‘Consolation’ – A poem by Gary Margolis

Consolation Don’t expect my friend Karl Lindholm to be sitting next to you at the end of a close basketball game. The clock winding down to red, double zeros. Don’t be surprised if you find him, across the gym, near the free nosebleed seats, chatting and pacing nonchalantly. As if it doesn’t matter who wins, which it does. As if a game’s all in good fun, Which might be true, if it wasn’t our team who’s playing. Trying to win a W, beat the brains out of a team whose bus is starting to warm-up in the parking … (read more)

I could be thinking of almost anyone Today it’s the midfielder who has to say Goodbye to his teammates, without   Having played half of the season. Who has to wave a virtual farewell. Without a high-five. Touching   Sticks at the end of a game. A sign Tha … (read more)

MIDDLEBURY — The Champlain Valley Unitarian Universalist Society in Middlebury will join the local chapter of SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice) to present an important and powerful poetry reading and discussion with Rajnii Eddins on Monday, March 16. E … (read more)

I’m running for the first time for First Constable in my town of Cornwall   Vermont. Sue Johnson, our Town Clerk, tells me the duties are non-existent,   if not minimal. In fact, she says, the Select Board doesn’t allow the constable   to do anything. No … (read more)

MIDDLEBURY — Ted Scheu, by his own count, has written thousands of poems in his 65 years. The prolific writer, educator and children’s poet has a flair for putting words together. And he playfully notes that “Ted Scheu” rhymes with “poetry guy.” Well, the … (read more)

Winter’s Delicate Solitude   This is the closing-in time of year: The weary earth rests, leans back and retires; Pine-quilted hills guard the brink of the world, Horizons now strangely attainable. The sky yawns, heavy-lidded and colored With sleep, and lo … (read more)

Winter Solstice   The dry rustle of leaves is what I remember, and the lateness of the hour — moon yet to appear. Something ending, something about to begin. Raven makes a different sound than owl, makes a different sound than snow falling not quite silen … (read more)

Not enough mud to say it’s mud season yet. That’s in March, April   and May. Just enough for the deer to leave a good impression.   On the dirt road. Among the spent shells. And someone   else’s glistening boot tracks. The turkeys slip here,   too, losing … (read more)

In Whom We Live and Move and Have our Being   It’s October Snow geese fly far above the trees in sleek silence. Canada geese circle noisily above the stubby cornfield. White pines drop their needles through the clear air transforming the forest floor into … (read more)

Hillsides ablaze with color  orchards open for picking  offering fresh cider and doughnuts.  Harvest dinners, farmers markets  crisp cool nights under down quilts,  at every turn a new glory to behold.  That’s October in Vermont.  Miriam Hard  Middlebury 

My woodpile ain’t pretty, bent, forked, not sawn square short, long, fat and gnarly like an old wizard’s hair.   Stacked cut colors aren’t even ends dapple the rack tan, red and yellow and old cuts are black.   My firewood looks like me dry, wrinkled and … (read more)

MIDDLEBURY — Poet, University of Vermont professor and guest editor of “The Best American Poetry 2019,” Major Jackson presents this new published annual collection with featured poets Didi Jackson, Vievee Francis, Camille Guthrie and Jane Shore on Tuesday … (read more)

Russ Reilly, who among other things was a long-time announcer at Middlebury College football games, died July 24. A memorial service will be held at Mead Chapel on the Middlebury campus this Saturday, Sept. 21, at 3 p.m. For many years, Gary Margolis sat … (read more)

VERGENNES — As far back as she can remember, Alexandria Hall considered herself a poet. “Even before I could write I was creating these little books of stories that I just wrote for myself,” she recalls. The work of this Vergennes native and member of the … (read more)

A situation stings perception. Observation spurs inspection. Detection demands correction. Intervention assumes commotion. Convention begets conception. Imagination pursues invention. Inception fuels apprehension. Aggravation sparks improvisation. Constru … (read more)