Monday, October 31, 2011

PAD Chapbook Challenge

ATTENTION ALL POETS!
There is a new PAD (poem a day) contest starting tomorrow.
Go to writersdigest.com Click on Editor Blogs , then select
Poetic Asides with Robert Lee Brewer.
No registration required; no fees; just fun leading to a possible chapbook.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Creative Writing Workshop CCCC, Fall 2011

Creative Writing Workshop: Poetic Form and Song

Poets and songwriters will explore traditional poetic forms used in contemporary music and modern poetry. In this workshop, students will examine songs with lyrics as well as instrumentals influenced by a variety of poetic structures, rhyme schemes, or traditional forms. Each student will choose a form to draft a poem or lyrics. Acoustic string instruments are welcome. Instructor: Chris Bouton.

Course #: C-3758
Date: Saturday, 10/29/2011
Time: 10:00am – 2:00pm
Cost: $45.00

Fall registration has begun! Call 919-545-8044.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Poem: European Royalty

The winning entry in our Third Annual Poetry Contest.

EUROPEAN ROYALTY

The last few times I was in the European Union,
it took a lot more than a dollar to equal one euro.
Didn’t matter where you went, that euro, like a Monarch,
was seated two or three steps above.

Near The Pantheon, I chose a large green apple
from a streetside cart, the peddler waggled four fingers.
I gave him his four Euro for my one apple.

I took a picture of a man lingering in the doorway
of a ristorante near Trevi. He tapped his pants pocket,
raised his hand. Skin rub of thumbpad against fingers,
then peace sign, all the while nodding his head and
shadowing me like a Pittsburgh Steeler defensive back.
“I deleted it” I called in English and turned the camera
so he could see himself draining into Europe’s smallest trash can.

An empty street café in late afternoon shadow of The Vatican
I ordered minestrone and house wine for 22 euro.
The waiter shoo-ed me by swiping at air with his towel.
“Oh no, oh no, I make no money of you!”

Then down the street from an abbey in a neighborhood
far down the Paris dance card, a French teen-ager,
simple clothes wound round small stature, held a tight bunch
of short-stemmed lilacs and a card lettered 10e.
I twirled my hand round the camera “Photo?”
She smiled oui, extended her forehead toward me.
Click.
Later I looked at her digital-self and asked
why oh why hadn’t I reached to buy her lilacs?
I can smell them even now.

By: Mary Barnard                                            
10/6/11