Jimmy Stewart's Poem

On the 50th Anniversary of President Kennedy's death, I was thinking about how much he loved poetry.  His favorite poet was Robert Frost.  I'm sharing a video link to a Johnny Carson Show in which actor Jimmy Stewart reads his own poem.  Enjoy this trip down memory lane.

http://www.mnn.com/family/pets/stories/the-dog-poem-that-made-johnny-carson-cry

The Only Vessel

Thanks to Heidi Darr-Hope of Healing Icons for posting this quote on Facebook:

"There are days when books are the only bread for those who hunger, and those who thirst have only songs to slake their aching tongues. And there are nights when those who have lost their voice find it in the contours of a canvas, and poetry is the only vessel for holding all the pain..." Jan L. Richardson

"Poetry Is Not A Luxury"

A delicious essay by Audre Lorde, Poetry Is Not a Luxury:  http://www.onbeing.org/program/words-shimmer/feature/poetry-not-luxury-audre-lorde/318

Our chaotic world needs poetry now more than ever, don't you think?  The Poetry Peddler is looking at ways to make it an integral part of community life, of our culture.  Poetry can be a force for healing, for good, for connection and understanding.  Let me know your thoughts, if you will.

A Column You'll Want to Read

One of my favorite poets, Libby Bernadin, has a guest column in Charleston's Post and Courier today.   It's every bit as intriguing as the title:  "Take time to find unhurried truth."  Excellent advice beautifully presented.   Her most recent book of poems, Layers of Song, is one you'll want to savor unhurriedly.  Here's the link to her column: 
http://www.postandcourier.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20130426%2FPC12%2F130429510%2F1002%2Fguest-column-take-time-to-find-unhurried-truth&fb_action_ids=10201010372569321&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map={%2210201010372569321%22%3A135327046657594}&action_type_map={%2210201010372569321%22%3A%22og.recommends%22}&action_ref_map=[]

i carry your heart with me

I've been reading e. e. cummings and want to share this one:

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)

 

i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

 

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

 

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

 

- e. e. cummings ~

(Complete Poems, 1904-1962)

 

THANKSGIVIING CELEBRATION

  He’s trussed, stuffed, baking slowly
  to please the assembled well-connected
  who in early youth defected
  to orthodontists and summer camps.

  The bird, center stage,
  subject of praise
  from ones who know:
  Presbyterian prayers before,
  wine with, champagne after.
  Malignant silences grow
  beneath smiles
  thin as bone china.
  

(First published in The Petigru Review, Vol. 6)

BLUE SURPRISE

Just when you think it’s over,
think you’ll meet eternity
at the next turn
and burn for all the joy you
passed up in your sorry life,
someone shows up
out of the blue
and asks for a kiss
a kiss

right out of the blue.

For once you don’t pause
to think yourself out of it.
You give the kiss
know it’s the thing
to do, know the moment
will change your life

just out of the blue.


In the eyes of love
you are created anew,
know who you are
for the first time
In all this time

right out of the blue.


—First published in Inner Landscapes -  Writers Respond to the Art of Virginia Dehn  (Grayson Books)

AT THE ZOO

Lovers in pairs visit the zoo
        touching
          tangling
            arms and hands,
animals in search
 of a new ark.

 Lovers feed lovers
          secret smiles & whispers,
              toss peanuts
                 to the elephants.


(First published in The Petigru Review, Vol. 6)

Three Books

Happy to share three books where some of my poems can be found.  The poems were chosen for inclusion ( through juried competitions) within the past year.   It's been a pleasure to take part in these projects.  In addition to the good feelings that come when one's work is appreciated by the judges, the contributor receives a copy or copies of the book when it's released. 

 

 The Petigru Review is the literary anthology of the South Carolina Writers Workshop, a competition open to members of the Workshop.  The anthology includes categories for fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and novel first chapter.  This year three of my poems were chosen:  Thanksgiving Celebration, Mama and At the Zoo.   (www.myscww.org)

 

Intimate Landscape - Open to Interpretation ( www.open2interpretation.com).  "A good photograph tells a story, but it tells a different story to every viewer.  These stories are fleeting, and can disappear from the viewer's mind the moment he or she turns a page or walks into the next gallery.  Open to Interpretation captures these stories by pairing the work of fine art photographers with the work of writers thorough a series of international juried book competitions."  The poem of mine you'll find between these covers is Stumbling Around Eden.

  If you're a writer or photographer, this competition might be fun for you, too.  Exposure to the photographs always stimulates creativity for me and takes me to places I might not have noticed in my own interior landscape.  Have a look at their site.

 

Inner Landscapes showcases an interesting combination of writers of all ages responding to the art of Virginia Dehn.  Writers in the book were selected for their interpretation of a painting or paintings for this volume, edited by Ginny Lowe Connors for Grayson Books.  (www.GraysonBooks.com)  I liked Ms. Dehn's work, and it was hard to decide on which piece for a poem.  Ultimately I chose a beautiful one entitled "Out of the Blue."  My poem is entitled Blue Surprise.   I will post it here soon.

Congratulations to Susan Laughter Meyers!

From the South Carolina State Library

http://www.statelibrary.sc.gov/sc-academy-of-authors-announces-4th-annual-poetry-fellowship-winner

by Curtis Rogers

The South Carolina Academy of Authors is very pleased to announce Susan Laughter Meyers is the 2013 winner of the Nickens Fellowship in poetry, as chosen by this year's judge, Nick Lantz, author of award winning poetry books and the recipient of a number of poetry prizes.

Meyers’ poetry was selected out of 43 submissions. In selecting her work, Lantz stated, “The author’s lines move like one of the rivers that figure so prominently in the poems: twisting, slowing, pooling, speeding off, they savor the precise textures of the world, from pluff mud to laughter like ‘a bale of loose hay’.”

Lantz also commented, “Showing equal ease with free verse and traditional form, the author displays great range, though the poems contain a common strength in the clarity and insight of metaphor and image, in their fresh and exacting syntax and diction, as in ‘Night after night/combing the fog of your troubled/heart, red wolves./Wild, gracile & dolorous’ or ‘Her handkerchief, tatted, an unplowed acre.’ The longer persona poem ‘A Dervish of Sand: That Summer with Her Sisters’ is especially admirable for the complex and heartbreaking portrait it weaves from its vivid, impressionistic details.”

Susan Laughter Meyers, of Givhans, is the author of My Dear, Dear Stagger Grass, recipient of the inaugural Cider Press Review Editor’s Prize and scheduled for release this fall. Her book Keep and Give Away (University of South Carolina Press) received the SC Poetry Book Prize. Her poems have also appeared in numerous anthologies and journals, including The Southern Review, Prairie Schooner, and Beloit Poetry Journal. A long-time writing instructor, she currently teaches in various community programs in the Lowcountry.

The Academy wishes to congratulate this year’s winner and to thank all who participated in the competition. Meyers will receive a $1,000.00 prize at a special brunch held in conjunction with the Academy's annual induction ceremony. This year's ceremony events will be held in Columbia, April 26-28, when Jack Bass, Nikky Finney, Terrance Hayes, and Eugene Robinson will be inducted into the state's literary hall of fame.

The submission period for the 2014 Fellowship will open next autumn.
For more information about the South Carolina Academy of Authors, please visit www.scacademyofauthors.org.

Scholastic Writing Award Winner from SC

This from Hub City Writers Project (Sparanburg, SC).  To learn more about them check out their Facebook page.

Wow! Chelsea Regoni of Landrum is the international gold medal recipient of the Scholastic Writing Award. Her poetry collection has been designated "the most outstanding in the nation," and she will read at Carnegie Hall May 31. Now attending the Governor's School, Chelsea is a student of our friends Mamie Morgan, George Singleton and Scott Gould. Congratulations to all!

Tea and Poetry Series 2014

If you're in the South Carolina Lowcountry and missed the first two events this year, take heart:  There will be another lovely afternoon featuring poetry—and tea — at Litchfield Education Center, Litchfield Beach (shares entrance from Highway 17 with Bi-Lo).   The series is co-sponsored by Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Coastal Carolina University and The Poetry Society of South Carolina. 

Michele Reese will be reading next time.  She is an associate professor of English at USC Sumter and director for the South Carolina Center for Oral Narration.   Following her reading, the grand finale for this year's series will be an open mic. Poets in the audience are invited to read a short poem he or she has written.  (Keeping your reading to a single poem no longer than one page.) Readings will be from 3-4 pm, followed by some time to enjoy conversation and refreshments.

 There's no admission charge for these open-to-the-public events.   Questions?  Contact series facilitators Susan Laughter Meyers at bardowl2@aol.com or Libby Bernadin at libbypoet@gmail.com. 

A Gift for St. Valentine's Day

This, my Friends, is a love poem to remember every day.  Happy Valentine's!


Love After Love

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.


 ~  Derek Walcott

“Love After Love” from Collected Poems: 1948-1984.  Copyright 1984 by Derek Walcott. 

Richard Blanco Reads

This poet crafted a sweeping portrait of today's America; his was a theme of unity and shared destiny.
Inspiring and uplifting for me.  How did you like it?

Tea and Poetry on January 10

 

 On Thursday, January 10, the Litchfield Tea and Poetry Series presents poetry readings from 3-4 pm at Litchfield Exchange, North Litchfield Beach.  Featured poets will be Caroline Cahill, Jim Rogers, and Susan Scheno.    If you're reading this, you're invited.  This series is a gift to the community, and the Poetry Peddler is excited about going!  Be there if you can.

Caroline Cahill’s poetry has appeared in Hayden's Ferry Review and Copper Nickel. A Myrtle Beach native, she teaches at Coastal Carolina University. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Virginia Commonwealth University (2011) and a BA in Communications from the College of Charleston (2006). During her studies she served as an editorial intern for Crazyhorse and Blackbird journals.

Jim R. Rogers is the author of Starts And Stops Along The Way, a personal memoir with observations, philosophies, hopes and dreams, success and failures of a life lived so far. For 15 years he was a columnist for a regional specialty newspaper. He also worked in television, advertising, and production before becoming a Parenting and Family Life Educator.

Susan Scheno is the author of the chapbook Woman of Water, Woman of Sand, published by Finishing Line Press in 2012. Her poems have also appeared in The State newspaper, Journey-Work of the Sea, Kakalak 2009, the New Hampshire Troubador, and elsewhere. A native of Hudson Falls and Long Island, NY, she currently lives in Pawleys Island—where she writes surrounded by water.

Happy News!

South Carolina's favorite poet-daughter will return to her native State and teach at USC.   We're excited, Nikki!  The red carpet awaits.

 

http://www.thestate.com/2013/01/07/2580787/poet-nikki-finney-to-teach-at.html#storylink=addthis