Page 65 - Wallingford Magazine Issue 52 Winter 2025

The Poets Al as Wizard in "Wizard of Oz"
ets, comrades in love with poetry. Aloud handouts and practiced with first Wallingford Poet Laureate. Ka-
SMwP was coming of age. Friend- us before that first public perfor- tie Eber and Deborah Kwan would
ships grew. mance. (I continue to use this in- become his successors.
formation with new poets to our
Al also served as editor, resource group.) Beth Devlin, former Adult Program
consultant, and community activ- Director, said her strongest and
ist. To bolster our accomplish- fondest memory of Al was that
ments, Al collected our poems once he focused on an idea, “…
twice each year and published like a dog with a bone …”, he
them into anthologies known never let up. She admired his
as Perennial Awakenings. He determination and creativity to
oversaw 13 editions of our Pe- accomplish what he wanted to
rennial catalogs before stepping achieve … and Al succeeded.
down from SMwP. He submit-
ted each new book of poems to Jane Fisher, too, shared that
be added to the poetry collec- she has positive memories of
tion of WPL. We attended po- Al. She and Al had. “… things
etry workshops offered by WPL in common--we're both librar-
and visited Gallery 53 in Me- ians, readers, cyclists …” Both
riden to challenge our poetic saw possibilities for community
skills, create ekphrastic poems growth through emphasizing
from art, expand our opportu- public library resources. Jane
nities to write. and Al often saw each other at
the top of the library’s stairs.
To celebrate National Poetry Jane said, “I saw Al … before the
Month, Beth Devlin (Adult Pro- holidays … He had his custom-
gram Director) and Jane Fisher ary sparkle and smile, and I was
(WPL director) supported Al’s happy to see that his love for
idea to schedule an SMwP pub- reading hadn't subsided despite
lic reading of our poetry. Beth, Al in leaf pile with grandson his illness. See you at the top of
instrumental to SMwP’s devel- the stairs, Al!”
opment, also arranged to have a In August 2014, Al researched and
New Haven Jazz group to weave proposed to Beth the idea of hav- During Al’s five-year reign as lead-
music with our poetry. Beth and Al ing a Poet Laureate. She shared er of SMwP, meeting attendance
scheduled our first public program this with Jane who created the cri- escalated from eight to ten to an
on April 7, 2013, celebrating the teria for the town’s “Ambassador eventual average number of fifteen
importance of spoken poetry. Beth of Poetry.” When the acceptance to sixteen. Overall, there were 33
and her successors, Julie Rio, Leah process was completed by the Li- poets who attended SMwP meet-
Farrell, and Rachel Taylor tradi- brary Board and Mayor Dickinson, ings and are published in Perennial
tionally schedule an SMwP spring it received approval by Walling- Awakenings.
program. Because that first April ford’s Town Council. On October
program would be SMwP mem- 26, 2015, Tarn Granucci, a SMwP Al Mueller was a diversified artis-
bers’ first time reading publicly, Al member and editor of Wallingford tic person. He photographed but-
prepped us with Reading Poetry Magazine, was designated as our terflies and created bookmarks

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