Lauding Our Poet Laureate!

With the passing of Vincent Ferrini, Gloucester's venerable poet laureate, there was a big question as whether we should try to fill those shoes or not --- they are big shoes to fill. But, among the many poets who call Gloucester home, there is John Ronan and the city wisely chose him to step into that position. It is a good choice. What brought this to mind was an article in Sunday's Boston Herald written by John in protest of the ridiculous battering Gloucester has taken in the media of late. It is a great article.

The teen pregnancy scandal and all the brouhaha that surrounded it is getting wearisome. Gloucester has problems --- nobody is denying that --- but we have a new mayor who is busting her butt to bring some sanity to city administration and there are a whole lot of concerned citizens who are doing everything they can to help. Yes, we have pregnant teens here --- not as many (proportionally) as they have in Revere, Lynn, Haverhill, or even Salem. Yes, we have infrastructure problems here --- a lot of the cities in the east founded in the early seventeenth century do. Gloucester is 385 years old this year. The house I live in was already 50 years old when they signed the Declaration of Independence! Things age --- myself included.

Gloucester has long had a contingent that describes the city as “a drinking town with a fishing problem”. We have a lot of bars, we have a lot of drunks and addicts and homeless people --- many of these are teenagers. Recently in an obnoxious article in the Boston Globe about the Beverly Farms Horribles Parade that mocked Gloucester, writer David Abel managed to slant his story by writing about guys he interviewed in bars. Actually, the guys were very intelligent and appropriate in their comments but that didn't stop Abel from mentioning their drinking within the context of the article. No bias intended, I'm sure.

Right.

But somehow in all the carrying on about our pregnant teens and drunken Fiesta and drugs and alcohol problems, the reporters manage to over look a few things. Like the fact that Gloucester, this city of 30,000 people on a point of land in the Atlantic Ocean, also has:

• our own symphony orchestra

• two distinguished live-performance theaters where performers from all over the country are regulars

• an outstanding 85 year old art association

• the oldest art colony in America still alive and thriving

• literally hundreds of artists, writers, musicians, dancers, photographers, and, yes, poets

• six museums --- one of them in a castle

• an annual schooner festival that draws people from around the world

• a New Arts Festival that annually presents the most innovative artists, performers, etc.

... and don't forget the scenic wonders.

Gloucester has served as inspiration for artists Winslow Homer, Fitz Henry Lane, Childe Hassam, Edward Hopper, Mark Rothko, and more. In fact the list of writers, artists, musicians, etc. who have come here for inspiration seems endless and still goes on. Hollywood comes here to make movies. Now fashion magazines are doing photo shoots here --- funny how “journalists” like Abel manage to miss all that. Yes, we have problems but we also have tremendous resources. The more the media manages to overlook that in order to keep painting a biased picture of a bleak and wasted city in decline, the more we who love Gloucester need to speak up.

So thank you, Sir Poet Laureate, for having your say. We need more citizens like John Ronan!

Thanks for reading.