Emily Lent
Staff Reporter
The Deerfield Scroll
February 23, 2000

It all started back when Ann Quinn, assistant academic dean and study skills coordinator, had a poem entitled "Clothespin" published in the New Yorker magazine. David Dickinson of the Fine Arts department created an illustration that matched an aspect of the poem, and they presented the two works side by side at an exhibition of the work of several Deerfield artists. When Robert Moorhead, also a Fine Arts teacher and co-director of The Deerfield Academy Press, saw Mrs. Quinn and Mr. Dickinson's collaboration, he liked it and wanted to publish a collection of matching art/poem pairs like theirs. The Open Gate was born.

Mr. Moorhead involved other Deerfield writers and artists in the project. Peter Fallon, Deerfield's 1996-97 poet-in-residence, language teacher Andrea Moorhead, English teacher John Palmer, and Mrs. Quinn are the featured poets. The work of four Deerfield artists is also featured. Timothy Engelland, Lydia Hemp-hill, Robert Moorhead, and Mr. Dickinson each have pieces included in the collection.

The poets each have an artist matched up with them. Mr. Dickinson and Mrs. Quinn worked together, as did Ms. Hemphill and Mr. Palmer, Mrs. Moorhead and Mr. Moorhead, and Mr. Engelland and Mr. Fallon. The pieces of art matched up with each poet are very different, as can be imagined from the different styles and specialties of each artist mentioned. The pieces range from Ms. Hemphill's photograph of the Wyeth House in Maine for Mr. Palmer's collection to Mr. Dickinson's rendering of a scene from one of Mrs. Quinn's poems. A rendering is a piece in which many different mediums are used; in this particular one, Mr. Dickinson combined materials including pencil and ink to create the image he wanted.

Like the work of the artists, the poets' pieces are all very different as well, although they all center around a common theme. "The sense of place in very important," Mrs. Quinn said. "We invite you into our lives; they are very personal poems." Each poet has about 28 poems included in this collection.

The title "The Open Gate" was chosen because of this focus on place, time, and setting. Mrs. Quinn said the gate represents how personal each of these poems are to her writers and also the welcoming invitation from the poets to the readers. "[It is] a gate into someone's private yard, as opposed to the Deerfield door, which is always shown as being closed." Each poet's personal sense of place is varied according to the experiences of the author, Mrs. Quinn explained, with Mr. Fallon writing of his farm in Ireland and Mrs. Moorhead describing the streets of Paris. The poems hit closer to home as well, with Mrs. Quinn's collection, entitled "In the Back of the House."

Creating the publication has been a long process, as all good things are, but one of the factors that had helped make the road a little easier is the quality of the editors. "The Moorheads are a dream come true as editors," exclaimed Mrs. Quinn. "Mrs. Moorhead has a perfect ear for poetry; every single suggestion was correct," she continued.

The paperback collection, which includes an introduction by English teacher Frank Henry (on sabbatical this year), is scheduled for publication this week. As supplement to the book, the four poets held a reading of some of their pieces, last Sunday evening, February 20 in the Choral Room. Everyone involved in the project is excited about the whole process. Mr. Moorhead summed it up, "I loved doing it and I think reading will [have been] a lot of fun."

[Note: Copies of The Open Gate: Four Deerfield Poets may be purchased through the Deerfield Academy Bookstore, by calling 413-774-1513 . The book retails for $9.50.]