Poetry Movements & Poetry History at World of Poets

Founded in 1922 as the Rochester, NY chapter of the Poetry Society of America, Rochester Poets is the area's oldest, ongoing literary organization. The group ceased its affiliation with the Society in the 1980s in order to accept a wider variety of members; at that time, the organization adopted its current name.

Meetings are held monthly on the third Saturday at the Center at High Falls Gallery; from 2003-2005, the organization held monthly readings at Writers & Books; in January of 2006, the venue was changed to St. John Fisher College in Pittsford, NY.

Rochester Poets sends out regular email flyers of area literary events, publishes a monthly newsletter and The Pinnacle Hill Review*, an annual anthology of selected member work. The group maintains a website; a mailing list (informing subscribers of area literary events) which can be joined via the website; and a Blog.

Past and current members of note include Al Poulin, Jr. (1938-1996), Patricia Janus (1932-2006), Dale Davis, Leah Zazulyer Watson, Cornelius Eady, Jordan Smith, James Lavilla-Havelin, Etta Ruth Weigl, Israel Emiot (1909-1978), Gary Lehmann, John Roche, Vincent Golphin, Anne Coon, Carol Oliver, Gerald Clarke, Robert Koch, Wynne McClure, Ruth Kennedy, Francesca Guli, Paul Humphrey (1915-2001), Eleanor McQuilken (1908-2004), George Monagan (1925-2005), David Michael Nixon, W.E. Butts, Linda Allardt, Patricia Roth Schwartz, Beatrice O'Brien, Judith Kitchen, Stanley Rubin, and Frank Judge, the current president.

Other Rochester area poets of note are Adelaide Crapsey (1878-1914), William Heyen, Anthony Piccione (1939-
2001), W.E. Butts, and John Ashberry. E. E. Cummings, though not a Rochesterian, has a connection to the city through Dr. James Sibley Watson, a wealthy Harvard classmate who became a patron of the arts and served as a benefactor to Cummings throughout much of the poet's life.

A large portion of the Rochester Poet Society correspondence, minutes and other documents from 1922 to 1973 are archived in the Rare Books and Special Collection Department of the University of Rochester Rush Rhees Library.

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About Poetry Movements & Poetry History at World of Poets

Poetry movements is the history of poetry, and of the world. If you study the movements of every poetry school, and you can because we have listed all the poets involved in those movements, then you are basically approaching history through poetry. There are many schools of poetry, from the Spasmodic Poets to World War 1 Poetry; from Dymock Poets to the New York School, they are all here for you to learn about poetry and history. The poets who shaped our world represent a large group of men and women, not just American Poets, British Poets, Black Poets, but poets of the New Formalism, the Cavalier Poets, and the poets of the Nuyorican Movement. You will be surprised which famous poets were allied with which other great poets. If you have never studied the rich heritage of the schools of poetry and their movements, you will love this section of our poetry site!