Poetry

Greetings! I’m Carolyn A. Cushing, a lyric poet inspired by nature, observing our changing climate, and focused on where life and death meet.

Receiving my Poet Laureate proclamation from City Council President Homar Gomez

In April 2023, I was named Poet Laureate of Easthampton, MA for 2023 – 2025. As Poet Laureate, I explore the power of poetry and bring poetry to unexpected places like the supermarket, an apple orchard, our city council meetings. Along with sharing my own work, I organize events like Voices of Easthampton and We Speak to Each Other: An Intergenerational Climate Change Reading to support diverse groups of poets to offer their work to the community.

Since 2006, I have published poems in local, regional, and national journals, and was a finalist for the Providence Athenaeum’s Philbrick Poetry Award (2012) and Pilgrimage Journal’s Tarantula Poetry Contest (2018). A recipient of grants from the Massachusetts and Easthampton Cultural Councils, I am particularly proud when my poems are shared in ways that speak to collective needs of the moment, such as Mass Poetry’s Hard Work of Hope series and CitySpace’s memorial tribute to those who lost their lives to COVID-19.

Inspired by seeing the collaborations of Easthampton creatives since moving here in 2000, I seek out ways to collaborate with fellow writers and artists as well as share poetry in dynamic formats to reach beyond the literary community, resulting in projects such as the Poetry Oracle (working with 9 other poets in 2020-2021) and Chapbook in the Street (a collaboration with visual artist Malika Ross in 2022).

Poems are sometimes part of my moonthly missives and writings about soul tending here at Soul Path Sanctuary. Find these posts collected here. Sporadically, you can find me on Instagram and Facebook.

Next Event

ANNOUNCING – Voices of Easthampton will return to the Blue Room at City Space in April 2025.

Poets in the World: Visioning and Skills Building

What is the power of poetry? How can poets claim this power? What skills do we need to use and grow this power?

These are questions at the center of my term as Poet Laureate. I’d like to explore this with fellow poets and have created a survey as a first step. If you identify as a poet, you are invited to respond to the survey.

Poetry Pamphlet

Encounters Poetry Pamphlet

Pamphlet with Tarot images, link to tips for contemplative work with word and image, and 5 poems, including First Anniversary Prayers. Postage and handling included.

Price: $6.00

Past Events

Press On: Indie Publishing Fair on Saturday, April 27, 2024 from 11am to 5pm

I hosted We Speak to Each Other, an intergenerational reading of poets who weave nature and climate into their poetry and practice. During this interactive reading, poets and audience created a collective poem.

Voices of Easthampton on Saturday, April 13, 2024 at 2pm in the Blue Room at City Space

We heard from a dozen dynamic poets who live, work, or are active in the city of Easthampton in a themed reading that I hosted. We also created a City Voices chapbook that was given out to the audience and shared at the Have a Heart for Public Art fundraiser later in the month. Full details in our Facebook event.

Poetry & Practice: A Presentation by Easthampton’s Poet Laureate Carolyn A. Cushing

Tuesday, February 27, 2024 from 6:00 – 7:00pm at the Easthampton Public Library (9 Park St.) Learn More.

Featured Reader at Straw Dogs Writers Night Out at the Forbes Library ~ December 5, 2023

City Poets ~ Poetry in Unexpected Places ~ September 2023

I created a gift chapbook of poems by all five Poet Laureates to-date and about 150 copies were picked up in the Deli/Bakery section of Big E’s or at our Art Walk reading in the parking lot. Check out the Hampshire Gazette’s story about this project (or read on the ECA site if you can’t get through the paywall).