Welcome to where I am, where my kitchen's always messy, a pot's (or a poet) always about to boil over, a dog is always begging to be fed. Drafts of poems on the counter. Windows filled with leaves. Wind. Clouds moving over the mountains. If you like poetry, books, and music--especially dog howls when a siren unwinds down the hill-- you'll like it here.


MY NEW AUTHOR'S SITE, KATHRYNSTRIPLINGBYER.COM, THAT I MYSELF SET UP THROUGH WEEBLY.COM, IS NOW UP. I HAD FUN CREATING THIS SITE AND WOULD RECOMMEND WEEBLY.COM TO ANYONE INTERESTED IN SETTING UP A WEBSITE. I INVITE YOU TO VISIT MY NEW SITE TO KEEP UP WITH EVENTS RELATED TO MY NEW BOOK.


MY NC POET LAUREATE BLOG, MY LAUREATE'S LASSO, WILL REMAIN UP AS AN ARCHIVE OF NC POETS, GRADES K-INFINITY! I INVITE YOU TO VISIT WHEN YOU FEEL THE NEED TO READ SOME GOOD POEMS.

VISIT MY NEW BLOG, MOUNTAIN WOMAN, WHERE YOU WILL FIND UPDATES ON WHAT'S HAPPENING IN MY KITCHEN, IN THE ENVIRONMENT, IN MY IMAGINATION, IN MY GARDEN, AND AMONG MY MOUNTAIN WOMEN FRIENDS.




Saturday, November 12, 2011

Freeze Warning


So cold this morning, down to 22 degrees!   Shivering as I pulled myself out of bed, I remembered this poem I wrote years ago for the collection that became Catching Light.



Nightcap


        Freeze warning.
  Leaves curled on emptiness
         crawl across

        sidewalks.  My gatepost
surrounded by wind jangles
         nonsense.

           I’ll stay put
          and kindle
        some fat wood

     with yesterday’s
   newspapers ripped to
        confetti.

    But what if the matches
won’t strike, the chimney
     won’t draw?

   What if  goose flesh
      I hug to my breast
 shivers not from the ice
        
 waiting outside but inside
 where no slug of whiskey 
       can thaw it?   
         
             Hush!
   I’ll take  a  jelly glass
    down from the pantry.

          Now stand back
        while I  pour a jigger
         of bottomless fire   
           
                    water,
               straight-up.
                 Last call.




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