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A Common Wealth of Poetry The newsletter of The Poetry Society of Virginia Oct. 2006 www.PoetrySocietyOfVirginia.org Email address: PoetryInVA@aol.com From our President Dear Fellow Members, Our Southeastern Regional meeting was a wonderful treat, with two programs, morning and afternoon. Either one would have been memorable, but it was a real treat to have the stirring and moving work of Bob Arthur and cast, then an outstanding and informative presentation by Luisa Igloria. Finally, as always, I thoroughly enjoyed hearing the delightful poems of members in the Open Reading. Many, many thanks to Virginia O’Keefe, for a truly beautiful meeting. The newspaper column project has begun, with the first column submitted to a monthly newspaper, the Far West End Press, in the Richmond area. This column features our Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth, Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda. Good luck to Ed, Stu and Lisa with their ambitious effort! The Richmond Spoken Word Poets began their “Season Too” on September 18. Poetry is alive and loud in Richmond! Best wishes, T.S.! October is a big month for poetry, and for writing in general. Two of us, at least, are attending the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival in Waterloo Village, New Jersey, September 28 through October 1. This is the largest poetry event in the United States, perhaps in the world, and it’s truly exciting! On the following weekend, October 6 and 7, some of our members are participating in the James River Writers’ Conference. October 14 is the Hanover Book Festival in Mechanicsville, Virginia. The Poetry Society of Virginia already has a table reserved, where any member is invited to sell your books. We are also sponsoring the poetry section of the festival’s Young Writers’ contest. Of course, our meeting in Lynchburg is October 21. And, yes, it’s time to begin putting together our contest entries. Looks like a good time for playing with our favorite toys! God bless everyone, and have fun. Patsy Anne Bickerstaff ________________________________________________ Newspaper Project See page two for our new project of sending a poetry column to Virginia’s newspapers. Meeting Dates in the future Oct. 21, 2006 in Lynchburg Nov. 18, 2006 in Yorktown March 17, 2007 in Northern VA Apr. 21, 2007 Contest Awards in Richmond May 18-20, 2007 Festival in Williamsburg Tax Deductible As you plan your year end charitable contributions, remember that gifts to the Poetry Society are tax deductible. You may dedicate your gift to a specific activity (e.g. contest, Poetry in the Schools) or make it general. _______________________________________________ Newspaper Column Project We are well along in our plans to provide a weekly poetry column for Virginia’s newspapers. We have written to twenty-three newspapers across the state to learn their interest in publishing the columns. After we have heard from these initial twenty-three papers, we will contact more. Ed Lull, Stu Nottingham and Lisa Dibble are taking the lead in this project. We hope to begin sending columns out to the papers in October. Who will write these columns you might ask. You will! We need to develop an inventory of columns so we will always have poems to send. Here is what we need: 1. A short bio statement. No more than four sentences. A total of less than seventy-five words will be about right. 2. A short poem, about twenty lines, including spaces between stanzas. 3. A statement giving permission to publish. 4. You may send two or three poems if you like and the bio may be a bit different with each poem. 5. Submit the poems to Ed Lull. Email submission is preferred. Send it as an attachment to Ed at: ewlull@verizon.net or by USPS to: Ed Lull 100 North Berwick Williamsburg VA 23188-6459 The success of this project depends on you. Send in your submission soon. We need a large inventory so we can offer different styles of poems from week to week. Send your poem! ________________________________________________ Eastern Region in Yorktown Nov. 18 Save Nov. 18 on your calendar for the Eastern Region meeting at the York County Library in Yorktown. Ron Smith will present a program titled “Travel in the Work of Poets.” He will discuss the influence travels have and do not have on the work of the poet. Sounds like an interesting program. Plan to come. Details in the November Common Wealth of Poetry. ________________________________________________ Poems by Members As space permits we can publish in the newsletter your unpublished or previously published (let us know where) poems. You must retain publishing rights and will retain them after we publish them. Email submission preferred to PoetryinVa@aol.com but you can use regular mail if you like. ________________________________________________ Poems that Mattered Martha Steger of Midlothian writes: the narrative poem by Canadian poet Robert Service, "The Cremation of Sam McGee," is too long to print in the Common Wealth of Poetry; but it really stimulated my interest in poetry as a primary-school child. My father read it aloud and promised me a dime if I could memorize it all, which I did. He continued to reward me for every poem I went on to memorize. I encourage parents and grandparents to do as my father did. It turns out not to be the money that matters so much as the resulting discussion of the poem between generations. "The Cremation of Sam McGee" is the perfect poem for young children, as it's scary and humorous, with easy, memorable rhymes. It led to my interest in and public recital of other narrative poems as a pre-teen, such as Edna St. Vincent Millay's "The Ballad of the Harp Weaver." For an isolated Virginia farm girl growing up on the Eastern Shore, such poems of fantasy broadened my world to faraway places and different characters -- and sent me scurrying to more great literature that has continued to reinforce my expectations of the written word through the years. Tree at My Window by Robert Frost. Tree at my window, window tree, My sash is lowered when night comes on; But let there never be curtain drawn Between you and me. Vague dream-head lifted out of the ground, And thing next most diffuse to cloud, Not all your light tongues talking aloud Could be profound. But tree, I have seen you taken and tossed, And if you have seen me when I slept, You have seen me when I was taken and swept And all but lost. That day she put our heads together, Fate had her imagination about her, Your head so much concerned with outer, Mine with inner, weather. ________________________________________________ A Little Extra in Lynchburg Anyone who will be in town on Friday night, October 20, and would like to get together for dinner, we will meet at the Panda House which is located north of Lynchburg and Madison Heights on 29N. It is just a few miles above Lynchburg. It is a Chinese buffet with a huge selection. Time is 6:30 pm. Hope you can make it. Very informal. Thanks, Frank. ________________________________________________ SlamRichmond Spoken word poets from Richmond compete in the National Poetry Slam. SlamRichmond, a series of six qualifying events and a championship, ran from March through June to determine Richmond’s first-ever team to compete in the National Poetry Slam. The five poets who represented Richmond – Lee (Narrator) Jones, III; Iman Shabazz; Jeffrey (Nazdak) Marlow; Daniel Custódio; and Rasul (the Nobody) Elder – spent nearly two months in preparation, memorizing new poems, perfecting their favorites and crafting new works in collaborative team pieces. Their work paid off, as Marlow and Custódio scored well enough with a group piece entitled “I.P.O.E.T.” to perform during a showcase following preliminaries. Team Richmond finished 47th out of 73 teams, which was regarded as a good finish for a first-year team. The poetry slam celebrated its 20th anniversary in July. Started in Chicago in 1986, the audience-friendly event has spread across the poetry landscape like wildfire. Nearly 100 venues are registered with Poetry Slam, Inc. (PSi) from the United States, Canada and Europe. Despite misconceptions, there is no such thing as a “slam” style of poetry. While the contest is a showcase for performance poetry, what wins a poetry slam above all is truth, not spectacle. At Nationals, topics included a dance teacher’s experience with a student growing up in adverse circumstances, a personal journey through the hell of cancer and chemotherapy, and a team making a political statement about immigration. SlamRichmond would not have been possible without the Poetry Society, which underwrote the first season and has been invaluable in advising and supporting this venture. SlamRichmond kicked off “Season Too” on Sept. 18, and continues every first and third Monday night at ComedySportz, 7115 Staples Mill Rd., Richmond, VA 23228. For more information, email slamrichmond@gmail.com or visit www.myspace.com/slamrichmond. Each event begins with an open mic and is followed by the slam. ________________________________________________ Alexander Pope on Critics: In poets as true genius is but rare, True taste as seldom is the critic’s share. ________________________________________________ Candor Candor, the monthly online publication of the Piedmont Writers Group, is currently available at www.piedmontwritersgroup.com This issue describes the editing and manuscript services offered by the PWI at very reasonable rates. They offer everything from help with a book concept and outline to full-scale manuscript and copyediting, as well as help with getting a manuscript in front of agents and publishers. Candor is a monthly publication. Look for it regularly. Tim Lewis, a Society member, is editor. ________________________________________________ A Word from Ivy House Publishing Group by Ivy House Staff Ivy House Publishing Group in Raleigh, North Carolina, has helped poets and authors of various backgrounds fulfill their publishing aspirations for over thirteen years. Whether you have in mind an intensive campaign to make a substantial amount of books available to the book industry at large, or if you’d simply like to print a few copies for friends and family, Ivy House can accommodate your every need. Accompanying you through every stage of production, Ivy House’s staff will be a source of support as you embark on an exciting—yet sometimes daunting—experience. Their staff can advise you on everything from cover design to how distribution and royalties work. Additionally, there are a number of printing options such as digital or offset printing, hardcover or soft cover, or any special ideas you may have in mind for how you envision your book. If you have a manuscript—either on paper or perhaps just as an idea—you may contact Ivy House today to discuss it with one of our staff. Alternatively, you may write to request free information, including a brochure and Manuscript Submission Form. Contact us at: Ivy House Publishing Group 5122 Bur Oak Circle, Dept. PSV Raleigh, NC 27612 (800) 948-2786 www.ivyhousebooks.com Email: publish@ivyhousebooks.com ________________________________________________ Virginia Beach Meeting Report by Virginia O’Keefe, VP South Eastern Stories in Poetry, the all-day event presented by the Southeastern Region of the Poetry Society of Virginia, was attended by more than sixty people. After a welcome by our president, Patsy Anne Bickerstaff, Pete Freas introduced Robert Arthur and his cast who performed Jamestown Symphonic and other poems. Jamestown Symphonic was a sampling of Threshold to America, a new work for the Eastern Virginia Brass commissioned by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts as well as other arts commissions. The music composed by Leigh Baxter and the narration by poet Robert Arthur commemorates the English landing at Cape Henry and the settlement of James Towne in 1607. Performing with Robert Arthur was the poet Sunday Abbott, poet and dramatist D. D. Delaney, guitarist Michael Stephanski., and Marlene Ford, French horn, and member of the Eastern Virginia Brass . The afternoon featured Luisa Igloria, Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Old Dominion University. Igloria is the author of six poetry books, most recently Trills and Mordent. She explored various narrative poetry techniques in the workshop, “The (Al)Lure of Story. Narrative poetry, she explained, occurs in many types of verse: dramatic monologue, confessional lyric, persona poem, rap, and spoken word. “All good poetry must contain a balance of energy and must have surprise,” Igloria said. Poets must create memorable experience through language. Luisa Igoria’s website is www.luisaigloria.com. An Open Mic session completed the day, allowing college students, as well as veteran Poetry Society of Virginia members to share their work. The World Premiere of Threshold to America will be at 7:00 p.m., Monday, November 6 at Virginia Wesleyan College, Norfolk. For more information about Jamestown Symphonic or Threshold to America, please contact bobarthur@lycos.com. ________________________________________________ West Virginia Writers’ Workshop Part 2 of 3 by Guy Terrell Review from Last Month’s Newsletter: Thom Ward, editor of BOA Editions, gave a terrific workshop on writing and revising poems. Part One gave an example of an object poem using “Rock Said” by Jeanne Beaumont and a few others. Thom refers to leaping in poems, a transference of energy. Surprise and Transference of Energy in Writing Imagine the process of writing a poem as a journey down a wild, West Virginia river, one you’ve never been down before. You are in control of the kayak holding you, but the location of rocks and rapids is a mystery. You want the reader to discover as much as the writer discovers. Frost said, “No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.” [repeated from last month.] Think of the kayak as the form you’re working with, but all the wild language and the discovery is swirling around the kayak, the form or stanza or line that you use. You will not be torn apart by the river. Instead you will create a memorable experience, a poem that sticks with both you and your ideal reader. Thom Ward gave a lot of examples from children, his own and school children. He said we should listen to how they interpret the world. One young girl had this in a poem: “Tomorrow the dentist. Today the thought.” He said to look for the playful image. Or as Emily Dickenson suggested—to get to what you want to say, slant, no direct attack. Poets are not scribes. Another time, one of his children came downstairs early one morning and half asleep demanded, “I want eggs, toast, milk, juice, and jam.” Thom said, “What about please?” The child replied, “Please is still asleep.” Look for the unexpected and grab it before it gets away. You can find hundreds of examples in Dickenson’s poetry who takes ordinary objects and treats mixes them up: If I shouldn’t be here When the robins come, Give the one in red cravat A memorial crumb. If I couldn’t thank you, Being just asleep, You will know I’m trying With my granite lip! Object Poem Part II When I selected an object from the big bag he carried around, I got a pencil sharpener, one of those tiny ones that you hold between your thumb and fore-finger. In addition to the suggestions in last month’s newsletter, here are a few more questions for the object: 1. What did your mother do the evening it suddenly appeared before her while she was washing dishes? 2. What happened the morning your father opened his brief case there, with his papers, was the object? 3. What was the name/nickname of the object before it took the name we know it by today? You can make up your own trigger suggestions of what the object “thinks” about: 1. Did you pick out your color? 2. What functions do you perform for your owner? 3. Do you sing or play music? 4. Are you arrogant? or funny? From all of the suggestions here is a poem I created. This is mostly the way it came to me with only gross errors removed since the moment it was written in July. Pencil Sharpener I am the overture to your inner life sharper than your wit I am first mover to creation the hub of your second wind I watch each pencil stroke and witness the bright canvas darken When I am clogged and need shaking out you are at your best I am the blacksmith of your sword you will lose your thoughts when I am absent I am the necessary circular argument that you cannot live without I am the antiphonal song to your religious experiences When I am at rest you are out goofing off You owe me a kiss This object is a little arrogant, petulant, and demanding. But what is really happening in an object poem, or in any poem for that matter? Thom says, “Our best poems embody our relationships with family and friends. It is the architecture of the poem that releases [italics mine] to the reader what it means to be a human being. Object poems when effective leap to deeper sensibilities.” We need to surprise the reader with local brilliances. Read Billy Collins’ poem “Osso Buco”. It is shows what it means to be human and is filled with “local brilliances” such as “I love the sound of the bone against the plate and the fortress-like look of it lying before me in a moat of risotto, the meat soft as the leg of an angel …” [from The Art of Drowning] Take the poem with you next time you order Osso Buco at your favorite Italian Restaurant! Thom suggests using transference so that the idea is a gift to the reader. The writer dissolves and reader is left standing inside beautiful capacious language. Again I refer to Collins’ poem “Osso Buco”. The middle of the poem is about his calm after eating such a wonderful meal and he ends like this: “In a while, one of us will go up to bed and the other one will follow. Then we sill slip below the surface of the night into miles of water, drifting down and down to the dark, soundless bottom until the weight of dreams pulls us lower still, below the shale and layered rock, beneath the strata of hunger and pleasure, into the broken bones of the earth itself, into the marrow of the only place we know.” He magnificently ties the marrow of the osso buco on the plate to the marrow of the earth! Blake said “Without contraries there is no progression”. I think you can see that in the Collins poem. This process is the transference of energy again from writer to reader. Next month the last one of the series will describe and diagram the sequence of the energy transfer and give you his insights into the revision process. ________________________________________________ News from Members Shann Palmer reports she won the Gulf Coast Ethnic and Heritage Jazz Festival contest. $100! Congratulations to Shann ________________________________________________ Poem by Member Elizabeth Doyle Solomon of Barboursville Streetlight: A New Orleans Memory Streetlight, city light, siren and horn Set the city stage where I was born. Steam boats, tug boats, ocean-going ships Rode the river. I rode Mama’s hips. Humid and hot, sticky delta heat On the buses where whites got front seat— Streetcars hummed past each house with a maid While I sucked ice, read books in the shade. Night jasmine bloomed a scent like perfume When Death took Mama with him too soon— Streetlight, city light, siren and horn All muffled my sobs that August morn. Katrina destroyed without pity My New Orleans, my native city— Mama gone, Daddy gone, streetlights too, Lakefront a sad, devastated view. Duct-taped freezers, antiques on the street In the humid-hot, sweet-sticky heat— Red paint marks each house, smeared on the door, Where nothing but mold lives anymore. Streetlights, fog horns, hurricane lamps, Tramps find homes under overpass ramps— Humid and hot in New Orleans heat, Where my memories live, sad and sweet. ________________________________________________ Books for New Orleans Library Member Cath McCormack reports that book donations to restock the New Orleans library after Katrina’s damage may be sent to: Rica A. Trigs, Public Relations New Orleans Public Library 219 Loyola Ave. New Orleans LA 70112 ________________________________________________ Contest Announcement Kalliope announces their 2006 contest. $1000 prize for best poem by a woman. Deadline is Nov. 1, 2006. For more information go to www.fccj.org/kalliope or write Kalliope Writer’s Collective, FCCJ, South Campus, 11901 Beach Blvd., Jacksonville FL 32246 or call 904-646-2081 ________________________________________________ A Poem That Mattered Deborah Louise Morgan Martin writes: When I was a child, my mother would request my sister and me to entertain guests by reciting a poem. For the poem below, I had a toy dog on a pump leash. I would press the pump and the dog would hop. My Dog and Me When I go out to play, I look so grand and gay. I take my little dog along To keep the boys away. Send in a poem that mattered to you, and the story behind it. I’d like to share several of these memories in each newsletter. Email submission preferred, but USPS is OK. Love Through the Years Jim McNally shared these quatrains with us O Western Wind, when shall thou blow That the small rain down can rain. Christ, that my love were in my arms, And I in my bed again. Anonymous, c. 1400-1500 Come live with me and be my love, And we will all the pleasures prove That valleys, groves, hills and fields, Woods or steepy mountain yields. Christopher Marlowe c. 1590 Our two souls therefore, which are one, Though I must go, endure not yet A breach, but an expansion, Like gold to airy thinness beat John Donne, c. 1612 Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old time is a-flying! And this same flower that smiles today Tomorrow will be dying. Robert Herrick, c. 1640 Yet this inconstancy is such As you too shall adore; I could not love thee, Dear, so much Loved I not honour more Richard Lovelace c. 1645 When lovely woman stoops to folly, And finds too late that men betray, What charms can sooth her melancholy, What art can wash her guilt away? Oliver Goldsmith, c. 1775 She lived unknown, and few could know When Lucy ceased to be; But she is in her grave, and, oh, The difference to me. William Wordsworth, c. 1800 ________________________________________________ The Poetry Society of Virginia, Western Region Hosts Grace Simpson, Poet Laureate of Virginia 2000-2002 WRITING POETRY FROM PERSONAL HISTORY Saturday, 21 October 2006 9:30 - 3:15 RIVERVIEWS*, corner of 9th and Jefferson, new venue (parking next to building, on 9th - enter building from Jefferson) 9:30 – 10:00 Registration and coffee 10:00 Introduction 10:15 – 10:45 Grace Simpson, Writing Poetry from Personal History 10:45 – 11:15 Coffee and book signing 11:15 – 12:00 Grace Simpson reading from DANCING THE BONES 12:00 - 1:00 Lunch – Wonderful box lunch from Magnolia’s* !:00 - 3:00 Open Mike Readings 3:00 - 3:15 Final notes. *Come across Main Street, downtown, to 9th, turn right. Riverviews is 2 blocks down on right. The Old Courthouse will be at your back, The new fountain in James River will be in front. Main Street exits from 29 N or S. From 163 S to Commerce Street. Turn left on Commerce and follow to 9th, turn left for one block. From 163 N take right onto Commerce, just before the bridge, go to 9th and turn left one block. Registration and coffee $6,00 Registration, coffee and lunch: $18.00 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For anyone who will be in Lynchburg the evening of 20 October; we will meet for a very informal dinner at the Panda House located on 29N just above Lynchburg and Madison Heights, on the right going N, 6:30 P. M. This is a very plentiful buffet. Cut here************************************************** Send registration and check (make check to Poetry Society of Virginia) to Frank Craddock, 114 Harrison Street, Lynchburg, Virginia 24504, 434-847-7538 Email is Fdallasc3@AOL.Com. Name_________________________________________ Address_______________________________________Phone____________________ Lunch: Chicken Salad*______Vegetable Wrap*________Read Poetry Yes____No___ Payment: $6.00_______ $18.00__________ |
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