The Purpose of a Poem

“The Purpose of a Poem” is a series of videos taped on zoom in December 2020. They feature the individuals who commissioned and wrote the original poems published in Pebbles in the Stream, a book edited by Christina Nordstrom, Christie Lowrance, Carolyn LeComte, and Jana Dillon. These sessions provide background and insight into the wonderful poems composed for the 2020 SAA Poemathon. More will be taped in 2021.

Thanks to everyone who participated and to Heather Pannell and Pauline Tessein for taping, recording and editing these sessions.  
Find Pebbles in the Stream and all Arts Alliance titles anytime in our online store or at the Sandwich Arts Alliance Center during business hours.
How Pebbles in the Stream came to be...

The book's 34 poems, which include haiku, sonnets and free verse as well as rhymed pieces, resulted from a "Poem-athon" fund raiser the Literary Arts group held to benefit the Sandwich Food Pantry. The project began in April during Poetry Month when the Cape's food pantries were being emptied as the coronavirus swept through Cape Cod.  

​In exchange for a minimum donation of $15 to the food pantry, Arts Alliance writers and a few friends offered to write a poem for whatever purpose the donor specified, whether to celebrate a birthday, graduation, a second marriage, or the loss of a pet or friend. The "Poem-athon" raised $750 for the food pantry. 
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Contributing Writers:
Bob Aubin
Alison McLennan
Donald Sidney-Fryer
Jim Petipas
Bix Hamby
Christie Lowrance
Glyn Dowden
 Christina Laurie
J. J. Cunis
Paula Kwon
Joyce Kaye
Dean Coe
 Lisa Kelleher
June Bowser-Barrett
Susan Raidy Klein
Christina Nordstrom
Contributing Artists:
Carolyn LeComte
Jana Dillon
Christie Lowrance
Dean Coe
Heather Pannell
​Daniel Dobbins

Editor: Christina Nordstrom

The Purpose of a Poem videos

Find Pebbles in the Stream and all Arts Alliance titles anytime in our online store or at the Sandwich Arts Alliance Center during business hours.

Session 1: 
  • Kathy Aubin/Dean Coe (“’Ode’ to Be 10”)
  • Jeanne McLaren Leonard/Bob Aubin (“A Place and Time and You”)
Session 2:
  • Marie Luck/June Bowser Barrett (“To Jennifer, On Mother’s Day”)
  • Book designers Carolyn LeComte and Jana Dillon, who also wrote and commissioned poems (“For Donna,” and “The Promise of Infinitude”)
Session 3:
  • Judith Goetz /Bix Hamby (“The Certainty of Self”)
  • Todd Herrmann/Christie Lowrance (“For Max”)