BRENDA KAY LEDFORD FEATURED AT JOHN C. CAMPBELL FOLK SCHOOL

Brenda Kay Ledford will read from her poetry chapbook, BECKONING, published by Finishing Line Press, at the John C. Campbell Folk School on Thursday, June 27 at 7:00 PM.  This event is sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network West and the public is invited to this free event.

Clay County Native

A native of Clay County, NC, Ledford is a retired educator.  She received her Master of Arts in Education from Western Carolina University and studied Journalism at the University of Tennessee.

          She’s former editor of Tri-County Communicator at Tri-County Community College and previous reporter for the Smoky Mountain Sentinel. She received an award from North Carolina Press Association for her feature on the John C. Campbell Folk School.

         Ledford belongs to North Carolina Writers’ Network, North Carolina Poetry Society, Georgia Poetry Society, and a charter member of the Byron Herbert Reece Society.  She’s listed with A Directory of American Poets and Fiction Writers, North Carolina Literary Map, and Who’s Who in America.

Her work has appeared in many journals including “Lyricist,” “The Broad River Review,” “Pembroke Magazine,” “Asheville Poetry Review,” “Main Street Rag,” “Charlotte Poetry Review,” “Wild Goose Poetry Review,” “Town Creek  Poetry,” “Appalachian Heritage,” “Journal of Kentucky Studies,” “Our State,”  “Byron Herbert Reece Society Website,” and many anthologies.

Awards

Ledford received the Paul Green Award from North Carolina Society of Historians for her three poetry chapbooks and last year for her blog:  http://historicalhayesville.blogspot.com.  She won the 2012 Royce Ray Award from “Aires.”  Her poem, “Velma,” received the Editor’s Choice Award from “Reflections Literary Journal.”  Three of her poems won the 2012 Writers’ Ink Guild’s Poetry Contest and were published in Fields of Earth Anthology.

Her latest poetry chapbook, BECKONING, was endorsed by Glenda Beall, director of Writers Circle, and Robert King, publisher of FutureCycle Press.

Says Beall, “Brenda Kay Ledford’s collection sings with color and harmony.  She lets us take a peek into her world as she shares her Appalachian roots in verse. We relate to the constancy of seasons in nature and in our lives. Digging in the dirt as her mother does each spring preparing her garden, lifts the spirit, and decorating graves of loved ones on Memorial Day perpetuate the love of generations. Throughout the snow, first greening of spring, summer’s roses, autumn’s harvest, and star-studded asters, the images in the book offer the reader the opportunity to feel, see, hear, and taste the beauty as well as the inevitable sadness of life.”

Ledford’s book, BECKONING, is available at the Clay County Chamber of Commerce and online at:  www.finishinglinepress.com and www.amazon.com.

One Man's Profit

Tonight I ventured out after being shut in for a few days of bad weather. Robert S. King, poet and member of NCWN West, was featured at Writers Night Out, a monthly event facilitated by poet, Karen Holmes.

Robert has recently published a poetry collection, One Man’s Profit, and in this book is one of my favorite poems, In Flight, originally published in The Bookends Review. It deals with the way we want to die.

Robert admits that his poetry lends itself to the darker side. Perhaps that is why I find this book appealing. The darker side has shadowed my own life in recent years.

Another of his poems in this book touches me as he writes about land. The poem is Grandmother. She works the land, sees it for how it fills her needs and doesn’t appreciate what the poet sees – the ancient trees, “the tall green grass stalks dancing like soulmates of the wind.” While her roots run deep, his seed is in the wind. Yet she teaches him the important things that make him “one not afraid to get his hands dirty.”

On Mother’s Day lets us see the devastation of his mother’s memory loss, the pain he felt, “I hurt that in the end you did not know me or yourself.” The poet continues with the pain she endured at her death. Anyone who has loved his mother will feel the depth of emotion in this poem.

Senior Moments is one of the poems Robert read tonight. Those of us near his age can relate.
…“I’ve got some sit- around friends,
all with that faraway look in their eyes.
Always nodding, one calls herself Dementia.

Is oblivion better than needles of worry?
Dementia knows, but she’s not saying.
Pain is not my friend, but so far
I can talk him down from the ledge.”

While I am certainly not a poetry critic, I know what I like. I like this book, One Man’s Profit, published by Sweatshoppe Publications. I enjoy the poems more with each reading.