Unofficially the first poet laureate of the Island was Dionis Coffin Riggs, who began hosting a poetry group at the Cleaveland House in West Tisbury in 1960.
Here is Dionis’s poem Wait, Spring, which was published in the April 19, 1996 Gazette:
Unofficially the first poet laureate of the Island was Dionis Coffin Riggs, who began hosting a poetry group at the Cleaveland House in West Tisbury in 1960.
Here is Dionis’s poem Wait, Spring, which was published in the April 19, 1996 Gazette:
This year marked the 36th year the Scottish Society has celebrated the birthday of Scottish poet Robert Burns, with this year’s celebration falling on his 264th birthday.
We’re about a third of the way through the Island’s cold season. But recent days of that traditional January thaw were enough to turn thoughts forward to the advent of spring, a time that will come just as surely as winter will pass.
Demolition inside the Tisbury School has cleared away nearly a century’s worth of accumulated renovations, revealing the original interior of a town landmark built during the depths of the Great Depression.
Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School students astounded judges and spectators alike with project presentations at the 24th annual Science and Engineering fair this Saturday.
Even if nothing were open in Menemsha, it would still be worth a trip in the quiet of January. It is worth it for the silence.
The January thaw has a tradition of its own. Weeks of freezing, Christmas snow — the pattern seemed to be clear. But suddenly raindrops have been a weekly presence and the thermometer settled in the forties and headed toward fifty. Disconcerting.
High school teams rounded into fine form at the halfway point of the winter sports season.
Whether they are traveling to Boston, the Caribbean or simply Cape Cod, winter travelers from the Vineyard all have one thing in common: the homecoming.
It’s time to make the coffee at home before heading out to enjoy a mild-ish Sunday on the Vineyard. Afternoon football games call us back to our couches and to put some logs on the fire.
The annual Christmas Bird Count had begun, as birders spread out across the Island to spot, count and identify as many birds as possible.
Hardy Vineyarders headed to beaches to celebrate 2023. Not only was it first day, it was also first swim. Wamer than normal air temperaturs encouraged the brisk swims, if only the water was just as warm. Cheers!
It is the concerns of the day that turn us to poets and philosophers to define the importance of the coming of any new year: Housman reflected on the “beauty of the death-struck year.” Emerson told us the “years teach what the days never know.”
Pictures are not only worth a thousand words, they tell the visual story of a year on the Island.
We know this season in our bones. In the days around Those few leaves that were left as a valiant but futile rear-guard on the gray branches of trees have fallen. Beaches are lonely and wind-pierced places.
Winter avian residents arrive and the occasional rare birds move through the Island in December, as winter begins.