ALHAMBRA 2011 POETRY CALENDAR IS HERE!

THE 2011 ALHAMBRA POET CALENDAR IS HERE! BOTH DAILY CALENDAR AND POETRY ANTHOLOGY, IT SITS ATOP DESK, KITCHEN COUNTER, MICROWAVE, BEDSIDE TABLE, OR ANY FLAT SURFACE, WAITING TO BE READ. ORDER NOW FROM http://www.alhambrapublishing.com/htm/EPC11.html. NORTH CAROLINA POETS INCLUDE ISABEL ZUBER, JOHN HOPPENTHALER, SARAH LINDSAY, CATHERINE CARTER, RHETT ISEMAN TRULL, among others.

The is the poem of mine included in the calendar. It first appeared in CLOTHESLINES, edited by Celia Miles and Nancy Dillingham.

Rivershawl

She’d dribble the fringe of her shawl

in the river. The quick current rippled the black threads.

They floated as she wished she could.

They wanted to be swept away but she held fast

to what had been woven. Her mother’s shawl.

Now her own. How much longer

to be handed down, this black keepsake?

She d lift out the fringe,

rub it over her face, feel the cold

water run down her cheeks,

down her neck,

into white folds of flesh underneath the dress

worn before her by her kinswomen.

What might she catch in this web

if she let it drift far enough

out of the shallows,

into the dark center

where she could not see the bottom?

How far would she have to wade

until she stepped into

some other world, under the sun-dappled

surface? The river itself was a shawl,

always wrapping itself round the hills,

threaded with golden light,

trailing its castaway leaves.

It could weave her into its weft,

carry her farther than she could imagine--

the sea she could feel surging

inside when she let herself

want what she knew she could not

have, a life she could open

as wide as a closet door onto

garments no woman had worn

before her. Nobody’s life but her own.

POETRIO: MARY ADAMS AND RHETT ISEMAN TRULL

Mary Adams reads from Commandment at this month's Poetrio.

Every month Malaprop's Bookstore features Poetrio, a gathering of poets, usually three, reading from their work on a Sunday afternoon. This month two of the featured poets were friends,

Mary Adams and Rhett Iseman Trull, along with William Swarts, someone I had the pleasure to meet at the reading. Mary's chapbook Commandment was published last fall by Spring Street Editions in Sylva, and Rhett's first book The Real Warnings was published recently by Anhinga Press.

Mary has been a friend for many years, first as a colleague at WCU and later as, well, a friend and sister poet, animal lover, and partaker of wine and pizza whenever we can get together. Her fist book, Epistles from the Planet Photosynthesis, was published by the U. of Florida Press. She is also a Milton scholar and expert in just about everything literary. I've devoted several posts to her, so I'll include the links-- http://kathrynstriplingbyer.blogspot.com/search?q=Mary+Adams. You may order her chapbook and her full length collection from City Lights Bookstore.

Rhett is editor par excellence of the new poetry journal Cave Wall, which she manages with her fabulous husband Jeff. She's a graduate of the MFA program in writing at UNC-Greensboro and a favorite of my ole friend Fred Chappell. I featured her as Poet of the Week last year on my laureate blog, so if you want to read more, which you certainly should, you should go to http://ncpoetlaureate.blogspot.com/2009/04/poet-of-week-rhett-iseman-trull.html

The third poet was William Swarts, whose book Strickland Plains has just been released. I'd not met Bill till this Sunday, but I can tell you that he will be the featured guest at Coffee With the Poets at City Lights Bookstore in the fall.

Here are some photos from this Sunday's Poetrio. Many thanks to Alsace and Virginia for making this series so enjoyable!

Mary responding to an unseen interrogator!

Mary's lovely mother Betty, on hand to hear her daughter read.

Rhett talks with members of the audience after her reading.

Rhett Trull signs the Malaprop's reader's registry.



In a dark cafe the author and friends drink to the publication of her chapbook and her reading at Malaprop's. (Actually it's Jack of the Woods, and it's dark because my flash wasn't working.)