Water Running Downhill, Words of Empowerment Rose Edition, by Joan Ellen Gage, dedicated to Rose Helena Macedo Kull

Rose

Joan Ellen Gage has published an edition of Water Running Downhill!, the Rose Edition,  which is dedicated to her friend Rose. She had wanted to feature her as one of her photo creations, but never got to do that. So, the next best thing was for her to honor Rose in this book.

Rose was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on her 60^th birthday. She was a fighter, and eventually was on a monthly chemo regimen. Rose was determined to be there for her family. They lost her much too early.

So here’s to Rose, one of Joan's heroes! Here is a poem from Water Running Downhill!, the Rose Edition:

ONE TRIBE

 Have you felt

With passing years

A more pressing

Need to connect

With other women

To share observations

And laughter

To offer advice

Or garner wisdom?

Do you feel drawn

As if by a magnetic force

To be with your own kind?

For these women

Are a tribe, your tribe.

No one else will ever

Understand your struggle

As they will.

Women are our people.

When we come together

We feel a oneness

A sisterhood united.

When we come together

We are at home.

Joan Ellen Gage is an author of humor and inspiration written from her own unique perspective. Her recipe for her writing focuses on staying upbeat and laughing at her own foibles. Joan’s photos are the spice in the mix that serve to punctuate the writing and add that special garnish to her creations. 

Bio:  

Joan has written and published five books, Water Running Downhill!, Embracing Your Inner Cheerleader!, A Redhead Looks At 60, Trinity's Adventures in Imagination, and a special edition of Water Running Downhill! the Rose Edition as a tribute to her friend Rose Helena Macedo Kull. All available as eBooks.

Joan has given several author talks, and had several radio interviews. She is a member of her area’s writing group, NC Writers’ Network-West, serving as an administrator for their blog. Additionally, Ms. Gage has two blogs, Traveling at the Speed of Now, www.joanellengage.com,and A Redhead Blogs at 60!, https://joanszoneblogalicious @wordpress.com.

Joan lives in Western North Carolina with her husband and their Belgian Tervuren dog, Magnolia.

Coffee with the Poets and Writers in Far Western North Carolina

Coffee with the Poets and Writers, a monthly literary event held at Blue Mountain Coffee and Grill, 30 NC Hwy 141, Murphy, NC will hold a reading at 10:30 a.m., Wednesday, September 10 by two outstanding published poets, Carole Thompson of Blairsville and Peg Bresnahan of Transylvania County NC. The public is invited. Carole Richard Thompson and her husband moved to Blairsville, in the North Georgia mountains, 21 years ago. After being a portrait artist for many years, she began to study writing, and joined the North Carolina Writer’s Network. She credits her love for writing to her friend and mentor, Nancy Simpson, whose classes in creative writing and poetry have been her greatest source of inspiration. Her first short story, "A Bag of Sugar for Paula," was published in The Liquorian Magazine, and also the anthology, Christmas Presence, published by Catawba Press. Her story, "The Uniform" appeared in the anthology, Clotheslines, published by Catawba Press. Her essay, “The Common Thread” won the 1991 NSDAR Best of Show and National Gold Honors Award in their National Heritage Committee, Literature and Drama Division Contest. Carole’s poetry has appeared in anthologies, A Sense of Place, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, and Women’s Spaces, Women’s Places as well as in poetry journals. In 2013, her poetry book, Enough, was published by FutureCycle Press. The title poem, “Enough,” is a compliment to a long marriage which endured ups and downs. She recalls wartime partings, letters, and phone calls – never enough. But in the later years, being together every day is now enough. Peg Bresnahan’s second poetry collection, In a Country None of Us Called Home, was recently published by Press 53. Peg is a member of the North Carolina Writers’ Network. She received her MFA in Poetry from Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpeliar. Her work has been published in numerous literary journals and anthologies.  She lives in Cedar Mountain, NC with husband, sculptor, Dan Bresnahan. She says she moved to the mountains of western North Carolina and the land of waterfalls from the Door County Peninsula of Wisconsin, exchanging what she thinks of as the horizontal water of Lake Michigan for water that is decidedly vertical.  Kathy Smith Bowers, former Poet Laureate of North Carolina said of Peg’s latest book, "This is one of the most beautifully crafted and moving collections I have read in a long time."

Coffee with the Poets and Writers is open to the public at no charge. Bring a poem or short story and read at Open Mic. Those attending are invited to join the writers and poets after the event as we pull tables together and enjoy a social hour.

Coffee with the Poets and Writers is sponsored by North Carolina Writers’ Network West. Contact NCWN West Representative, Glenda Beall, at 828-389-4441 or gcbmountaingirl@gmail.com  for information.

Poetry Workshop by Dr. Gene Hirsch

Poets and writers in western North Carolina recognize Dr. Gene Hirsch as the founder of the writing program at the John C. Campbell Folk School. 

He has taught poetry there for twenty-two years. Writers Circle in Hayesville, NC will host a workshop, Inspiration and Poets’ Block, by Hirsch on Sunday afternoon, May 25, 1-4 p.m.

Gene Hirsch is a former professor of Medicine with over 50 years background in teaching human experience, meaning and values and the emotional care of sick and dying people to doctors and medical students. He has conducted poetry workshops widely for health professionals as an expressive adjunct to their caring experiences, as well as for poets in Western NC.

His poetry has appeared in medical and non-medical journals such as Pharos (Medical Honor Society), Hiram Poetry Review, Pittsburgh Gazette, Journal of Medical Humanities, Fetishes (Univ. of Colorado), Journal of the American Medical Society, Human Quest.  He has written two books, Along the Rutty Pot Hole Road and You Shall Die Again No More.  Anthologies include Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, Tyranny of the Normal, Crossing Limits (African Americans and American Jews).  He has produced five volumes of Freeing Jonah, poetry, from Western North Carolina.

Writers sometimes feel they must wait to be inspired before they can create a poem. Often they feel blocked and become frustrated with themselves.

Hirsch says, “Inspiration and writer’s block are two widely used, poorly understood antithetical terms.  In this class we will study and share your views and experiences with these concepts.” He asks participants of this class, limited to 8 students, to bring a poem to discuss in terms of inspiration and meaning to the poet, and bring 10 copies. 

Western North Carolina and North Georgia is an area where poets have flourished in the past twenty years due to knowledgeable teachers such as Dr. Hirsch and Nancy Simpson of Hayesville. Poetry books by local writers are published each year.

While writing is a solitary art, writers need community and coming together with others.  To register for this poetry workshop, contact Glenda Beall, 828-389-4441 or email glendabeall@aol.com . Find more online at www.glendacouncilbeall.blogspot.com.