Patricia Mottola
Town of Cheshire Poet Laureate
Pat Mottola teaches Creative Writing at Southern Connecticut State University, where she earned both an M.S. in Art Education and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing. An award-winning poet and Pushcart Prize nominee, her work is published in journals across the country. Pat is President of the Connecticut Poetry Society, and she is the Poet Laureate of Cheshire, CT. She served as editor of Connecticut River Review from 2012–2017. On a global scale, she mentors Afghan women writers living in Afghanistan and beyond. She is the author of three collections of poetry: Under the Red Dress, After Hours, and A Town Like That. Pat was the recipient of the prestigious CSCU system-wide Board of Regents Outstanding Teacher Award in 2019, as well as the J. Philip Smith Outstanding Teacher Award in 2021.
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Poem of the Month
Poem by Pat Mottola
Cheshire Poet Laureate
July 4, 2026
A Nation Looking Forward
– An ode to our great country, the United States
of America, on its 250th anniversary, and to Cheshire,
the Bedding Plant Capital of Connecticut.
Today we celebrate together
a significant milestone.
A quarter-millennium of history.
Name it: Semiquincentennial. America 250.
Independence Day. The Fourth of July.
Freedom. Liberty. Democracy.
The growth of a nation.
Here in Cheshire, we know
about growing things.
We understand that beauty
does not happen all at once.
It asks for seasons. A garden
planted, tended. A seed, a promise,
like a new republic born in 1776.
Let us remember that Cheshire
was also born during the Revolution.
While 13 colonies struggled toward a nation,
our hillside village found its own name,
became an independent town in 1780.
This, an American story. Landmarks.
Like the Heritage Trail. The restored
Lock 12. The Farmington Canal.
Beneath our feet, the old canal
remembers the footsteps
of those who carried goods,
ideas, dreams – all moving forward.
The button factory whose jewels
lit the lives and livelihoods of a generation,
like stars. In this town, along these streets.
We are all part of history.
Let us remember that America
grows the way gardens grow.
That freedom isn’t manufactured,
it is cultivated. Built one patient act at a time.
Delivering Democracy through the eyes
of wise forefathers. Democracy.
DÄ“mokratia: “Rule by the people.”
Know that America is never only found
on famous battlefields; sometimes
it is found on a town green,
an orchard in July, a pollinator pathway,
a bicycle on the canal trail.
And let us remember America before America.
Before the first colony was dreamed,
countless fires already warmed this land,
home to thriving indigenous civilizations
for thousands of years. They teach us
that the earth is borrowed from tomorrow.
Remember that America’s greatness
lies not in perfection, but in its commitment
to become “a more perfect Union,”
a country where our children inherit
more kindness, more wisdom,
and where every generation has the freedom
to plant what it hopes the next will harvest.
Poet Laureate Pat Mottola composed this poem for Pride Day and performed it on the Cheshire Green.
Listen to the Trees
I hear the trees talking:
what will we do with all this heartache?
Will we live in isolation,
since we don't know how to live
with each other? Must we become
a ghost forest?
Imagine listening to the rain's
one note and hearing a soft song.
Imagine that for every unkind person
there are others who would embrace you.
Together, we could make this place
beautiful.
Imagine what it would be like to join
our branches, ask forgiveness,
help the next person find
their way through the dark.
Imagine we could love harder,
love better, love more –
fear and hatred extinguished –
one spark of kindness igniting
brightness in the dark,
enlightening all people,
because you are all people,
and all people are you.
Imagine all the universe
a perfect prism,
embracing, uniting,
accepting each other
on this flawed planet,
creating the beauty
that is only ours to behold.
Imagine spending our last moments
caring, keeping the beauty of love
happiness, kindness,
alive, right here.Let us be the giving tree,
the learning tree, the forgiving tree,
the singing tree, all voices
rising to make the music
of rainbows, flowers
of light, the roses, daylily,
daffodil, dianthus,
morning glory, and violet.
Let us be.
–by Pat Mottola,
Cheshire Poet Laureate