Glenora Richards  is a miniaturist who painted a sizzling miniature portrait of Edna St. Vincent Millay, which was adapted into a postage stamp.  At Steepletop (Millay’s home in the Berkshires), beginning June 16th you can view  an exhibit which explores the art of this amazing, 100- year old woman.  The exhibit will run through September, and will include some special materials from the Postal Service Archives in addition to the original painting, and recordings of Millay reading her own work.  At Brook Farm Inn in Lenox, we had the pleasure of hosting a reading of Millay’s work by Peter Bergman, Executive Director of the Millay Society.  We can’t wait to see the exhibit.

Peter Bergman reading Millay at Brook Farm Inn

There is poetry here!  We announced a while ago that Brook Farm Inn, Lenox Massachusetts, will have a wonderful celebration of Millay’s poetry, on May 16th.  We hope many guests will stay with us that weekend.  Those who can’t stay over are still invited to attend the event.  We now have more information, so here’s the full press release!

“The Four Seasons of Edna St. Vincent Millay” at Brook Farm Inn

 The public is invited to celebrate the life and works of Edna St. Vincent Millay, at an event on Saturday, May 16, 2009, at 3:00 PM.  At Brook Farm Inn, in Lenox Massachusetts, Peter Bergman, Executive Director of the Edna St. Vincent Millay Society at Steepletop, will present a program entitled “The Four Seasons of Edna St. Vincent Millay.”   The program will begin with an unknown, 1920’s work, and will end with Millay’s final published piece.  And there will be surprises!  “Mr. Bergman’s readings are mesmerizing, and his knowledge of Millay is unsurpassed,” said Linda Halpern of Brook Farm Inn who attended Bergman’s three-part course on Millay at the Lenox Library in 2008.

The Millay Society is responsible for the poet’s archives and papers, and for the preservation of Steepletop, her home in Austerlitz, NY.  In order to help the Society reach its goal of restoring this site and opening it to the public on a regular basis, a contribution of $20 per person is requested.  Refreshments will be served.

Edna St. Vincent Millay was the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, in 1923, and was local resident from 1925 until her death in 1950. Considered one the truly great American creative artists, she pioneered in radio and recordings, began publishing her poetry while still a teenager and at the age of 20 was acclaimed nationally for her lengthy poem, “Renascence.” During her years in the Berkshires she completed the commissioned libretto for an American opera for the Metropolitan Opera in New York, published seven volumes of poetry and wrote the radio play, “The Murder of Lidice,” which polarized Americans in 1942 and helped to turn the tide of World War II.

Peter Bergman, a long-time resident in Berkshire County, is a noted author and theatrical director in addition to his work for the Millay Society. His company, Berkshire Concert Artists, has represented many singers, musicians, directors, librettists and designers and also produced ten original plays based on historical figures in the Berkshires, produced in historic houses. His most recent play, “The Lynch Bride” is part of the Berkshire Fools Festival and presented in the historic First Congregational Church on Park Square in Pittsfield.

Advance reservations for seats for this program are recommended as seating is limited.  To reserve, contact Linda and Phil Halpern, innkeepers, at Brook Farm Inn, 15 Hawthorne Street, Lenox, MA, 800-285-7638 (POET), www.brookfarm.com.  Brook Farm Inn, located in the heart of the Berkshires, is known for hosting poetry readings, and welcomes room reservations for the weekend of this exciting program.  Brook Farm Inn will make the $20 contribution on behalf of overnight guests.

“The Four Seasons of Edna St. Vincent Millay” at Brook Farm Inn

The public is invited to celebrate the life and works of Edna St. Vincent Millay, at an event on Saturday, May 16, 2009, at 3:00 PM.  At Brook Farm Inn, in Lenox Massachusetts, Peter Bergman, Executive Director of the Edna St. Vincent Millay Society at Steepletop, will present a program entitled “The Four Seasons of Edna St. Vincent Millay.”   The program will begin with an unknown, 1920’s work, and will end with Millay’s final published piece.  And there will be surprises!  “Mr. Bergman’s readings are mesmerizing, and his knowledge of Millay is unsurpassed,” said Linda Halpern of Brook Farm Inn who attended Bergman’s three-part course on Millay at the Lenox Library in 2008.

The Millay Society is responsible for the poet’s archives and papers, and for the preservation of Steepletop, her home in Austerlitz, NY.  In order to help the Society reach its goal of restoring this site and opening it to the public on a regular basis, a contribution of $20 per person is requested.  Refreshments will be served.

Edna St. Vincent Millay was the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, in 1923, and was local resident from 1925 until her death in 1950. Considered one the truly great American creative artists, she pioneered in radio and recordings, began publishing her poetry while still a teenager and at the age of 20 was acclaimed nationally for her lengthy poem, “Renascence.” During her years in the Berkshires she completed the commissioned libretto for an American opera for the Metropolitan Opera in New York, published seven volumes of poetry and wrote the radio play, “The Murder of Lidice,” which polarized Americans in 1942 and helped to turn the tide of World War II.

Peter Bergman, a long-time resident in Berkshire County, is a noted author and theatrical director in addition to his work for the Millay Society. His company, Berkshire Concert Artists, has represented many singers, musicians, directors, librettists and designers and also produced ten original plays based on historical figures in the Berkshires, produced in historic houses. His most recent play, “The Lynch Bride” is part of the Berkshire Fools Festival and presented in the historic First Congregational Church on Park Square in Pittsfield.

Advance reservations for seats for this program are recommended as seating is limited.  To reserve, contact Linda and Phil Halpern, innkeepers, at Brook Farm Inn, 15 Hawthorne Street, Lenox, MA, 800-285-7638 (POET), www.brookfarm.com.  Brook Farm Inn, located in the heart of the Berkshires, is known for hosting poetry readings, and welcomes room reservations for the weekend of this exciting program.  Brook Farm Inn will make the $20 contribution on behalf of overnight guests.

Poetry is here at Brook Farm Inn, in Lenox Massachusetts.  We enjoy sharing the many poetry volumes in our library, and showcasing a poem every day for our guests to read.  Here’s a seasonal poem that we like, because it describes the Berkshires! It’s titled “September Hills.”

Have you seen the hills in September–

The aspens dripping their gold?

It’s a picture no artist has painted,

A beauty no poet has told.

You must see for yourself the splendor

The glory that fills and thrills–

THe gold of the sun on the aspens,

September high in the hills.

Lenox Massachusetts: To follow up on yesterday’s blog comments about National Poetry Month, we’d like to quote a poem that was written about Brook Farm Inn by an appreciative guest of our bed and breakfast. It says more about the inn, and our Berkshires ambiance, than we could ever say.

BROOK FARM
There is poetry here.
Lovers of words
have pressed it into the wood floors
with their feet;
it has escaped their red, prolific tongues
and floated on the silence
hanging in the room’s air
during afternoon readings, settling
lightly into corners, stirred
and in motion again each time
a writer’s ghost swishes by,
or a young girl pauses, carefully
selecting a book from a nearby
shelf. There is
poetry here, there is no
escaping it or exorcising it
from this Inn, no matter whom
the keeper; little do they know
it went up with the beams,
was mixed and troweled
with the plaster, and flows freely
through the windows on warm summer
evenings. In winter, its heat
is in the fire
making the parlor walls glow, the books
on the shelves leaping
with the flames.