Buried alive?
When I read the article about revisiting the Crozet Master Plan [“Residents and staff begin Crozet Master Plan revision,” Development News, June 2], I could see the handwriting was already on the wall. Mike Marshall of CCAC says Crozet is “willing to take a lot of growth…” Good thing there is a survey to get public opinion; most of us do not want any more growth.
I shuddered when I read the county supervisors are reconsidering an industrial park and considering “revising our master plan.” Get the nails out for the coffin. You bet it will have a tremendous impact on traffic and quality of life!
County Principal Planner Elaine Echols, said the single most important thing would be to reevaluate the boundaries of development prone areas…but “it’s not that we are promoting development….”
Come on! How dumb do you think we peach pickin’, cougar and coyote lovin’, rural appreciatin’ locals are?
NO MORE DEVELOPMENT FOR CROZET, THANK YOU!!!!!!!!
Pattie Boden
Albemarle County
Fit in mind and body
I just wanted to drop a line to say how much I enjoyed the poetry article [“Who cares about poetry, anyway?” May 26] and my first introduction to your publication. Then again, I am one of those who would “gasp” with delight upon being told a person was a poet. I find myself back in Charlottesville this summer, walking the grounds I graduated from 30 (another kind of gasp!) years ago, and spending the time, reading, reflecting, and finding poetic moments in the beauty and stillness around me during evenings on the Lawn—moments where you can tune into that “art of physical and emotional presence.”
Thank you for a reminder of how much I enjoyed my time spent reading and absorbing Blake and Keats, and more, during my days in the English Language and Lit department at the University, as well as the many nights spent listening to my grandmother, a no-frills farm lady, reciting the poetry of her youth to me when I was young. I think the connections of poetry between generations add to its value, but perhaps that is another area we sometimes need to acknowledge and appreciate more in our country.
Here’s to a lifetime of poetry moments for us all—and to discovering the poets in each of us.
Thanks again, I look forward to reading next week’s edition on my wanderings. And I find dragging around a 30-year-old Norton Anthology is good for the physical fitness Jefferson advocated as well!
Kim Bassing Skibinski
Proud “Poetry Person”
Charlottesville
Witt and wisdom
The article “Who cares about poetry, anyway?” by Sam Witt was a masterpiece. Witt answered an array of relevant questions about poetry that included “What’s poetry for?” and “Who cares about poetry?” He also addressed the often heard statement “I am not a poetry person.”
Witt’s perspective on poetry and the poet is universal and personal, global and local. With regard to the latter, he expressed the views of local poets that included Charles Wright, John Casteen IV, Kendra Hamilton and Rita Dove. In doing this he enabled local readers to recognize that they are among poets and that they themselves are poets or poetry people.
Although not entirely overlooked in the article but, in my opinion underemphasized, is the fact that poetry is music. It is small wonder that in the Bible, the psalmist is referred to as a musician. Poems are songs or music. Perhaps it is true, “a song is not a song until it is sung,” but it is also true that a poem needs only be felt to be music. Upon reading a poem, the blending of vibrations, rhythms and cadences may cause a person to experience an “ah” moment.
Editor Cathryn Harding in her “Read This First” introduction, gave the right answer to the question, “What is poetry good for?” She stated succinctly, “For you!”
Without music I would die. To the question posed by the article, “Poetry—a dying art or an essential one?” My answer: “Poetry is life.”
Finally, I want to salute C-VILLE Weekly on its 20 years of being a free weekly newspaper in Charlottesville and vicinity. Now that you are into your 21st year, I imagine you feel old enough and society allowing you enough, based on your age, to do things that you have not dared to do in the past. All eyes are watching you. Congratulations!
Uriah J. Fields
Charlottesville