When the members of Suzanne Deshchidns poetry circle read, she seems to go into a trance, closing her eyes and letting her long black hair fall forward. But when its her turn, she springs to life, choosing Archipelago, a poem she wrote for a dying poet, and begins to read: Let me land my storm-weary vessel / on your broad white sand beach. Like a seasoned speaker, she glances around the room establishing eye contact before continuing. Let me drift no more on endless seas / tossed upon coral reefs that tear at me. But as Deshchidn approaches the last two verses, something in her face changes, a redness enters it. She starts to choke up. By the time she utters the last two lines, and I will drop anchor there and stay / let me drop my anchor there and stay, shes already raising a tissue to her eye. Many writers shy away from sharing their innermost thoughts. But in Rockland, the types of writers you find are as varied as their genres. Some scribble solitarily into their notebooks for the pure enjoyment it brings, while others, like Deshchidn, also put pen to paper in hopes of getting published. In Rockland this is nothing new. The county has a long, proud history of supporting local scribes. Novelist Carson McCullers, who wrote The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, took up residence in Nyack, while Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique in her Grand View mansion. Even Toni Morrison couldnt avoid Rocklands quiet charmshe owns a home in Grand View. The allure is obvious. With 30 percent of the county made up of parks, Rockland can provide the natural solitude some writers crave. But, for extroverts, its also the perfect jumping-off point for some of the best writing resources in the country. To the east is Sleepy Hollows Hudson Valley Writers Center, which holds regular open-mic nights, public readings, and workshops for writers of all levels. To the west is The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College in Paterson, New Jersey, one of the most active poetry centers in the country. Stanhope, New Jersey, is home to the biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, the largest poetry event in North America. To the south, of course, is the greatest resource of all: New York City, a hub of literary history, modern trends, and experimental endeavors. Thanks to its unique location, Rockland has become a kind of literary nexus and home to a creative scene that continues to sustain the writers who inhabit it.

Over the past few years Deshchidn, a freelance editor in Suffern, has gotten more serious about her writing. She recently read at Bluestockings Radical Books in New York City and has three poems being published this year. She took over the Poetry Roundtable at the Suffern Free Library when the founding member stopped showing up as frequently. I want to help local poets move forward with their craft, she says. And I think that happens in a community. Started last October, the small groupusually between five and 10 peoplemeets once a month to share and discuss poems. Its about coming together in a safe environment and helping each other, says Deshchidn. Our creativity feeds off each other. But when Deshchidn has trouble finding other outlets in Rockland, as she often does, she heads online to meet other poets or travels outside the county. There is an active community of New Jersey poets that is easily accessible, she says. I dont waste time trying to find the Rockland stuff. The Poetry Center of PCCC publishes a New Jersey Poetry Calendar that has been a huge help. It lists its own events as well as those in nearby towns. For instance, on March 3, The Poetry Center hosted two literary heavyweights: Marie Howe and Sharon Doubiago, winners of a Pushcart Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship, respectively, for a day of workshops and reading. Meanwhile, overlapping with that event was an open mic put on by the Ramapough Poets at the Pomona Cultural Center. Possibly the countys oldest writing group, the Ramapough Poets began almost 20 years ago under the name Rockland Poets. They hold workshops twice a month at the Valley Cottage Library as well as public readings, like this one, several times a year. The idea behind it is the same as the Poetry Center, except instead of Sharon Doubiago reading one of her two dozen books, you get Marty Levine, a dad from New City, reading heartfelt poems about his daughters. Although many Ramapough Poets have been published in small-press publications, they dont consider themselves professionals. Theyre more of a grassroots operationfriends and neighbors getting together out of a love for the written word. One of the coordinators, Diane Weber, says although they try to keep the number of people at workshops under 10, the group always welcomes new members. While it can be hard to find the local resources, they are out there. John Dunnigan, the owner of Pickwick Bookshop on South Broadway in Nyack, which sells new and used books, lends a hand to hometown writers. Not only does he sell their books, he also features them in his front display window, holds book signings, and supplies the Edward Hopper House Art Centers annual book fair. But Dunnigan emphasizes that writers need more help than he can provide, especially if theyre self-publishing their work. They publish a book and they think its going to sell, he says.  But it doesnt work that way. They have to go out there and embarrass themselves.

As Dunnigan says, new authors often have to go to great lengths to get noticed. Upper Grand View resident Rick Spreyer was recently in that position. Last February, he was invited to read from his recently published book of poems, Windswept, and from his book-length poem, Cronies, at Poetry Jam in Nyack, but wicked Valentines Day weather forced postponement. He was rescheduled for two weeks later, a date that, alas, coincided with the screening of Iraq in Fragments, an Oscar-nominated documentary, at the recently rechristened Riverspace Arts. Tossing his bag atop a podium in the Nyack Center, he pulled out a book and loose paper and began reading to a room of mostly empty chairs. The night may not have turned out as he envisioned, but for the sake of his work, he went on with the show and did so with poise and wit. The night didnt end up feeling much different than a larger venue, as the five people that were there paid rapt attention, nodding and sighing under the weight of his words. Like Spreyer, author Laura Marie Henion, a Stony Point stay-at-home mom of three, is determined to promote her work no matter what obstacles stand in her way. Despite working with Whiskey Creek Press, a small publishing house, all promotion and marketing for Henion's crime novels (including the Cop's Daughter series) still fall squarely on her shoulders. She does readings at local libraries and bookstores like Pickwick, has a website (www.lauramariehenion.com) and a MySpace page, and keeps in touch with her fans via a newsletter. She hopes to develop a following to prove to a larger publisher that there is a demand for her work. A recent reading at the Barnes & Noble in Nanuet was a big step in that direction. The bookstore chain usually only features well-known authors whose books they have in stock. Henion supplied all her own. Henion's also forced to do her own editing. For help with this she turns to her father, Vernon Geberth, a retired police officer who published what's known as the bible in his line of work, Practical Homicide Investigation: Tactics, Procedures, and Forensic Techniques. Because her work is largely inspired by her family's law-enforcement background, he helps her fill in the technical details. Henion currently has three books published, with another debuting this month. One of her poems will also appear in a poetry anthology this spring. "Right now, I'm enjoying writing and I'm in relax mode," she says. "I don't ever want to feel the pressure of having to get [a book] done by a certain time. My thing is working one at a time."

For the Stephen Kings of the world, writing can more than pay the bills. But for the rest of us mere mortals, with already-busy schedules, simply finding the time to write can be the biggest obstacle. When Henion began working on her first romance/suspense novel, Just Love Me, her youngest child was just 18 months old. To accommodate the baby's chaotic schedule, Henion says she usually woke up at 5 a.m. or would write in the middle of the night if an idea popped into her head that she needed to jot down. Poet Jim Handlin also keeps odd hours. As the headmaster of Rockland Country Day School, he spends his weekdays in Rockland and his weekends in New Jersey, his home state. His work keeps him so busy that he usually doesn't have time to attend writing groups or public readings. In fact, it's not unusual for Handlin to write poems in the car on the way to work or after hours on the school's campus in Congers. "Sometimes I'm the only person here at night," he says. "I walk around and get a sense of the day. All that's great for poetry." Although he doesn't have a lot of time to spend trying to get published, he's not doing too badly for himself. In 2000, he was one of 12 New Jersey poets selected to have their poems immortalized on a wall in the New Jersey Transit wing of Penn Station. A stanza from his "Weathervane Poem" was etched in marble, alongside other Garden State greats like William Carlos Williams and Walt Whitman. His poem "Passage to Life" has also been accepted for publication in the Paterson Literary Review. "At this point, it's a habit," he says. "I'm not struggling to sit with a pen and write. I think there is something innate with writers. You're almost born with it in a sense. It's not a choice, it's something you have to do. " For some, like Michael Rumaker of Nyack, getting published was a natural step; he always knew he wanted to be a writer. After abandoning journalism, he studied under Chalres Olsen, the modernist poet, at the experimental Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Between Black Mountain and getting his master's degree in literature from Columbia University, Rumaker published his first book, The Butterfly, in 1961. Over the years he published 11 more books while teaching at City College and Rockland Community College. Although hes retired from teaching now, at 75 years old he still writes in his journal every day and works with an agent at Harold Ober Associates, the same agency that once represented F. Scott Fitzgerald. His last book, a memoir, Black Mountain Days, was published in 2003. "I'm trying to figure out my next step," he says. "Mainly what I'm doing now is continuing to write poems and write in my journal every day." Back at Deshchidn's Poetry Roundtable, with about five minutes remaining, an older gentleman in a sweater vest and sports jacket quietly slides into the conference room. He had poked his head in earlier to inquire about the group but said he was too busy to attend. His plans must have changed because when he returns he has a poem in hand. Deshchidn and company graciously welcome him into their circle and encourage him to read. And just like that a new member and maybe a new writer is born. "I feel my gift is that I get to wake up the poet in other people," Deshchidn says. "Poets need poets. Writers need writers."