A Common Wealth of Poetry
The newsletter of The Poetry Society of Virginia

March 2010

www.PoetrySocietyOfVirginia.org
Email address: PoetryInVA@aol.com
________________________________________________

From our President

Greetings and best wishes, Friends,

Your Executive Committee has, once again, brought forth creative and innovative plans for the year.

Kelly Cherry has been chosen as the first annual Ellen Anderson Reader, and winner of the Ellen Anderson Award. This reading is free and open to the public, so be sure to invite your friends to attend with you. It is a real pleasure to honor this outstanding poet, who has already graciously served as a judge for our annual contest.

Once again, it is time to choose nominees for the Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth. A ballot will be included in this newsletter, with the names of the poets currently under consideration. Please choose one of these poets, or vote for a poet of your choice in the write-in space. The three names receiving the most votes will be submitted to the Governor, for a final determination.

We were pleasantly surprised to have the attention of some VCU Theater Performance students, who are developing a documentary on �The Persistence of Poe in Richmond,� and visited our Executive Committee meeting to film some of our proceedings, particularly mention of our annual contest and its Edgar Allan Poe Award, and our donation to the Poe Memorial.

Related good news was the stability of our financial condition, which will allow us to resume gifts to the Poe Memorial and Anne Spencer Foundation, and to continue our involvement in the Virginia Highlands Festival.
Our Nominating Committee was activated, and will be seeking qualified candidates for elected offices in the Society. If you have suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact Jim Gaines. You may find your suggested candidate on the ballot in May.

Peace to all of you; I am sure that, like me, you are all ready to welcome Spring. Our new and exciting plans will make it even more welcome!

Patsy Anne Bickerstaff
________________________________________________
FUTURE MEETINGS

Northern Virginia meeting
March 20, 2010
See inside for details

Contest Awards in Richmond
April 17, 2010
Deadline for newsletter Mar. 27

Festival May14-May 16, 2010 in Williamsburg

ExCom meeting in Richmond
July 17, 2010

See page 3 about the Concert Plus Sonnets, the Virginia Chamber Orchestra and Claudia Emerson.

See page 3 for Fredericksburg Celebration of Poetry. This is a fun meeting.
Plan on going.
________________________________________________

First Annual Ellen Anderson Reading by Kelly Cherry
March 20, 2010

The Poetry Society of Virginia is pleased to announce that Kelly Cherry, an outstanding Virginia poet, will give the first annual Ellen Anderson reading on March 20 at the George Mason Regional Library at 12:30 PM. Following the reading at 2:00 PM, Poetry Society members will read their own poetry. The Library is at 7001 Little River Turnpike (route 236) in Annandale, Virginia, several miles inside the Washington beltway (US 495) from exit 52. The event is open to both members and non-members and is free.

Kelly Cherry received a BA from Mary Washington College and Masters in Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She published her first work of fiction, Sick and Full of Burning, in 1975, closely followed by her first collection of poetry, Love and Agnostics, in 1975. She started on a long affiliation with the University of Wisconsin as an English professor. Her awards and honors include a Bread Loaf Fellowship (1975), a Pushcart Prize (1977), a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1980), a James G. Hanes Poetry prize from the fellowship of Southern Writers in 1989 for her distinguished body of work in poetry, and the Distinguished Alumna Award from the University of Mary Washington (2000). She is the author of many poetry and fiction books, in addition to non-fiction works and translations. She has published widely in anthologies and periodicals, including American Scholar, Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Georgia Review, Los Angeles Times Book Review, Virginia Quarterly Review and others.

Ellen Anderson was a past president of the Poetry Society of Virginia and her will made a generous bequest to the society, to be invested, with proceeds used for the society�s purposes. We determined that the best use of the gift would be an honorary reading by a prominent Virginia poet who would receive a cash award in Ms. Anderson�s name. Based on the quality of her writing, Kelly Cherry was selected as the first annual Ellen Anderson reader and award recipient.
________________________________________________

In Memory

Nationally noted poet Lucille Clifton died in February 2010. Lucille had been Poet Laureate of Maryland and a teacher at St. Mary�s College in Maryland. She was a teacher, mentor and friend of your newsletter editor. In her memory I will share a poem I wrote, a poem that relates an experience she once had in a cemetery as a white woman spoke to her:

Family Burial
(Bedford, Virginia, 1957)

Mammy was very old.
Her time had come
but I�m sad she died.

Did you know she
raised my Momma?
Of course she was young then.

When Momma and Daddy
were married, Mammy went with them;
she raised me too.

When I got home from school,
Mammy always had
milk and cookies for me.

She was always there
with a hug and a bandaid
when I skinned my knee.

I loved Mammy, really loved her.
It�s right that she rest here
in a corner of our family plot.

Isn�t her stone pretty?
Didn�t they carve her name nicely?
�Rest in Peace. Mammy.�
________________________________________________

Tammy Tillotson sends a poem with a preliminary note: When I was a teenager, I waitressed during the summer months at my mother's restaurant. When she was dividing her time in Boydton, Nancy Hundley was one of our favorite Monday lunch regulars. She often stayed past closing to visit or have dessert with our family. The first time I waited on her my mother was particularly busy and the one strict instruction I received was by no means was I ever to bother her if it looked like she was working on a poem! I will surely never forget Nancy's very witty reaction the one time I did. I thought I'd share in case you know of anyone else who might appreciate reading this.

Waiting on the Poet
In Memory of Nancy Hundley

She always sat at the corner table,
by herself,
sometimes, jotting things down
on a small notepad.
One time, I interrupted.
�So, what kind of poems
do you like to write?�
Eyes smiling, lifting her cup,
she replied �
�I like my poetry,
like I like my coffee �
Black, no sugar.
When you get a sec, I�ll take a refill.�
_______________________________________________

Concert Plus Sonnets

The Virginia Chamber Orchestra will hold a concert on Sunday, March 14, at the Ernst Cultural Center, Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale, at 4:00 pm.
The concert program includes Vivaldi's "Four Seasons," which traditionally includes the reading of four sonnets. Claudia Emerson, current Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth and a member of the Poetry Society of Virginia, will be reading the sonnets, as part of the VCO's celebration of Women In The Arts.

The price of the concert is $15.00 at the door, $10.00 for seniors and for groups. If there are any groups who want to go together, and most of them are not senior citizens you can make arrangements for the lower admission.
________________________________________________
.
Eighth Annual Celebration of Poetry

Saturday March 27, 9:30-4:00
Central Rappahannock Regional Library Theater
1201 Caroline Street, Fredericksburg
Sponsored by Riverside Writers
Many PSV members from across the state have attended in earlier years,
and we welcome you.

9:30-10:00 Registration (Review Table of Poets� Books.)
10:00-10:30 Open Mike Poetry Reading
10:30-11:00 Discussion of Poetry Slams and Instructions for the Slam
11:00-1:00 Poetry Slam
1:00-2:00 Lunch Break (Call Joe Metz, 540-582-9745,
to make reservations for buffet lunch.�$10)
2:00-2:30 Open Mike Poetry Reading
2:30-4:00 Featured Poet Dr. Jeremy Larochelle, University of Mary Washington �(Re)Writing the Jungle:
Perspectives on Nature in Recent Amazonian Poetry�

Jeremy Larochelle is Asst. Professor of Spanish at the University of Mary Washington

For more information, please call Larry Turner 540-710-2518.
To sign up and order a lunch, please call Joe Metz 540-582-9745.

Registration Form for Open Mike and Lunch
Send to Joe Metz, 8005 Pembroke Circle, Spotsylvania, Va. 22553,
(540) 582-9745, METZJS@COMCAST.NET

Name _________________________________

Address _________________________________
_________________________________
Phone _________________________________
Email _________________________________

Do you want to sign up for the open mike poetry reading? (____) Morning (__) Afternoon (__)
Do you want buffet lunches ($10 each)? ________ How many? ________
(Make check payable to Joe Metz, to be received by March 23.)

For More Information Contact Larry Turner, 4208 Stonehaven Way,
Fredericksburg VA 22408, 540-710-2518, Thanz3000@aol.com

Driving Directions From I 95 (Exit 130A) or US Route 1:
East on Route 3
Left on Business 3, Williams Street, after US 1 overpass. (1.2 mi from I 95, 0.2 mi from US 1)
Drive through town on Williams Street. (1.4 mi)
Cross Princess Anne (PR. ANNE) Street
Left at next light, Caroline Street. Go two blocks.
Library on right, 1201 Caroline Street.

Parking: All-day parking is permitted on streets beyond (north of) the library.

Jeremy Larochelle, Ph.D. states: My presentation will focus on the major themes in poetry published in the Amazon over the last decade. Although much literature has been written about the Amazon, offering a host of different representations from El Dorado, Green Hell, to Green Cathedral, little critical attention has been given to literature written by insiders. Representations of the natural world in the poetry range from powerful delineations of the current ecological crisis to experiences of intense interconnectedness with the non-human. Through excerpts from poetry, clips from a recent documentary and anecdotes from my experience in San Rafael, a small community along the banks of the Amazon, I hope to give a sense of the unique relationship to the non-human world that the poetry comprises. As the region of which the poets are writing finds itself in a precarious position both socially and ecologically, the poetry I will present, and the discussion I hope will ensue, requires us to examine the inevitable connections between poetry and activism.

Rules for a Poetry Slam
Poetry and Performance:
1) All poetry must be the original work of the slammer.
2) Slammer cannot use props or musical accompaniment (other than that which they can make with their own body). Slammers cannot employ costumes, nudity, or animal acts.
3) Any subject matter or style is acceptable.
Rounds:
1) A slam is typically 1 or 2 rounds. The first round in a two round slam can be an elimination round.
2) Each slammer has 3 minutes to perform during a round. There is also a 10 second grace period. A deduction of .5 points occurs for every ten seconds (or fraction thereof) that the slammer goes over 3 minutes, ten seconds. At 4 minutes, the slammer is cut off.
Judging:
1) 5 judges are randomly picked from the audience. Judges cannot be directly connected to any of the slammers.
2) Judging is done Olympic style, 0-10 with one decimal place. The high and low score are dropped and the remaining scores are added together. The highest score during a round wins the round.
3) A calibration poet will be provided for judges to �practice� judging. The calibration poet�s score should be used as a benchmark (anything better should be scored higher; anything worse should be scored lower).
4) Giving a perfect �10� is a privilege, not a right.
Audience:
1) Judges SHOULD NOT be influenced by the audience.
2) The audience SHOULD try to influence the judges.
________________________________________________

PSV Poetry Festival, 2010

This is an early bird special announcement of the annual poetry festival to be held in Williamsburg, May 14-16, 2010. The programs and schedules will follow similar formats to previous years with excellent presenters and comfortable venues. All presenters have been signed up and venues set. They will be discussed in subsequent newsletters. However, for our out-of-towners, a block of rooms has been set-aside at the PSV favorite lodging place, the Quality Inn Lord Paget. With the festival opening Friday morning, May 14, those coming from any distance are encouraged to arrive Thursday, May 13. Rates for PSV members are: 5/13 - $44.99; 5/14 and 5/15 $52.99 (all plus tax). To make reservations, call 1-800-537-2438 or e-mail Lordpaget@msn.com and identify yourself as a PSV member. To receive the special rate you must book at least 3 weeks in advance. Reserve your room early.
________________________________________________

Poet�s Domain
Call for submissions

Volume 26 - Call for poetry submissions open
Please go to www.livewirepress.net for submission guidelines.

(Choose one or more of the following lines as the theme of your work.)

The Burning of the Leaves

by Laurence Binyon

Now is the time for the burning of the leaves,
They go to the fire; the nostrils prick with smoke
Wandering slowly into the weeping mist.
Brittle and blotched, ragged and rotten sheaves!
A flame seizes the smouldering ruin, and bites
On stubborn stalks that crackle as they resist.
The last hollyhock�s fallen tower is dust:
All the spices of June are a bitter reek,
All the extravagant riches spent and mean.
All burns! the reddest rose is a ghost.
Spark whirl up, to expire in the mist: the wild
Fingers of fire are making corruption clean.
Now is the time for stripping the spirit bare,
Time for the burning of days ended and done,
Idle solace of things that have gone before,
Rootless hope and fruitless desire are there:
Let them go to the fire with never a look behind.
That world that was ours is a world that is ours no more.
They will come again, the leaf and the flower, to arise
From squalor of rottenness into the old splendor,
And magical scents to a wondering memory bring;
The same glory, to shine upon different eyes.
Earth cares for her own ruins, naught for ours.
Nothing is certain, only the certain spring.
________________________________________________

Contest Awards Ceremony
in Richmond
April 17, 2010

Here is information about the April meeting. Save the information and sign up for this always entertaining meeting.

AWARDS CEREMONY FOR 2010
ANNUAL POETRY SOCIETY OF VIRGINIA CONTEST
APRIL 17, 2010 IN RICHMOND
Imperial Plaza1717 Bellevue Ave. Richmond, Va. 23227

Directions: Traveling from SOUTH to Richmond on I-95, take Hermitage Rd, Exit 80. Bear right at end of ramp. Turn left at first light onto Hermitage Rd. Turn right at next light onto Belleview Ave.
Traveling from NORTH to Richmond on I-95, take Boulevard Exit 78. Turn left at light onto the Boulevard. Keep straight to 3rd light and turn left onto Bellevue Ave.
Traveling from WEST to Richmond on I-64, take Laburnum Av. Exit 186, turn left onto Laburnum Ave. at end of ramp. Turn left at third light onto Hermitage Rd. At next light turn left onto Bellevue Av.
Traveling from EAST to Richmond on I-64, take the Hermitage Rd. Exit 80. Bear right on ramp, then turn left at light onto Hermitage Rd. Turn right at next light onto Bellevue Ave.
Once on Bellevue, Imperial Plaza is on left. Upon entering Imperial Plaza, tell the guard at the gate house you are attending a PSV event. Bear right past a parking lot on left and park in second lot (Azalea lot). Enter the door next to Rental Office. Inside follow signs to Poetry Awards Ceremony and the Virginia Room.

Registration: Registration will begin at 9:30 am and the Adult Awards will be presented beginning promptly at 10:00 am and concluding at 1:00 pm. All first place poems will be read whether or not the winner is present. All second and third place poems will be read by the winners, if present. Honorable mentions will be recognized, but not read. The Awards program will include the names of all 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners and all honorable mentions.
The Student Awards Ceremony will take place beginning at 2:30 pm. All student winners and honorable mentions present will have an opportunity to read their poems.

Luncheon: A seated buffet luncheon will be served between 1:00 pm and 2:30 pm. Special dishes will be provided for vegetarians and others who require special dietary considerations. (Please note these considerations on your registration form.) The cost of the luncheon will be $ 25.00 (continental breakfast included)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PLEASE SUBMIT REGISTRATION FORM AND PAYMENT BY APRIL 10 TO:
Maria Butler
8003 Carriage Lane, Richmond, VA
mariawb@earthlink.net
Name __________________________________________

Telephone# or email address___________________________________

#Adults attending at $25.00 each ----------------- # Pot Roast_______________________
# Grilled chicken/orangesauce_-------------

List special dietary considerations _________________________________________

Message from your editor

I will be retiring from the position of newsletter editor after the May newsletter.

Thanks to all of you who have made this job easier and fun.

Stu Nottingham
________________________________________________

BALLOT
Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth, 2010

The following candidates for Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth have been recommended by the Poet Laureate Selection Committee. Please vote for not more than one, or submit your own preference in the space provided.
Please return your ballot, not later than April 1, to:

Patsy Anne Bickerstaff
26 Skipwith Green Circle
Richmond, VA 23294

Biographical information on the candidates is provided below.

For Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth:
1. Kelly Cherry
2. R.H. W. Dillard
3. Susan Tichy
4. Eric Pankey
5. Gregory Orr
OTHER----------------------------------------------

Biographical Information:

Kelly Cherry was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She received a B.A. from Mary Washington College and M.F.A from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She published her first work of fiction, Sick and Full of Burning, in 1974, closely followed by her first collection of poetry, Love and Agnostics, in 1975. Cherry embarked on a long affiliation with the University of Wisconsin as an English professor. Her numerous awards and honors include a Bread Loaf Fellowship (1975) a Pushcart Prize (1977), a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1980), a James G. Hanes Poetry Prize from the Fellowship of Southern Writers in 1989 for her distinguished body of work in poetry, and the Distinguished Alumna Award from the University of Mary Washington (2000). Cherry is the author of numerous poetry and fiction books, in addition to various nonfiction works and translations. She has published widely in anthologies and periodical, including American Scholar, Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Georgia Review, Los Angeles Time Book Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, and others.

R.H. W. Dillard, a native of Roanoke, has been a professor of English at Hollins University for over 40 years. He received a B.A. from Roanoke College and M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. He currently serves as editor of The Hollins Critic. Dillard is author of The Day I Stopped Dreaming About Barbara Steele and Other Poems; News of the Nile; After Borges; The Greeting; New & Selected Poems; The Book of Changes; Horror Films; The First Man on the Sun; Understanding George Garrett; Just Here, Just Now; Omniphobia; Sallies; and many stories, poems, essays, and literary translations. Professor Dillard is the recipient of the O.B. Hardison, Jr. Poetry Prize, awarded by the Folger Shakespeare Library, and of the Hanes Poetry Award of the Fellowship of Southern writers. He was the 2007 winner of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP)/ George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature. The award is given annually to a living individual who has demonstrated exceptional generosity to writers.

Susan Tichy teaches in George Mason University�s Graduate Writing Program (MFA Poetry) where for five years she was Executive Producer of Poetry Theater: An Evening of Visual Poetics. Tichy�s books are A Smell of Burning Starts the Day (Wesleyan, 1988)and The Hands in Exile (Random House, 1983), a National Poetry Series selection, and Bone Pagoda (Ahsahta Press, 2007.) A fourth volume, Gallowglass, is forthcoming from Ahsahta in 2010. Her work has been recognized by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, by a Kayden Award for Poetry, a Pushcart Prize, and by nominations for the General Electric and Dewars Performing arts Awards. Her poems have also won awards from Indiana Review, Runes, and The Beloit Poetry Journal, which selected her poem �Stork� for the 2007 Chad Walsh Prize. From 2005-2007 she served as Poetry Editor for Practice: New Wriitng + Art. Tichy is working on a long-term project, Trafficke: An Autobiography, a mixed-genre meditation (verse, prose, collage).
Am excer[t receved the 1999 Prose Award from Quarter After Eight.

Eric Pankey received his B.A. from the University of Missouri at Columbia, and in 1983, his M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. When he was 25, his first collection of poems, For the New Year, (Atheneum) was selected by Mark Strand as the winner of the 1984 Walt Whitman Award. After teaching high school English, Pankey joined the faculty of Washington Unversity at St. Louis, where he served as Director of the Creative Writing Program. He is the author of Heartwood, Apocrypha, The Late Romances, Cenotaph (2000, winner of the poetry award from the Library of Virginia) Oracle Figures, Reliquaries, and The Pear as One Example: New and Selected Poems 1984-2008. (finalist, poetry award, Library of Virginia) He is the editor of This Particular Eden: the 1992 Missouri Arts Council Writers' Biennial and is the co-editor of Best New Poets 2006. His honors include fellowships fsrom the National Edowment for the ARts, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the Ingram Merrill Foundation. He currently holds the Herigabe Chair in Writing at George Mason University.

Gregory Orr is a Professor of English at the University of Virginia, where he has taught since 1975 and was the founder and first director of its MFA program in Writing. He served from 1978 to 2003 as Poetry Editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review. Orr is the author of ten collections of poetry . He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and two poetry felowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2003, he was presented the Award in Literature by the American Academy of Arts and Lettes. He has also been a Rockefeller Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Culture and Violence, where he worked on a study of the political and social dimension of the lyric in early Greek poetry. He is also the author of a memoir, The Blessing (Council Oak Books, 2002) which was chosen by Publisher's Weekly as one of the fifty best non-fiction books of 2002. Earlier prose collections include Richer Entaglements: Essays and Notes on Poetry and Poems (University of Michigan Poets on Poetry) and Stanley Kunitz: An Introduction to the Poetry (Columbia University Press.
________________________________________________

Executive Committee Officers 2009-2010
President Patsy Anne Bickerstaff granypatsy@yahoo.com
Vice Pres., Central Maria Butler Mariawb@earthlink.net
Vice Pres., Eastern Nancy Powell nancyp1734@aol.com
Vice Pres., Northern Jack Underhill gwaposr@cox.net
Vice Pres., So. Eastern Pete Freas mindworm@juno.com
Vice Pres., Western Dave Partie daveword444@yahoo.com
Treasurer Peg Crews pegcrews@cox.net
Membership Chair Stuart Nottingham poetryinva@aol.com
Contest Chair, Adult Judith Bragg musicsavy45@yahoo.com
Contest Chair, Student Nancy Powell nancyp1734@aol.com
Newsletter Editor Stuart Nottingham poetryinva@aol.com
Web Master Linda Nottingham lindanottingham@aol.com
Archivist Warren Harris wmharris@embarqmail.com
Parliamentarian Guy Terrell ggterr@infionline.com
Recording Secretary Melissa Beebe mtog@cox.net
Poetry in the Schools Beth Huddleston bethhud@shentel.net
Festival Co-Chairs Peg Crews pegcrews@cox.net
and Mary M. DeLara mmdelara@widomaker.com
Nominating Com. Chair Jim Gaines jimgaines3@earthlink.net

Exec. Dir.

James McNally
Carolyn Foronda
Beth Huddleston
Shirley Sellers
Ed Lull
Jim Gaines

Adv. Board
Ron Smith
Margaret Morland
Robert Arthur

A Common Wealth of Poetry
March 2010
Newsletter of the Poetry Society of Virginia
913 DeWolfe Dr.
Alexandria VA 22308

The Poetry Society of Virginia