Phyllis Meras
West Tisbury’s Mill Pond was all white;
The snow on the cattails a pretty sight.
The mallards were swimming up and down.
With Christmas just around the corner, I have been thinking cherries.
More than 50 people crowded into the reading room at the West Tisbury Public Library on Saturday to hear Beth Lambert, river restoration program coordinator for the state Division of Ecological Restoration, discuss the state’s policy of dam destruction as a way of restoring natural stream ecology.
Two weekends ago, the notorious Blue Beard, my 13-foot long vintage Edgartown beachboat, got a safe mooring in the nick of time in Tisbury Great Pond, thanks to the kindness of a near-stranger.
And my fairly notorious 1996 Toyota Camry that had suffered a flat tire between Edgartown and Vineyard Haven was able to take to the road again, thanks to the efforts of a total stranger.
Such scenarios are the better part of a Martha’s Vineyard summer.
It was 175 years ago next month that six devout Edgartown Methodists decided to establish a summer religious community of their very own and selected the largest oak grove in New England, near Eastville, to be its site. Camp meetings that provided prayer, preaching, hymn-singing and repentance had come into vogue in America at the turn of the 19th century. In 1827, one had been established at West Chop in the community of Holmes Hole — today’s Vineyard Haven.
FIFTEEN WOMEN: French Women Poets of the Early 20th Century. Translation & Notes by Edward Hewett. Greensboro Unicorn Press Inc., Greensboro, N.C., 2010., 122 pages. $15.95.