Westport Arts
Advisory Committee
Committed to increasing public awareness of Westport's cultural resources.
Donna Disch is a 24-year Westport resident. With an MFA from Vermont College, Donna has participated in poetry workshops for more than 20 years. Her poems have been published in the Aspen Anthology, Poetry East and Charleston Magazine, among others. Also a former high school English teacher, Donna loves working with children and looks forward to taking more poetry into our schools.
Donna's first initiative as Poet Laureate was have a poetry box
installed at the corner of Soundview Drive and Hillspoint Road
(Photo by JD Dworkow - 06880)
Donna reading her Memorial Day Celebration Poem at Veterans Green
DAY OF REMEMBERANCE
During the Great War, the fields of Flanders
drank more blood than rain. Tanks and trenches
mangled the farmland, its fertile soil
scorched and churned. But in the spring
after the War ended, poppy seeds
buried and dormant for decades woke
to a peaceful bolt of light and air.
Wild and unwavering, legions of them
offered themselves to the spring
and summer sun. A red rebellion
of fragile petals and willful stems.
Bearers of remembrance,
paper poppies reappear each November.
We remember “the war to end all wars,”
the wars that followed, and the wars that
rage today. We remember your valor, honor,
sacrifice and service in the literal hell of war.
We remember those who fought, who loved,
were loved and were lost. And every year
the poppies return to flood the fields --
knowing what they know.
Donna Disch 9/23/2024