In the Days Of the Pinkest Shades Of Clover
We climbed the lookout tower,
hugged a branch of the Mulberry Tree,
ate purple berries,
sat barefoot stringing beads
on a blanket in the yard
under watchful nose of Mrs. Ross’s
maid, then dripped chocolaty
pudding pops, cooled our-
selves in the water from the hose
or the wading pool,
where Michael leaned to swim—
knit together, purled to a daisy chain,
living our days in the pinkest shades of clover—
so that later roaming the hills
near the Cabin next to Spring River,
we clambered over
sloping limestone rocks and
small, blue cedars, and we knew
why Mummy said, “One can, all can”
is the only fair way, among siblings.
Scott Owens has a new book of poems entitled For One Who Knows How to Own Land. Scott writes:
Future Cycle Press has just released my new book of poems, For One Who Knows How to Own Land. These 98 pages of poetry focus on the experience of growing up in the disappearing rural South. They include some of my favorite oldest poems as well as a lot of new ones. I am including a brief description of the book as well as comments from Ron Rash, Tim Peeler, John Lane, and below. You can order copies from me or on Amazon. There will be a book launch on March 20 at 6:00 at Taste Full Beans in Hickory, NC, and on March 23 at 7:00 at City Lights Books in Sylva, NC. I hope you can attend one of those events.
For One Who Knows How to Own Land
Copyright 2012 Scott Owens
Published by FutureCycle Press
Mineral Bluff, Georgia
ISBN: 978-0-9839985-3-2
I grew up in two worlds: my father’s parents’ world of brick homes, city streets, shopping, and playgrounds; and my mother’s parents’ world of dirt roads, livestock, growing our own food, and endless woods. That second world was undeniably harder than the first. The work was dirtier, and there was more of it. The homes had fewer luxuries: no cable, no AC, never more than one bathroom. Even death was different. In town, death was a polished event that took place elsewhere, hospitals, nursing homes, slaughter houses, funeral parlors. On the farm, animals were killed every week, and most people died at home, and their bodies stayed there until they were buried.
Somehow, however, that second world still seemed much more alive, much more real and vital. Despite that vitality, I was aware that most people knew almost nothing about that second world. It was then, and is increasingly now, an undiscovered country where life and death exist side by side with a natural intensity missing from the artificial world of the city.
This book, dedicated to my grandfather (one who knew how to own land), is a record of my undiscovered country and the people who lived there.
Landscape and memory are seamlessly merged in this excellent volume. Like all the best writers of place, Scott Owens finds the heart's universal concerns in his vivid rendering of piedmont Carolina.
--Ron Rash, author of Raising the Dead
There's not a speck of sentimentality in the rural poetic Americana framed by Scott Owens in FOR ONE WHO KNOWS HOW TO OWN LAND. There are dead crows, red dirt earth, barking dogs, burning coal, fox traps, and flooding rivers. These stories matter. The poems all rattle and sing. This is a jolt of strong coffee for a watery time.
--John Lane, author of The Woods Stretched for Miles: Contemporary Nature Writing from the South
In For One Who Knows How to Own Land, poet, Scott Owens creates with a mature voice, childhood reminiscences of pastoral summers in the red dirt rural Piedmont of upstate South Carolina. This, his most affecting collection to date, is a remarkable sensory journey that registers narrative moments along the entire emotional scale from harsh to tender, from the threatening to the anodyne. Through the magical nature of memory, these poems of mystery and loss prove again and again that “The boy who left this country/never stopped hearing its names/echo in his ear.”
--Tim Peeler, author of Checking Out
“Why should this be home?” Scott Owens asks us in “Homeplace,” his question as much about leaving as going back. We walk his train tracks and ridges as if they were our own, as though home were “something you held tight before you, /your back bending against its going away.” In this both visceral and meditative rendering of place, decay and rebirth are part of the same landscape. I applaud the skill that directs us down a path of experience and familiarity to “stone steps/ that dead-end in mid-air.” His poetry is wise in knowing the weight of its own footsteps.
-- Linda Annas Ferguson, author of Dirt Sandwich
Read more about For One Who Knows How to Own Land on Scott's Musings Blog.
Charlotte Digregorio sent this update:
Hello Haikuists,
Some of you might be interested in the announcement below.
Dear Charlotte,
I am a friend of Charlie Rossiter's and he has referred me to your organization.
I am the President for the National Association for Poetry Therapy and I would like to invite you and your membership to attend our national conference, "Writing the Winds of Change," to be held in Chicago April 26-29, 2012. We have an extraordinary opening ceremony, featuring local musicians and poets well-known throughout Chicago, as well as, the internationally known key-note poet/educator/essayist and publisher, Haki Madhubuti. We have a variety of workshops which integrate poetry, journaling and the expressive arts in the arenas of mental health, self-growth, wellness and education.
If you would like more information about our conference and registration process, please refer to our web-page at www.poetrytherapy.org.
Should you have any questions in regard to our organization or our conference, please do not hesitate to contact me. I do look forward to hearing from you.
Regards,
Catherine Conway, President
The National Association for Poetry Therapy
P - 630-220-8682
www.poetrytherapy.org
Ellen Compton sent this update:
Good Morning Curtis,
Here's a note I hope you can include with your announcements and updates.
Cheers, and thanks,
Ellen
Volunteer at 100th D.C. Cherry Blossom Festival
The Haiku Society of America will have a booth at the upcoming 100th National Cherry Blossom Street Festival and is looking for folks to help out. It could be a great time to visit the nation’s capital, enjoy the cherry blossoms, socialize with fellow haiku poets and tell a broader audience about haiku.
The festival, which will be held on Saturday, April 14, rain or shine, runs from 11 – 6 p.m. You are welcome to sign up for an hour or longer. In particular, we could use help with set up and break down before/after the official festival times.
If you love haiku, have always wanted to see Washington DC's cherry blossoms, like working with people, and want to pitch in, please get in touch with Rick Black: rick@turtlelightpress.com or call him at
703-241-4127 for more details. Hope to see you there!
A new issue of Haibun Today is available which includes Penny Harter's haibun, "The Great Blue."
http://haibuntoday.com
Also, Penny's essay "Writing From the Present, Past, and Future," is the featured essay in the "Revelations: Unedited" feature in Frogpond: the Journal of the Haiku Society of America, pp. 28-44. The essay covers writing haiku, haibun, and free verse.
Sasa Vazic sent the Fujisan Haiku Results.
M. Kei sent this:
Lulu.com, the old printer for Keibooks, is offering 30% off Heron Sea by M. Kei and other Keibooks backlist titles, such as Catzilla, and previous issues of Atlas Poetica. This offer is good through February.
Ed Baker sent this update:
just a moment ago I saw that Barney Rosset had died !
a Major, Major 'player' in my life.
neat happening a few years ago he picked this piece to go into his review:
http://www.evergreenreview.com/120/ed-baker.html
here is the Post's obituary :
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/washingtonpost/obituary.aspx?n=barney-rosset&pid=156046238
hang in, Ed
Haiku Death Match: No Words Barred
Join Press 53 and Piedmont S.L.A.M. for “Haiku Death Match: No Words Barred” on Tuesday, February 28, 7 p.m., at the Community Arts Cafe, Fourth & Spruce in downtown Winston-Salem. This special adults-only event is open to anyone 18 and over who wants to sling Haiku like an assassin. $3 cover and prizes for our winners. For more information, call Kevin at 336-770-5353.
Colin Stewart Jones sent this:
Dear Readers and Friends,
NFTG has recently undergone a process of streamlining and simplification of its website. You can now access either the flip magazine or the static information pages separately by clicking on the relevant cherry on the entry page.
The flip magazine now has a module which can enlarge to full screen, add annotations and has a search facility. NFTG is now available on all browsers, Mac or PC and all mobile devices, including i-Pad and Android. We have also updated our static information pages and have a new bespoke form filler for submissions which can be accessed at the top left or very bottom of the Submissions’ Page and you can also get in contact by through the Editors’ Page.
Thank you all for you continued support.
Colin Stewart Jones
Editor-in-Chief
Notes from the Gean
http://notesfromthegean.com/
Richard Krawiec sent this:
Hope you can come see my first staged full-length play, CREEDS. It's inspired by the true story of Bonnie and Robert Hanssen. Arch conservative, Opus Dei Catholics, sexually bizarre - and Bob was a double-agent for the Russians, called the greatest spy in U.S. history.
We have an excellent cast including Lori Mahl (Actors Equity) who had a career in NYC, working on the stage with, among others, Carol Channing and Tyne Daly, Jeff Alguire, who won a Best Actor Award from the Independent, and an ensemble cast that has performed on every major stage in the Triangle - from Playmakers, to REP, to Burning Coal, to Common Ground to the Arts Center in Carrboro.
It will be staged March 22 - April 1 at Common Ground Theater in Durham, NC.
http://cgtheatre.com/directions
Here's some more info on the show. Tickets range from $7 - $15
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/224259
I've had one-acts produced across the U.S. and Canada, but this is my first full length, and it's as exciting as publishing a first novel.
The play is produced by PlayGround, a Theater Co-operative which has been in operation for 2 years. It's a group of local actresses and actors and NC playwrights who meet once a month to develop scenes by local writers and opportunities for local actors.
If you're interested in supporting PlayGround we are selling a few tickets to the Sunday, April 1, 4 pm cast party. These tickets, which cost $40, will include a free meal, a ticket to your choice of performance (you don't have to go April 1), and a chance to mingle with the cast.
If you want to make a night of it when you come to the play, less than a mile away there are 2 good restaurant choices right on Hillsborough - Bennett Point Grill (quality Southern, no calabash) and Durham House of Pizza (decent pizza and Italian in Sicilian style). Within 4 miles on HIllsborough you have Chinese, Greek, and fast food. Only 10 minutes from the theater are Meelo's and Nana's and Parizade, three excellent local choices.
Hope to see you,
richard krawiec
Check out my websites!
http://www.press53.com/BioRichardKrawiec.html
http://www.rkeditor.com/
http://jacarpress.com/index.html
And finally, Frugal Poet, Susan Nelson Myers, will have a new recipe and poem to share with you later today.
