The room is empty at first, a lone Starbucks cup sitting on the desk. Once the members of the club arrive, the room is light-hearted, silly even. Chatter, laughter and birds’ calls fill the space, echoing off the walls of a room that almost seems too formal, too sterile to house a club like this one.
Once the meeting begins, the club leaders pull up odd quotes on the projector screen; they are purposely odd, with the hope that they provide inspiration to someone in the room. Soon, the silence sets in. The last words spoken for a while come from junior Tim Walter: “Okay, so now we’re going to write for 20 to 30 minutes, or until everyone looks up and starts to seem bored.”
Pencils scratch on paper, eyes glance across the table at others and keyboards click along to the sound of inspiration. The different sounds create their own form of rhythm, blending together like a symphony of jumbled inspiration. This is Chattertons, Bonaventure’s poetry club.
The students around the wooden tables, from all different majors, “a blended mix,” as Secretary Lizz Freeman affectionately refers to it, become authors and creators, preparing to share their work.
At the end of the work period, the silence breaks, with Walter and Freeman asking if members of the club would like to share the work they’ve created in the allotted time. Nobody is forced to share, but a few members do. Their work is often met with snaps and praise from the other members of the club.
The club’s goal, according to Walter, is simple, “Just to express ourselves in an artistic way—to kind of showcase what Bonaventure has to offer with poetry.”
The members of the club made it clear that new members are always welcome, regardless of perceived ability. The number one rule, according to Freeman, is “No apologies for art,” meaning that all that is created and shared will be respected, and that, “If [Chattertons] offers criticism, we always encourage it to be constructive.”
Chattertons was founded in 2013 and has been creating poetry since. The club’s name comes as a tribute to the late 18th century poet, Thomas Chatterton. Freeman explained, “We honor Chatterton in that we all want something out of our poetry, and we’re trying to get there together.”
Chattertons holds weekly meetings on Sundays at 3 p.m. in Swan 205 for club members to gather, share and form a community. Additionally, the club hosts various poetry “slaps” throughout the year. While poetry gatherings are often referred to as “slams,” Chattertons has shied away from this terminology because, according to Freeman, “they’re not competitions, they’re just poetry readings,” where students can share the poetry they’ve worked on over the course of the semester.
The club is low-key and accepting. In the words of Chattertons’ President, Joe Giglio, “Chattertons has honestly been like a second family to me, and it has been so amazing to have the chance to grow close with all of the fantastic people who have been a part of the club.”
Though many of the members of Chattertons have had an interest in poetry for some time now, Freeman leaves this advice for novice poets and writers: “Feel first, edit later.”
Indeed, it seems to be sound advice for a poet, and for a club that centers around sharing something as intimate as one’s own words.
By Meghan Hall, Contributing Writer
hallml18@bonaventure.edu
