife. She also has an MBA in international employee benefits, a Ph.D. in holistic nutrition, is a yoga instructor and holds a black belt in taekwondo.
“It’s an incredible honor, most humbling,” she said about her new role, adding that her family jokes she must have been the only one who applied for the position.
Sometimes, Lowman says she feels like she is an impostor, and then, she says, “This job was meant for me, not that I was meant for the job.”
Lowman also says she will never stop writing poetry, a passion for which was instilled by her grandfather’s love of Lord Byron and the craft she embraced 40 years ago during quiet times on the German container ship from New York City to New Zealand and back.
“I feel it’s to be creative, and I view the position as being an ambassador,” Lowman said. “It’s how do we use poetry and words to connect everyone in town and that we have more in common than our differences.”
