At the front of Farr Best Theater in Mansfield, a man adorned in a gold-accented frock coat and a three-pointed hat with peacock and ostrich feathers swooping out the top took the stage.
As he stepped up to the mic, the small and intimate theater filled with “arrs!” of support from his pirate-dressed crew in the audience.
The captain spoke into the mic in a deep and resonant voice, beginning a night of immersive tall tales with the 1902 nautical poem, “A Ballad of John Silver” by John Masefield.
This is Steve Sanders, the president of the Fort Worth Poetry Society — one of the oldest literary organizations in the Southwestern United States and Texas. His pirate tricorn was one of many hats he wore at the group’s many themed poetry events, with the society taking to the Stockyards only a week later to perform Wild West-themed poetry at Horus Hall before a one-on-one gun show.
But beyond the thematics and performance, the society wants poetry to be heard and written by people from all walks of life, whether it be a passerby at an open mic, a couple at a reading or an upcoming poetry contest.
“In our society today, we are so artificially connected. (We lack) that real personal interaction that poetry provides,” said David Ruffin, a fellow pirate poetry performer and society member. “The fact that we are sharing feelings — not necessarily a big production, but we’re sharing things they get to sit and actually have that human connection to.”
Since its founding nearly 116 years ago, the poetry society has been about that life and connection. Fort Worth was known as the drowsy “Cowtown” by its Dallas rivals.
One popular article by Robert E. Cowart, a Fort Worth native turned Dallas lawyer, mockingly wrote that Fort Worth was so “torpid” and desolate that you could see a panther sleeping on the corner of Main Street. The Dallas Herald satirical article coined the moniker “Panther City.”
Gatha Woods Taylor established the Fort Worth Poetry Society in 1910 to combat that idea, according to the group’s application for a historical marker.
The society has operated continuously ever since, including surviving two world wars.
The society has served as home to luminaries who won awards such as the 1947 Texas Women’s Press Association Gold Medal and the Robert Frost Award and the creator of the early Fort Worth magazine Quicksilver.
In-house awards are lined up next to published chapbooks written by members of the poetry society. (Mica Magday for the Fort Worth Report)
The poetry society continues to host members with notable awards and publishings, with one member joining the Recording Academy’s New Member Class.
The significance of the society’s part in Fort Worth’s history and culture was recognized in February when the Fort Worth Historic and Cultural Landmarks Commission unanimously approved a historical marker. The sign will commemorate the longstanding society on the lawn at 512 4th St., the future home to Fort Worth’s downtown library.
“History markers like these connect the citizens’ interests today to the people who established Fort Worth and to their stories,” said Jerre Tracy, executive director of Historic Fort Worth.
Sanders says the approval of the marker could not have been done without the help of Denise Salerno, the Fort Worth Poetry Society’s historian and active poet.
“I want it to be a warm feeling,” Salerno said about the marker and its future unveiling. “I want people to feel welcomed and warm.”
Members of the Fort Worth Poetry Society dressed in pirate garb accompany President Steve Sanders and his wife, Melody Sanders, on the Farr Best Theater stage in Mansfield. (Mica Magday for the Fort Worth Report)
Today, the society extends its welcoming spirit to potential new members who want to be part of their monthly critiques.
Recent member Seth Bodine, a former Fort Worth Report journalist who graduated with a degree in creative writing and currently works at the Dallas Business Journal, said the anonymous feedback he receives is similar to what would be seen in a university classroom or at a professional poet’s critique — for only $20 a year.
“To have a local, nonetheless longstanding poetry society that is not really expensive is a big deal,” Bodine said.
Moon Abbas, who has a bachelor’s degree in English and creative writing from the University of North Texas, drives from Denton for each meeting to improve his work. The society is the only place where he can receive meaningful feedback because literary magazines have high bars and don’t provide critiques, he said.
“All of us recognize the great value and how fortunate we are,” Abbas said.
Sanders doesn’t deny the tangible benefit members receive from meeting. He emphasizes the most rewarding part of his work is sharing meaningful moments with the people of Fort Worth.
Sanders recounted an event in which he read “Treasured Melody,” a poem he originally wrote for his wife, to a young couple at a Fort Worth Poetry Society event.
The poem tells of a pirate quartermaster charged with taking inventory of all the treasure the crew acquired. While he counted the gold, jewels and spices, all the quartermaster could think about was the one treasure he was sailing home to: his wife.
During the poem, Sanders said he looked up and saw the woman crying. At the end, the couple kissed and thanked him.
“I’ll never get rich reciting poetry,” Sanders said. “But I felt like the richest poet in the world because these people were reacting to my work.”
Mica Magday is a senior mass communication and media major at Texas Wesleyan University and a member of the Fort Worth Report Documenters crew.
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