Since 2023, poets have gathered on the second Tuesday of every month at Black Rock Books, an independent bookstore in Bridgeport, Connecticut’s Black Rock neighborhood, to share original work with their community. What began as a small, scattered group has become a close-knit circle that welcomes visiting poets, high school writers and first-time readers alongside longtime regulars.
The Poets of Black Rock Books: An Anthology of Contemporary Poems from Connecticut Poets collects 24 poems by 14 of those voices. There are wry looks at modern life (“On Finding Jesus Tote Bags at Brandy Melville,” “My Day in Numbers,” “A 21st Century Muse”), honest meditations on growing older (“Feeling My Age,” “On Being Asked If I’d Like to Be Young Again,” “Forgetting”) and poems of love, longing and the natural world (“I Can’t Love You a Little,” “Full Moon,” “Afternoon at the Beach,” “Tides of March”). Other pieces explore faith, home and the search for peace in titles like “The Lost Prophets,” “Sanctuary,” “Tranquility” and “We Could Get a Great House.”
Together they make a portrait of a community that writes across generations and isn’t afraid to be vulnerable. This anthology is for readers who love contemporary poetry, Connecticut and New England writers, and the community that grows around an independent bookstore.
Contributors: Lisa Seidenberg, Alexa Luft, Kit Briner, Haley Aguilar, Adam Weisblatt, Gwendolyn Gardiner, Tim Cox, Janet Kraus, Adair Heitmann, Vincent Covertito, Maura Satti, Ed Ahern, Jeff Schwartz and Dave Bebon. Introduction by Meg Flynn, co-owner of Black Rock Books.
As the introduction puts it: come to a poetry night, and remember,
you can cry here.
