Last Thursday, I received an email containing an invitation from neighbor and Northfield’s Poet Laureate Emeritus, Rob Hardy. In addition to weather warnings for Saturday, Rob, who is an indefatigable historical researcher and a celebrated poet, offered to serve for an hour as a kind of Virgil (my words, not his) for a tour of the poetic shades present at Oaklawn Cemetery on the very edge of town, just across the road from the Carleton College Arboretum.

It was a day when temperatures had plummeted almost 50 degrees from the day before. Cold winds–gusts of 35 miles an hour–swept in. Flakes of snow shook down now and then, vaporizing before touching the ground. Magnolia and crapapple blossoms, encouraged by the previous warm days, shrank from the cold blasts and struggled to hold on.

You are invited to join me and other Northfield poets at Oaklawn Cemetery this Saturday, April 18, at 10:30am, for the 2nd annual Graveside Poetry Reading. We will read poems by Northfield poets who are buried at Oaklawn at their graves. Robert Watson (the author of Northfield’s first book of poetry); Rev. George Huntington (Northfield’s most famous late 19th century poet; Bjorn Winger (St. Olaf graduate and World War I poet); Helen Field Watson (Northfield native, former president of the South Dakota Poetry Society); Oscar Overby (lyricist for many choral works by F. Melius Christiansen).

I will give a very brief biography of each poet at the reading. We will also pause to remember two Northfield poets who have passed away since last National Poetry Month: Steve McCown and Toni Easterson.

In addition to revivifying the poets, bringing them to life again, in a way, through speaking their names, learning something about how they lived their lives, and hearing their crafted verse, Rob shared information about how Oaklawn Cemetery came to be. I had felt, but not consciously realized, that it is a rich collection of trees, a true arboretum. We also learned that Rob’s research has been shaped into a prose treatise. I think all of us there hope he will find the right publisher soon so that we can read it for ourselves.

Context for Poem “Under Oaklawn:”

This experience curated by Rob, standing as one of nine Northfield poets to honor our predecessors and recently departed by hearing their words again on the wind, like birds returning in April, touched me deeply. Since that morning, I have been thinking about personal and poetic legacy: What is it? What would I want it to be?

So far, I have only questions, and I am grateful for both the questions and the not-knowing.

Until tomorrow,

LESLIE