Sad News
News has reached us that Past President of the CT Poetry Society Norman Kraft has passed away. We will post more information as it arrives concerning any planned memorial service.
New Books
Tony Fusco has a new book out: Droplines, Grayson Books, 2009 for more information
click here for info
Lisa Siedlarz new book, I Dream My Brother Plays Baseball, Clemson University, 2009 -$15, contact Lisa at bearbucca@sbcglobal.net
Greg Salvatore's first poetry collection, Digging Up the Past: Poetry from High School (1994-97), can do so by writing out a check for $12 (plus $3 shipping and handling, for a total of $15) to: Greg Salvatore, P.O. Box 3113, Vernon, CT 06066. All CPS members need only pay $12, as shipping fees will be waived for them. Also, purchasers should signify if they want the books signed (and to whom), and where to send the books, if different from the address provided on their checks. Sample poems
Ginny Conners - National Poetry Month School Activity click here
Contest Winner
Roberta Marggraff's poem "Familiar Tongue" recieved a 2nd Place award and a $350.- honorarium in the Elizabeth R. Curry poetry competition sponsored by Slab literary mazazine out of Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, PA.
New Chapbook
Sharon Olson, of Guilford, has had two books published. The first is Clouds Brushed in Later, an Abby Niebauer Memorial Chapbook, published by the San Jose Poetry Center Press in 1987. Out of print.
The second book is The Long Night of Flying, published in 2006 by Sixteen Rivers Press, San Francisco, California. This book is available on Amazon, from Small Press Distribution (www.spdbooks.org), and directly from the publisher Sixteen Rivers Press, P.O. Box 640663, San Francisco, CA 94164-0663, Tel: 415.273.1303 (www.sixteenrivers.org).
More information about her work can be found at this page: http://www.sixteenrivers.org/books_authors/long_night_of_flying.asp
Amy Nawrocki CPS member and 2007 winner of an honorable mention in the Brodine/Brodinski contest has just published a new chapbook, The Potato Eaters.
Publisher: Finishing Line Press
Now available for sale at www.finishinglinepress.com for $12.00. (look for
New Releases). Free shipping until 10/03/08
Release date: November 3, 2008.
CPS Poets Receive Awards in NFSPS Contests
Poets from CPS won a number of awards in the 50 NFSPS (National Federation of State Poetry Societies) poetry contests announced at the recent annual meeting. Our members received 5 awards, 7 honorable mentions, and 2 citations.
Roberta Marggraff and Ginny Conners each won a 1st prize; Josh Conklin, Alexandrina Sergio and Christine Beck each won 2nd prizes.
Honorable mentions were received by Christine Beck and Elaine Zimmerman for the founders award, the largest poetry award. Pat Hale, Sandy Sergio and Josh Conklin received honorable mentions, Christine Beck and Elaine Zimmerman also each received citations.
CPS Annual Meeting 2008
At the annual meeting of the CT Poetry Society, on Sunday April 27th, Poets Bob Jacob and Jean Tupper read from their books and CPS members participated in an open mike. Information on Bob's book Hospice Poems is listed below. The link will take you to some sample poems as well.
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Why not Join the CT Poetry Society? Click Here for more information about the benefits of membership. |
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Jean Tupper's new book is: Woman in Rainlight contact her at: jrtupper@verizon.net |
| Bob Jacob |
You Tube Video |
Jean Tupper |
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New Book By CPS Member- Bob Jacob- Perspective Hospice Poems
What may be most surprising in Perspective, which is a book full of surprises, is the amount of joy, laughter, last-minute insight, and utter honesty shown by the hospice patients so clearly and lovingly depicted here. Bob Jacob’s poems also praise the dedication of the nurses and others who make The Connecticut Hospice such a place of refuge. The book is a testament to the human spirit. Readers have been enthusiastic about the verse of a man who has dedicated himself to those most in need of what Jacob calls his loving words. Jean Valentine writes, “I admire Bob Jacob’s loving, tender voice valuing people close to death.” And Stephen Dunn has commented that the poems “reveal a man you’d like to know.”
Read more at: http://www.antrimhousebooks.com/jacob.html
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Doris Henderson, president of the Danbury chapter of CPS , was featured, along with poets Lynn Deming and Rebecca Dobson, in a reading at the Danbury Area Women's Center on Sunday, March 30th. The event, titled "Tea and Poetry at the Women's Center," was part of a Women's History Month celebration sponsored by the Center in conjunction with Western Connecticut State University.
Poem by Doris Henderson
C- SPAN
The honorable gentleman of the Ways and Means Committee,
aware of the magnitude of the issue at hand,
after preliminary expostulation yields the balance of his time
to his esteemed colleague designated for the vital task
of commenting on the magnitude of the issue at hand,
and of earnestly seeking a bipartisan solution,
which task the esteemed colleague has designated
for relieving his loyal supporters of their burdensome taxes,
earnestly sought by partisans of the solution,
in the best tradition of incorporated American values
to relieve the unsupported taxpayers of their burdensome money
through the establishment of an ever-expanding economy
in the best tradition of high valued American corporations
to further the pursuit of accelerated prosperity
in the ever-expanding globalized proliferation
which must be avoided at all costs.
The senator having accelerated his pursuit of prosperity,
his political funding practices are currently under legal scrutiny,
the proliferation of which must be avoided at all costs,
as an obfuscation diverting from the issue in question,
the scrutiny of the illegal funding practices of the opposition,
in pursuance of which the speaker now yields the floor
for obfuscation of the question at issue now diverted.
Objection is raised by the architect of the original proposal,
pursued by the speaker on the floor now yielded
to the esteemed gentleman from the State of Inertia,
raising objection to the original architect of the proposal
obscured by the ensuing debate over the question.
The esteemed gentleman having reached the State of Inertia
yields the balance of his primary expostulation
to the ensuing debate obscured by the raised question
of the Ways and Means whereby the honorable gentleman can be committed.
Note:
This poem is a pantoum, a series of quatrains in which the second and fourth lines of each stanza are repeated (with variations) as the first and third lines of the following stanza. It’s very repetitious, but then --- did you ever watch Congress in action?
Originglly published in New Verse News ( www.newversenews.com )
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PoetWorks Press is pleased to announce a call for submissions for the Josephine Darner Poetry Award for 2008. This honorable award will be presented to the poet whose work is judged as "most distinguished" among the submissions received. In addition to a cash prize ($350.), ten perfect bound book copies of a collection (60 to 80 poems) of the winner's poetry will be published and awarded to the winning author. All submissions are received in confidence and will not be made public, with the exception of the winning poet. Deadline September 2008.
Submission guidelines can be reviewed at the following web site:
http://www.poetworks.com/2008_Poetry_Award.html
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Oil Drum Art Reading at the Barnum Museum by Members
of the CT Poetry Society
On August 30th members of the CT Poetry Society read their poetry at the close of the Oil Drum Art show at the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport CT. The poems, consistent with the theme of the show, were about the environment. Poems that memorialized recently deceased CPS poet Guss Stepp were also read. Photos from the event can be viewed at the link below. .
Oil Drum Artwork - click here
CPS Members’ Books
POLLY LASZLO BRODY
The Burning Bush: Essays with Poems, Antrim House, 2005, $17.00
www.antrimhousebooks.com or berylline33@yahoo.com
GINNY LOWE CONNORS
Barbarians in the Kitchen, Antrim House, 2005, $18.00
www.antrimhousebooks.com or www.amazon.com
Proposing on the Brooklyn Bridge: Poems about Marriage (ed.), Grayson Books, 2003, hardcover: $21.95, softcover: $15.95
www.amazon.com or www.graysonbooks.com
To Love One Another: Poems Celebrating Marriage (ed), Grayson Books, 2002, hardcover: $16.95, softcover: $12.95
www.amazon.com or www.graysonbooks.com
Essential Love: Poems about Mothers and Fathers, Daughters and Sons (ed), Grayson Books, 2000, hardcover: $21.95, softcover: $14.95
www.amazon.com or www.graysonbooks.com
Debra Sansone published her first chapbook of poetry. The title of the book is Shared Air and Other Poems, which was published by Finishing Line Press of Georgetown, Kentucky on February 28, 2008. The book can be obtained either through finishinglinepress.com or amazon.com.
TONY FUSCO
Droplines, Grayson Books, 2009, $15
click here for info
Jessie’s Garden, Negative Capability Press, 2004, $10
www.amazon.com
GERRI RADACSI Trapped in Amber , Connecticut River Press, 2005, $15.95 Tightrope Walker, Antrim House, 2007, $15.00 www.antrimhousebooks.com
SYLVIA FORGES RYAN (with Edward Ryan) Take a Deep Breath: The Haiku Way to Inner Peace , Kodansha International, hardback, 2002; Russian edition published in 2003 by Sophia Press, Kiev ; paperback edition published by Apocryphile Press, Berkeley , California , 2006. www.amazon.com
PEGGY SAPHIRE A Possible Explanation, Partisan Press, $12.00
JEAN TUPPER Woman in Rainlight, Hobblebush Books, $14.95 www.hobblebush.com or www.finelinepoets.com or September 7, 2007Enet&sid=c0">jrtupper@verizon.net
JENNIFER SMITH TURNER Lost and Found: Rhyming Verse Honoring African American Heroes, Connecticut River Press, www.jennifersmithturner.com
CHRISTOPHER L. WEBBER
Beyond Beowulf, iUniverse, 2006
Greg Salvatore
Dreaming a Prophecy
Last night, I had a dream
That I was on a path to nowhere
In a desert with no name.
At one point, I stopped and shielded my eyes
From the piercing rays of the sun
Reflecting off of the sand,
For so doing allowed me to see what was once
A magnificent city, now reduced
To a heap of rubble.
Walking towards it, I heard
A distant chorus singing
A beautiful song.
They sang, “This is the land
Of prophecy. Come here
And prophesy.”
So I entered the city
Through its large, crumbling gates,
And I saw a vision of
The world to come.
Famine fastened its bony grip on the world,
Wars ravaged the continents,
And plagues took their deadly toll on the populace.
These images swirled ‘round, intertwined,
And were gone.
I shouted out, “What does this mean?”
In reply, I heard the same ghostly chorus sing,
“This is the land of prophecy.
Come here and prophesy.”
Motel
Bloodshot eyes behold fear when awake
Pondering o’er the many aspects of man
Contemplating all his fearless mistakes
Thought cut short by a falling can—
Rolled out of a drunken bastard’s hand
Who knew ne’er love nor cleanliness
Though he wander from land to land
Yet know he the darkness of loneliness.
Two floors above, the wild couple prance
Who often pranced at night before
Interlocked arms and legs in a dance
He the customer, she the whore.
Far below, the children cease play
Quarantined they are for being so poor
Heard above, the pious men pray
For redemption, their words a dull roar.
Bloodshot eyes in the lobby see all
The comings, goings, and misfortunes of them
Silent footsteps cease in a silent hall
The landlord sleeps: unequaled R.E.M.
