Photo by Colleen Reynolds Fairleigh Dickinson University English professor Michael O’Brien reads a poem from his recently published anthology, “Absence Implies Presence.”

By Colleen Reynolds / Reporter

RUTHERFORD (Dec. 10, 2009) — Though dyed-in-the-wool poets may not consider it original to say, so much depends upon famed local poet and physician William Carlos Williams’ “Red Wheelbarrow,” that a circle of Rutherford-based poets gathers regularly to create literary artwork in his honor. On a canvas of lined notebook paper, the poets draw selectively from an expansive palette of words, meter and metaphor.

A few word changes here, some more description there. Then they step up to the microphone.

On the final Friday of each month (unless a holiday pushes the reading to the following week), the Red Wheelbarrow Poets read their poems aloud over coffee, tea and pastries in the back room of GainVille Learning Center & Café on Ames Avenue in Rutherford. The open-microphone readings in this cozy, internationally-minded atmosphere — where foreign-language and English as a Second Language classes are taught — are part of a small, but thriving South Bergen literary scene. Some members recite their poems by heart, others read from handwritten or typed notes and still others choose works from one of the group’s two published anthologies.

A love of language is the one major prerequisite.

“I’ve always been interested in linguistics and language acquisition, and if I had to do it all over again I’d probably be a paleontologist rather than an English teacher, go out digging for bones and figure out how we began to speak,” enthused Michael O’Brien.

A Fairleigh Dickinson University English professor who used to teach on the university’s Rutherford campus before the property was sold in the 1990s, O’Brien is the most recently published member of the 3-year-old group. His book, “Absence Implies Presence,” was printed this November and is available for purchase on lulu.com.

The linguaphile’s inspiration shines through his poems, which cover the origins of spoken language as a supplement to our ancestors’ gestures all the way to a future with the “last speaker of the language.”

“Forget 2012. This is the end of the world,” claimed Mark Fogarty, O’Brien’s editor and fellow poet, about the last speaker. O’Brien’s poem (and book) ends with “No longer will anyone answer to the name ‘he who paints with words’.”

Fogarty, who leads the open-microphone readings, wrote in the introduction to O’Brien’s book that it “mixes together a heady brew of language, mindfulness, sardonic Irish humor and a whiff of Buddhist spirituality.”

If you’re hoping to read O’Brien’s favorite poem, however, you won’t find it in this book.

“The next one I’m writing is my favorite,” he said.

“(O’Brien’s) poems are pithy, ballsy and funny; literate and intellectually challenging; and, at bottom, touching,” wrote Jim Klein on the book’s back cover.

Klein, who runs Red Wheelbarrow peer writing workshops at the Rutherford Public Library on Wednesdays, has his own anthology, “Blue Chevies.”

On the second Wednesday of each month, poetry fans gather at the Williams Center, where the William Carlos Williams Poetry Cooperative, co-hosted by Jane Fisher, director of the Rutherford Public Library, and John J. Trause, director of the Wood-Ridge Memorial Library, offers samplings of Williams’ works. As a special treat, Trause also invites featured poets to read.

In another nod to Williams’ legacy, the Rutherford poets call their printing press “White Chickens Press” after the poultry that are famously situated near the red wheelbarrow in Williams’ short poem. The North Carolina-based lulu.com prints on-demand, explained Klein.

George De Gregorio is the next member with a book in the works.

Attentive listeners, the Red Wheelbarrow Poets chuckle at word play and clap heartily upon the conclusion of each poem.

“I’ve always loved poetry,” explained Rutherford resident Claudia Serea, who attends readings with her 5-year-old daughter.

“When I was on maternity leave, I suddenly decided to write in English,” the native of Romania said. “I read in the paper that there was a group in Rutherford, so I joined the group.”

At meeting’s end when the night’s selection of poems has been read, the poets head home, but they probably have stanzas to go before they sleep.