Jacklyn Potter Tribute

Jacklyn Potter, who ran the Joaquin Miller Cabin Poetry Series from 1984 to April 2005 when she died unexpectedly, was celebrated by her friends on April 13 at the Iota Restaurant and Bar in Arlington, Virginia, in the poetry series that


Miles David Moore hosts. Many people came to hear Karren Alenier, Anne Becker, Michael Davis, Patricia Garfinkel, Myra Sklarew, and Marchant Wentworth read Jacklyn's poetry. Lois McBride made a cake honoring Jacklyn's love of the Miller Cabin.

Toujours le Mot was how Jacklyn signed her letters.

The 2008 Miller Cabin Poetry Series fundraising campaign was launched at this event and The Word Works has already received some donations to help fund this year's programs. Please contact editor@wordworksdc.com if you wish to make a contribution in honor of Jacklyn. Jacklyn was also the lead editor of Cabin Fever: Poets at Joaquin MIller's Cabin 1984-2001. Karren Alenier
read Jacklyn's poem "Boundaries" from that anthology. Here is a poem from Jacklyn's unpublished work.

Return to the Gallery
(To Mary Cassatt’s “Child in the Straw Hat”)

For seven years I wandered
through a planetary bower.
The straw brim of your hat
circling toward me
brought me home.

Here in the city of winter flowers
your breath, rich as pomegranate seeds,
hardens into pigment.

I cannot speak. You cannot see.
A blind man’s cane strikes the years
in sidewalk cracks beside the avenue.

by Jacklyn W. Potter

Copyright © 2008 by the estate of Jacklyn Potter

Gallery of poets paying tribute to Jacklyn.