About 170 years ago, merchant banker Joseph R. Shipley revealed the heart of a poet when his Rockwood mansion started to take shape atop a hill on about 400 sylvan acres in suburban Wilmington. His retirement home, with its Gothic Revival mansion, was inspired by the Romantic architecture of Wyncote, his country estate in England, where he had worked for many years. He envisioned a home in harmony with the environment.
In an April 3, 2022, “Gallery & Studio” article about Rockwood, Mary F. Holahan wrote, “According to Shipley’s friends, he loved English Romantic poetry. It’s easy to imagine him at Rockwood, enjoying the poets who were so enthralled by the wonder of nature.”
In July 2020, poetry once again began to echo among the hills of his retirement estate, when Delaware poet David P. Kozinski presented the first in his ongoing Poetry at the Mansion series on the majestic front porch of Rockwood, now a New Castle County museum and park at the corner of Shipley Road and the Washington Street Extension.
Because it was the height of the pandemic, Rockwood staffer Carole McKinney and Acting Director Dena Kirk devised a plan that would allow a limited number of masked attendees to sit safely distanced on the lawn, facing the porch. Since then, Rockwood Director Ryan Grover has brought the poetry series inside the mansion, creatively staging it among the grand building’s various rooms so the audience can absorb the historic ambiance, as well as the artistic words.
“I particularly enjoy performing there because it is a unique space and because a park surrounds it — and, it is in my own backyard,” said Kozinski, the 67-year-old Brandywine Hills resident, now Rockwood’s poet-in-residence.
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On Saturday, April 22, at 1 p.m., Kozinski will present the 14th Rockwood program in a series he’s geared to both poetry lovers and those new to the genre. Each program has a seasonal theme, and Kozinski offers not only his own works, but that of other classic and contemporary poets to illustrate what makes poetry resonate.
To celebrate National Poetry Month, Kozinski will host guest poets Bill Van Buskirk and Maria Masington, followed by an open mic session for anyone who would like to read a poem.
Bellefonte resident Jane Trice is a faithful fan of Poetry at the Mansion because, she noted, Kozinski has made poetry “accessible.”
“The readings are fun and thought-provoking, and I’m always appreciative of the opportunity to enjoy something new to me like poetry,” said Trice.
McKinney was inspired to initiate the Poetry at the Mansion series in 2018, when retiring Rockwood director Philip Nord alerted her to Kozinski’s offer to stage programs at Rockwood while he was Delaware Division of the Arts Established Professional Poetry Fellow.
Kozinski made the same offer to local private and public schools, museums and other venues. Among those who took him up on his offer was his alma mater, Tower Hill School, where he presented a program on ekphrastic poetry, that is, poetry inspired by art.
Also an award-winning abstract artist, Kozinski attended classes as a child at the Delaware Art Museum.
“I grew up in a musical family and my love of language came from the way words sound,” noted Kozinski.
Kozinski’s second full-length book of poetry, “I Hear It the Way I Want It to Be,” was published by Kelsay Books in 2022 and available on Amazon, and was a finalist for the Hillary Gravendyke Prize. It explores his life, family and optimism for these challenging times.
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His first collection, “Tripping Over Memorial Day,” also published by Kelsay Books, includes glimpses of Delaware places in such works as “Bringhurst Woods,” “Walking Back from Bradley’s Garage,” “Roadwork” and “Chateau Country.” The cover features Kozinski’s created mixed-media work, “The Moon Was a Drip on the Dark Hood.”
One of Kozinski’s proudest accomplishments was seeing five of his poems set to music by his brother, conductor/composer Stefan Kozinski, in a song cycle titled “Afterlife of Memory” that Stefan performed with contralto Daniela Kappel in Dessau and Bremen, Germany, before his untimely 2014 death from a heart attack.
More than 145 of his poems have been published in more than 30 literary journals and he’s won many awards for his work. He has been nominated three times for the prestigious Pushcart Prize and was selected by Robert Bly to attend his workshop sponsored by the American Poetry Review.
For more information about Poetry at the Mansion, and to register for programs, go to Rockwood.org or call (302) 761-4340 or (302) 395-2849. Admission for the April 22 program is $8 for New Castle County residents and $10 for non-residents. He has been nominated three times for the prestigious Pushcart Prize and was selected by Robert Bly to attend his workshop sponsored by the American Poetry Review.
David P. Kozinski can be reached atdpzeek@comcast.net.
Patti Allis Mengers is the wife of David P. Kozinski.
