Claudia Taylor’s voice echoed throughout the Martha’s Vineyard Museum on Friday for her first public reading as the Island’s new poet laureate.

The stones from volcanos, The shells from the sea,

Former Poet Laureate of the United States Billy Collins had planned to visit Featherstone Arts next week but had to cancel his appearance.

As a child, sitting in front of the bookcases at home, I often revisited Beth’s death, in Little Women, that morning in May

I have lived 79 years and if I didn’t wake up tomorrow no one would say I died young.

“Black as ink” / A simile just right / Yet as a metaphor, / “Inkwell” takes flight / More than a beach / On the Vineyard’s shore / This enduring icon / Transcends ocean waves.