LI woman puts out book of local poems and photos

About five years ago, Kathaleen Donnelly of St. James attempted the epic task of reading every poem in Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass."

"I had read pieces of it but never sat and read it from cover to cover," Donnelly, now 55, of St. James, said recently.

Devouring the classic work by Whitman - who was born in 1819 in the West Hills section of Huntington and is widely considered one of America's greatest poets - inspired Donnelly to a number of other literary feats. A nurse practitioner in cardiology at Stony Brook University Medical Center, for the first time she began to write poetry. She also dove into a larger assignment: compiling an anthology of poetry and images by Long Islanders about the Island's natural wonders.

"Paumanok: Poems and Pictures of Long Island," which was also edited by Donnelly, is being sold at a number of Long Island venues, as well as online at Amazon.com. A thick (5-pound) glossy coffee-table tome with a poem and artwork for every day of the year (including a Whitman excerpt for Feb. 29), "Paumanok" is a showcase for dead poets including William Cullen Bryant of Roslyn.

One of her finds was a poem by Olivia Ward Bush-Banks (1869-1944), born in Sag Harbor to African-American and Montaukett parents. Bush-Banks' poem "Oasis (Friendship)" appears on the June 27 page. It also includes many living authors, like Donnelly, with a Long Island connection.

Alongside many poems are award-winning images from Long Island's 22 photography clubs, including the Sweetbriar Nature Camera Club in Smithtown, of which Donnelly is a member.

Donnelly credits author and translator Claire Nicolas White, with whom she shares a house, with getting her started. White, who has lived in St. James since 1947, arranged an early meeting on the project, over tea between Donnelly and George Wallace, then the Suffolk County poet laureate. They assisted Donnelly in getting other poets involved.

White, the translator and a veteran writer who has published in The New Yorker, also served as a poetical gatekeeper.

"I just wanted good poetry that I thought was original and had lively imagery," White said.

"Paumanok" was printed at a cost of $36,000 in Sofia, Bulgaria, by Merrick-based Cross-Cultural Communications. It is marked to sell for $125 but retails for substantially less in book stores and online.

Donnelly thinks that Whitman had a poetical advantage as a 19th-century Long Islander. "When it came to his writings about the natural world, Whitman had plenty to play with in this huge playground of Long Island," she said.

But Donnelly, who enjoys walks on North Shore beaches, said there's plenty of inspiration still around for those who explore Long Island's natural world.

Said Donnelly, "If you look hard enough, you can find such beauty and such peace."