This month in poetry: To Raise a Simple Prayer

A saturated meadow,/ Sun-shaped and jewel-small,/ A circle scarcely wider/ Than the trees around were tall…

On Friday, May 20, from 7-8:30 p.m., The Compass Music and Arts Center, Park Village in Brandon will present an evening with acclaimed poet Paul Christensen.

These words in this poem by James Crews help us feel the energy and strength of the little coltsfoot flower rising up, or of the many other things in spring that appear overnight with color and vibrancy.

Jim Samler, who taught art at Otter Valley Union High School for 28 years before retiring in 2014, says his inspiration for the book came not only from those poets, but also from The New Yorker cartoonists Charles Adams and Gahan Wilson, as well as Mad Ma … (read more)

I don’t know whether to ride/ my mower or push my snow-blower./ Given what April brings to us.

“Love Notes to Bristol” is a crowdsourced poetry project, a web of life spun by dozens of community members, whose moments of admiration, cherishing and yearning can be read across 38 lawn signs around town.

Like you, I have a name behind/my name./Scratched inside my throat.

Snow falls lightly/ as if no fires rage/ across the world.

Did I dream when we were young and full of hope, we’d always dance all night, work all day without a sign of weariness?

THROUGH THE WILDERNESS by Toussaint St. Negritude Through the wilderness of my freedom through territories uncharted for corporate consumption through cogent dreams and cosmic streams I have climbed to find my Star House high amongst the peaks of an ever- … (read more)