Poetry can be called an esoteric art for but what homeowner can’t relate to Alan Dugan’s Love Song: I and Thou

Nothing is plumb, level, or square:

the studs are bowed, the joists

are shaky by nature, no piece fits

any other piece without a gap

or pinch, and bent nails

dance all over the surfacing

like maggots. By Christ

I am no carpenter.

Model Boat Show

Take advantage of the break in the rain forecast for Saturday by taking the boat over to Woods Hole to see other boats — a special show of model boats, radio-controlled model boat races, talks about boats, and the chance for children to sail a wooden model boat, too.

Red Cross Classes

The Cape Cod and Islands Chapter of the American Red Cross will offer an introductory class for prospective volunteers on Friday, April 29, from 6 to 9 p.m. The class is open to anyone interested in learning more about volunteering with the Red Cross.

On Saturday, April 30, the chapter will offer all-day training for people interested in joining the disaster mental health team. This class is only available to those with an active mental health license, or a license in school psychology or school counseling.

C.L. Fornari Will Give Talk

To Garden Club Tuesday

Artist, garden writer, host of the radio show Gardenline, and associate producer of PBS documentary Odyssey, expert gardener and landscape consultant C.L. Fornari is also the author of A Garden Lover’s Martha’s Vineyard. She will be speaking on the Island at the Garden Club’s monthly meeting on Tuesday, April 19 at 1 p.m. at the Wakeman Center on Lambert’s Cove Road in West Tisbury.

Bronx Boy Turns Cowboy Genius

When Linda Ronstadt tells of someone with “an incredible power of history and tradition in his vocals,” you don’t expect she’s talking about a man better known for playing fiddle, banjo and guitar than for his singing, a man who didn’t even play music for a living before the age of 40. But Bruce Molsky doesn’t fit the usual logic of things. I mean, would you expect a Bronx-born trained mechanical engineer to be called “the Rembrandt of Appalachian fiddle”?

Around this time every year, for the past 17, a group of children have come to Martha’s Vineyard for the same reason as many do: for refuge. The children’s need is usually greater than most, for they are children living with HIV/AIDS. Next week, Camp Safe Haven returns to the Island, where this now global nonprofit was born. As part of the week’s activities, all Islanders are invited to a fund-raising reception called Home Sweet Home, on Tuesday, April 19, from 5 to 8:30 p.m.