Item Photo by Owen O’Rourke
Swampscott’s young poet laureate Camryn Cotter.
BY GAYLA CAWLEY
SWAMPSCOTT — It’ll be poetry in motion when the town’s newest poets laureate read their original verse at Town Meeting on May 16.
Lee Eric Freedman, 49, and Camryn Cotter, 8, were named as poetry representatives. Their job is to read their original prose before Town Meeting members, but their role could expand if they so choose.
The Poet Laureate contest is designed to find a young student poet from kindergarten to grade 4 and an adult poet 18 or older, but no longer in high school.
This is the third year of the competition. The first year saw two winners with an adult, Nancy Hewitt, and a child, Abby Rhoads chosen. There were no submissions from children last year, with the town only represented by an adult, Stephen Iannaccone.
Sami Lawler, a fourth grade teacher at Stanley Elementary School and the organizer of the competition, said three samples of poetry were required for the adult competition, while the young poet only had to submit one original piece. Another change from previous years is that the adult poet, Freedman, will represent the town for two years, rather than just one.
Judges for the adult competition consisted of English teachers and professors and Iannaccone. The child competition was judged by an elementary school teacher, a librarian and Rhoads.
“I see our town poet laureates as ambassadors of their craft as they link their art into the culture of their town,” Lawler said.
Freedman found out he was chosen two weeks ago, after entering for the past three years. He submitted three poems: “Fisherman’s Beach Wet,” Fisherman’s Beach Winter,” and “I Salute Myself.”
He has been working on a series about Fisherman’s Beach that he hopes to get published as a book.
“I was surprised, nauseated, and a little dizzy over it,” he said.
“I Salute Myself” is based on Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself.” In the poem, he congratulates himself and America, saying the theme is vanity. He will be reading “Fisherman’s Beach Winter” at Town Meeting, which is based on his trip to the beach during a rainstorm.
Freedman loves poetry and serves as president of Tin Box Poets, a group whose mission is to promote and encourage poetry. The group will hold its annual open mic reading Monday at 6 p.m. at the Swampscott Public Library.
Freedman said a seed for poetry was planted after reading Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” in elementary school. Later, in college, his best friend was in a band who played him a song. He then tried his hand at writing a song, which turned out to be more like poetry, something he realized he should continue.
Poetry became a hobby in between his work in the music industry managing various record stores. Freedman said his poems are simplistic, but he doesn’t have a specific style and he doesn’t use rhymes.
Cotter, a second grader at Hadley Elementary School, submitted her poem, “At the Beach,” which she wrote for the competition. She said it’s about Swampscott’s beaches and what people do there. Her hobby at the beach is making sandcastles. She was told by her mother, Kate Cotter, about the contest.
“At the Beach” is her first poem, which she said was a little difficult to complete, but fun. She is a little nervous and excited about reading it aloud. When she’s not writing poetry, Cotter can be found playing the piano, writing songs or playing baseball. She found out she won through her mother, who was notified by email.
“I was really happy,” she said. “I didn’t think I was going to win.”
Going forward, Cotter, who won’t write a poem without rhymes, plans to write more poetry. Freedman wants to hold more open mics, and possibly have a group of 10 people read the entire catalogue of Whitman during a marathon reading, similar to an idea he saw in New Bedford.
“It is my hope that putting this literary honor into our town’s culture will bring literature into the spotlight as a creative and meaningful venue for expression,” Lawler said.
Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @GaylaCawley