Third Tuesday Writers' Coffee House

12/18/2020

A poem for now

In an exclusive new poem and essay Margaret Atwood reflects on the passing of time and how to create lasting art in a rapidly changing world

11/04/2020

Morning after Election Day

No news yet as sky
pales into daylight.
Coffee, the cheap stuff
tastes of scorched caramel.
Cat cries to go out
but I make her wait
hoping dawn stops raccoons
choosing her for breakfast.

11/04/2020

Post your Election Day poem in the comments section below.   Quatrains They “battle for the soul of the nation” And have their voting registration As Democrats—it’s true, at least They’re spi…

10/30/2020

Spooky, scary, and fun poems that will make your hair curl.

07/28/2020

Ursula LeGuinn, The Dispossessed
To die is to lose the self and rejoin the rest. He had kept himself and lost the rest.”

07/08/2020

A gift for your afternoon amusement

Automatically generate imaginative poetry using your own ideas. Select from a variety of structures and we'll do the rhyming, syllable counting and imagery for you.

07/06/2020

Sherman’s memoirs about his early days as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army begin at Ft. Moultrie in Florida and largely involve hunting, fishing, and removing small bands of Seminoles to what is now Oklahoma or in his words west of Arkansas”. He shipped around South America to get to Monterey, California during the Mexican American War. The trip took 198 days. He arrived in 1847. I knew so little about that part of history I looked it up in the Encyclopedia Brittanica. American politics in this era is not exactly what I was taught in the fifth grade.

https://www.britannica.com/event/Mexican-American-War/Invasion-and-war

06/24/2020

The Kentucky Arts Council features poet Maurice Manning in its most recent news letter.
Can’t say why the headline says otherwise, although you May have noticed not every word I post is the one I intended.

Here’s just a taste of Manning’s love for Kentucky speech.
A Blasphemy
BY MAURICE MANNING

You wouldn't have believed it, how
the man, a little touched perhaps,

set his hands together and prayed
for happiness, yet not his own;

he meant his people, by which he meant
not people really, but trees and cows,

the dirty horses, dogs, the fox
who lived at the back of his place with her kits,

and the very night who settled down
to rock his place to sleep, the place

he tried so hard to tend he found
he mended fences in his sleep.

He said to the you above, who, let's
be honest, doesn't say too much,

I need you now up there to give
my people happiness, you let

them smile and know the reason; hear
my prayer, Old Yam. The you who's you

might laugh at that, and I agree,
it's funny to make a prayer like that,

the down-home words and yonder reach
of what he said; and calling God

the Elder Sweet Potato, shucks,
that's pretty funny, and kind of sad.

Featured Artist Featured Artist Maurice Manning

05/25/2020

What have you been reading?
I just finished E.L. Doctorow’s The March about Sherman’s March to the Sea (and through South and North Carolina). I have been searching Gutenberg.org for memoirs of American Civil War generals. Last spring I listened to U.S. Grant’s memoirs which are brilliant. I found myself hanging on his accounts wondering how they would turn out?! Mark Twain prodded him to write his memoirs and published the two volume set. The Guardian considers the book one of the top 100 nonfiction books ever written. Check it out.
Barb

Project Gutenberg offers free eBooks to download.

05/16/2020

Changes in the 2020 Kentucky Primary Election
The Kentucky Primary Election is postponed until June 23.
Register to vote or check your registration online at: GoVoteKY.org. The registration deadline is May 26.
Voting will be primarily by MAIL-IN ABSENTEE BALLOT to prevent further spread of the Coronavirus. Registered voters will receive a postcard with further instructions for requesting a ballot online or by phone. Make your request as soon as possible.
Visit GoVoteKY.org to check your registration ASAP to ensure your mailing address is correct. Postcards will be mailed by May 22. If you don’t receive it by May 26, call your County Clerk.
Early In-Person Absentee Voting will be available weekdays June 8 through June 22. In-Person Voting will also be available on Election Day, June 23. Call your county clerk to make an appointment and find where to vote.
Return your completed ballot postmarked no later than June 23 OR leave it in the county clerk’s drop box by 6 PM June 23.
Citizens with prior nonviolent felony convictions may learn more about restoring their civil rights and registering to vote at CivicRightsRestoration.ky.gov or by calling 502-782-9731.
Source: 2020 Primary State Board of Elections Covid19 Emergency Regulation May 2020
VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE

04/04/2020

Visit Gutenberg.org and look up The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio, written after a 14th century plague in Florence, Italy. Ten friends sequester in the countryside to shelter in place. They amuse one another by telling stories. It’s a work for our time, so it seems.
Stay safe.
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23700

Project Gutenberg offers free eBooks to download.

03/09/2020

Allen County Junior Crowned Poetry Out Loud State Champion

FRANKFORT, Ky. (March 6, 2020) — After three rounds of competition, Allen County-Scottsville High School junior Skye Kozloski emerged as the champion in the Kentucky Poetry Out Loud state finals, March 3, at Frankfort’s Grand Theatre.

“Congratulations to Skye Kozloski and Allen County-Scottsville for winning the 2020 Kentucky Poetry Out Loud state finals,” said Gov. Beshear. “Kentucky is honored to have Skye represent and showcase our state and the Allen County-Scottsville community’s commitment to incorporating art education into our public education system.”

Poetry Out Loud is a poetry recitation contest sponsored by the Kentucky Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. Each student, in the first and second round, was judged on the recitation of two poems. The five top scorers from the first two rounds advanced to the final round where they each recited a third poem. All poems are selected by the students and their teachers from a preapproved anthology of works.

“I was quite surprised,” Kozloski, 16, said of her win over 14 other competitors who had won their schools’ individual competitions to advance to the state finals. “I didn’t expect to be a finalist, let alone win, but I’m quite excited.”

Kozloski’s path to the championship included recitations of “Possible Answers to Prayer” by Scott Cairns and “Across the Bay” by Donald Davie in the first and second rounds, respectively. She clinched the state title with her interpretation of “When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be” by John Keats.

“I liked that the poems where melancholic and they didn’t really have a specific tone,” she said. “They could be perceived in any way. I liked that I could do what I wanted with them.”

Allen County-Scottsville High School has been participating in the state Poetry Out Loud program since 2008. Kozloski is the school’s first state champion, and will represent Kentucky in the Poetry Out Loud national finals, April 27-29, in Washington, D.C.

State runner-up was Grace Caroline Key of Elizabethtown High School. The other three finalists were McKennah Bryan of Grant County High School, Brynn Cooper of Spencer County High School and Sofie Sanders of Danville High School.