The NC Writers’ Network-West will hold the monthly Coffee
with the Poets and Writers at Joe’s Coffee House, 82 Main Street, Hayesville,
NC. This group will meet Wednesday, July 8 at 10:30 a.m..
Coffee with the
Poets and Writers is open to the public at no charge. Bring a poem or short
prose, 1000 words or less, and read at Open Mic. Joe’s Coffee House serves
fine coffees and teas, as well as bagels and snacks. Cindy and Norma make all
feel very welcome at Joe’s. Two local members of NCWN-West, Estelle
Darrow Rice and Glenda Council Beall are featured on the program this month.
Her short
stories and personal essays have appeared in numerous anthologies and
journals. Her book of spiritual poems, Quiet
Times, was well received and highly praised. She has taught writing for NC Writers’ Network-West and for
Writers Circle around the Table in Hayesville, NC.
Her poetry is
inspired by memories of the past, her large family and her impressions of what
she sees and hears in the world around her. She writes about everything from growing
chickens to dealing with grief.
The community
is invited to Joe’s to listen to the readers, to read, to mingle with the
writers and poets, and all are welcome to join us for lunch across the street
at Angelo’s. Contact NCWN-West Representative, Glenda Beall,
at 828-389-4441 or glendabeall@msn.com
for information
This is a program of the state literary organization NC Writers’ Network.
|
Last month there was barely enough seating room for all
who attended Coffee with the Poets and Writers, a monthly event held at Joe’s
Coffee Shop, 82 Main Street, Hayesville, NC. NC Writers' Network-West sponsors this event
that meets Wednesday, 10:30 a.m. June 10.
Two local poets, members of NC Writers' Network-West, Joan Ellen Gage and
Mary Ricketson are featured on the program this month. Coffee with the Poets and Writers is open
to the public at no charge. Bring a poem or short prose, 1000 words or less,
and read at Open Mic. Joe’s Coffee shop serves fine coffees and teas, as well
as bagels and snacks. Cindy and Norma make all feel very welcome at Joe’s.
Joan Ellen Gage recently moved to Warne in Clay County
from Florida where she worked as a dental hygienist. She says that much of her writing was inspired by her patients and
their stories. Joan has published three books, A Redhead Looks at 60, Embracing Your Inner Cheerleader
and Water Running Downhill!, both motivate and inspire middle-aged women, and women in general.
She writes on her two blogs, Traveling at the Speed of
Now: http://www.joanellengage.com
and A Redhead Blogs at 60: http://joanszoneblogalicious@wordpress.com
.
Joan enjoys photography, creating
unique pictures and uses her own work in her books and on her blogs. She
serves as an active administrator for the NC Writers' Network-West blog www.netwestwriters.blogspot.com
and stays busy publishing good news
from our members.
Mary Ricketson has been writing for many years and
publishes a monthly column, Women to Women, in the Cherokee Scout newspaper. She
is a Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor and an organic blueberry
farmer. She writes to satisfy a hunger, she says, to taste life down to the
very last drop. Mary is inspired by nature and her work as a counselor.
Her poetry has been published in Wild Goose Poetry Review,
Future Cycle Press, Journal of Kentucky Studies, Lights in the Mountains and
other anthologies. She published a chapbook I Hear the River Call my Name and
most recently, a collection of her poems, Hanging Dog Creek. She is a
Cherokee County Representative for North Carolina Writers' Network-West and
president of Ridgeline Literary Alliance.
She won
the gold medal for poetry in the 2011 Cherokee County Senior Games/Silver
Arts and silver medal for 2012 and 2013, and first place in the 2011 Joyce
Kilmer Memorial Forest 75th anniversary national poetry contest.
Come early for a good seat and plan to go to lunch with us after the reading.
|
cool air flowing through the screen
a curious cardinal tipping its head
at me from the empty feeder
as if to moor me to this day, as if aware
that I drift still in that day our kisses
slid us down the grassy bank
towards the reflection of a sky
we didn’t feel we had to embrace
to own those breeze-rippled clouds
swaths of bright blue descended
to surface yes love there are things
we can’t claim a familiar table
with years of scars drawers
where my socks might hide beneath
your black lace underwear mindless
routines of coffee-making rubbish
but look at the heron circling
its wings bent in gray-blue welcome
landing in the shallows by the shaded bank
look at those clouds rising with the sun
from the shoreline to cover us like a quilt
look at how our fingers and mouths find
ways to craft tightly what we do have
this boat drifting away from all moorings
from
Women Who Loved Me Despite
