Having read a meditation this week about changing every complaint into an act of gratitude, I thrust the lesson upon my students their first day back from Thanksgiving break. Before the veil could be drawn by any of them, I suggested that I bet most of the ...continued

Thanksgiving weekend seems a most appropriate time to express my profound appreciation for all I am forever grateful. Faith, family, and friends. Without this trinity, there can be no foundation upon which to build and sustain our lives.

Belief and tr ...continued

During Michael Hoover’s convalescing, area poets will be contributing to his weekly column. This week, York poet Melissa Carl is the featured columnist. Melissa is a history teacher at West York High School. She has published a poetry collection entitled ...continued

During Michael Hoover’s convalescing, area poets will be featured each week. This week’s poet/columnist is Katy Giebenhain who lives in Gettysburg.
 
What else does this part of autumn bring besides raking our leaf-choked lawns, mid-term exams a ...continued

In the wake of Michael Hoover’s convalescing, area poets will be posting articles to further the conversation of poetry. This week’s contributor is John Hutchinson John is a retired educator, grandfather of eight, and one who greatly appreciates the ...continued

For years I had taken photographs for the sheer pleasure of capturing scenes I wanted to preserve for my continuous enjoyment. It wasn’t until much later that a friend of mine, who went to the Maryland Institute of Art for photography, complimented the p ...continued

The Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, held in even-numbered years since 1986, is the largest poetry event in North America. Nearly sixty internationally acclaimed poets read and discuss their own poetry and lead conversations focusing on various topics c ...continued

This week I am pleased to share a guest column by poet, writer, visual artist, singer, healer, and friend, Susan Beverly. Her “work is widely published and awarded. She loves reading publicly . . . and enjoys collaboration with colleagues in the arts. ...continued

On my way to Lowe’s last Sunday, thinking about the love in my life, it struck me suddenly: it’s not about what we have or don’t have, what we want or don’t want, what we do or don’t do, what we say or don’t say, what we feel, think or don’t. ...continued

Lately I’ve been focusing upon the answers to three questions: Where do I come from? What am I? Where am I going? I’ve borrowed these questions from Ronald Wright who got them from Paul Gauguin, who inscribed the three queries in French upon a painting ...continued

In the wake of Michael Hoover’s convalescing, area poets will be posting articles to further the conversation of poetry. Each edition will begin with a brief biography of the contributor.

This week, former Hanover Poet Laureate Dana Larkin Sauers ...continued

In the wake of Michael Hoover's convalescing, area poets will be posting articles to further the conversation of poetry. Each edition will begin with a brief biography of the contributor.

This week, former and first Hanover Poet Laureate, Anna Manaha ...continued

As you read this, I will be three days on the other side of a robotic assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy. It hurts just even to say aloud. Taking my cue from columnist Cubby Conrad, and hopefully tapping into her courage and wisdom, I will take ...continued

Who would be crazy enough to pick the last weekend in unofficial summer to come to the most toured town in our area to see the very popular, recently reconstructed visitor center? Yep, that's me. But what an experience I had this past Labor Day weekend, th ...continued

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: "Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God's handwriting -- a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of ble ...continued

Intelligent commentary on 21st century poetics. World Class Poetry Blog

Each year I go through the ritual of purging my wardrobe as I prepare to start back to teaching. And, at least once every year, I am sorely reminded of one the talents I lack and am occasionally jealous of those who possess. I’m talking about organizatio ...continued

In the grand scheme of all things that comprise America, Michael Phelps is practically a local boy. Less than an hour’s drive from Hanover, Towson, or the Republic of Towson as my son-in-law has recently come to call it, has brought the world’s eyes to ...continued

Our common denominator has to be love. The most common, love of self. The least, love of others. Here’s where less is really more. The indivisible, the smallest fraction. Reduce ourselves to love of others. So simple. So fulfilling. Yet, the most difficu ...continued

If it weren’t for mothers, the world would not lose its harsh edge. Moms have a way to soften the blow of human gales and the globe’s disasters. They are the first defense we have, our protectors, our nurturers under the laws of nature. A blesséd day ...continued

The last workday of school for teachers is usually one of mixed emotions and lots of activity. The kids have all departed for their summer break the day before, and so the halls are filled with staff of all levels as the great purge begins.

Projects, d ...continued

This Friday evening I will be walking our only daughter, April, down the aisle. I am happy to tears as I recall her journey from birth through childhood, from girlhood through her teens, and from college through her first years as a teacher. And now, she i ...continued

If we all could be projective and accurate, the world might be perfect, for each of us. But, risk and irony abound, perhaps as a blessing, to make life unpredictable, frustrating our ability to be in control and to know it all.

Failure and disappointme ...continued

We all have hoped for perfection, envisioned what it should be like, and have occasionally been so audacious as to plan for it sometimes, especially when meaningful events are in the offing.

Olympic athletes use perfection in their meditative training, ...continued

Little did I anticipate when I accepted an invitation by Janet Lohr to read and talk about my poetry to the Poet’s Corner at Cross Keys Village this past Monday that the evening would include several “firsts.”

This was the first time in my tenure ...continued

In part, most poets are chroniclers. They record truthfully, though maybe not realistically, the times in which they live. They couch their stories in metaphor and allusion. They compare and refer, rather than state directly.

Poets hold before us mirro ...continued

During my father’s recent stay, many of our conversations centered around family, genealogy, U.S. history, personal history, and of course, politics. We had avoided our talks about religion, per se, even though we have come to some unexpressed accord aft ...continued

Guest poet columnist Allen Taylor is webmaster of www.world-class-poetry.com and writes a daily blog at www.worldclasspoetryblog.com. He spent 2005 in Iraq with his National Guard unit and is revising a book of poems he wrote during that time. He and hi ...continued

Okay, okay. T. S. Eliot got it wrong. April is not the cruelest month. Sure, to some, being awakened from winter’s cozy forgetfulness is a drudgery, as spring stirs the memory, beginning the cycle of nurturing again with all its effort and pain. But, to ...continued

Good deeds sometimes slip by unseen. Oh, sure, we notice their passing and at times even participate in them, aware or not, but occasionally the acts themselves warrant little attention. Such is the case with The Reader’s Café’s contribution to poetry ...continued

Thieves show up fairly often in poetry. The experience of being robbed is a useful metaphor because the implications are broad and readers can always relate to robbery on some level. From Elizabeth Bishop’s “The Burglar of Babylon” to Emily Dickinson ...continued

What is special about the sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog"? Who was the first poet laureate of the United States? Which NFL team bears the name of an Edgar Allan Poe poem? Which American poet has won the most Pulitzer Prizes?

Thes ...continued

An independent publisher of undiscovered poets. Iris G. Press

Okay. I’m in love with the moon. Her hues, the faces she reveals, the tilt of her head, her arches and crescents, her shy newness and her bold fullness. I love that she is reflective, sometimes yellow, and that she is a symbol of imagination, sensibility ...continued

Night descends slowly, like understanding,
the great leveling out below--
where land dresses in shadows
and light belongs to those in flight.

Earth dims to darkness
like a faceless conversation;
frozen explosions ascend,
ghosts of prayer and d ...continued

A child's final sigh rises skyward;
yet another psalm with no reply.

In upturned hands in outstretched prayer,
innocence is proffered to a famished will.

And God is breathing all creation in obesely,
taking back the gift to every mother given.

...continued

I want to be a poem hung in a pouch
awaiting David's hand to heft me,

be swung in a sling, given wings,
flung to some Philistine's face,

cracking cranium, breaking brow,
creating chasm wide enough

to ponder the power of pebble
launched i ...continued

Two halves meet
and
want to become a whole,
not realizing each is already
a whole
half, and not simply half a whole.
The whole matter is resolved
when one of the soon-to-be whole’s
halves
decides to be a whole apart
and not play the part-of ...continued

Owls crowd your never-been-cleaned,
heavy-draped rooms: predatory lamps,
stark glares over edges of picture frames,
vigilant figurines, carved handle on the ceiling
fan's pull chain. Even a yellow-eyed bed throw.

Your days link in iceless whiske ...continued

Cells multiply where everything
is taken away; divide when
nothing adds up to something.

Living becomes the geometry
of influence; dying, the physics
between holding on or letting go.

At the axis of bone and marrow,
where blood counts begin ...continued

Listen to the vacancy in this poem:
spaces echoing absence, vague images,
subtle cipher, the ache of appetite,
silhouettes of unstressed syllables,
a barely discernible persona--

How expectant lyrics fade;
where each trace of allusion
and delay ...continued

Advent is a dervish of down and leaves,
of birds gone south, trees letting go:
shadows frame the world in lavender.

Seasons adjust to axis and latitude;
we practice solstice rites whose sun
turns away on the promise of return.

Modern magi, we sea ...continued

Logic ricochets in a race
to stay ahead of wishes
for the kids when you go.

Pursing lips against a blur
of all that might have been,
you take my arm to climb
the slope behind the shed.

I move some clay and stone,
we pot the plants from friends
...continued

Across the piazza from Duomo
people fidget like pigeons,
fixed on destination--Pisa, Firenze,
someplace beyond binario duo,
somewhere other than home.

Blind man in a white shirt,
bolo tie, dress shoes, puffs
a cigar stub, waving a wand
to match ...continued

Change. A twist in the gut. A sinking in the heart. A fact of life. An affront to tradition. Something welcomed or repelled. Something to fight for or against. Most recognize that change is required for progress, though not all progress can be deemed good. ...continued

Our brains are tickled by patterns. Gathering patterns is how we learn. We take in information through our senses and compare the experience to all previous experience. We then respond and file everything away for future comparisons. It’s easy to see the ...continued

Last Saturday, Poetry Brew in York Arts gallery hosted one of the best featured readings by a southeastern PA poet. Afterward, a question loomed like the proverbial elephant in the room: why don’t more poetry aficionados and non-poets attend poetry readi ...continued

You got to love my Dad. He’s Sagittarius through and through. On the positive side, he’s optimistic, freedom-loving, and good-humored; honest, straight-forward, and philosophical. No. Really. He is all of these.

As most Sagittarians, Dad has his mo ...continued

In celebration of the season of children, let’s elevate imitation’s place in our lives. Copycatting, aping, mimicking--all get a bad rap. But, similar to the popular soft drink, imitation is the real thing.

Falling in love with our children is magic ...continued

As curtains close on another year, we scurry in the wings to manage the set for next year’s opening. Scenes from the new season’s production include vacations we may take, places we may visit, promotions we may strive for, celebrations we may attend. I ...continued

Whenever I introduce poetry to students, my first question is: who here loves poetry? When only a couple of brave souls volunteer to be jeered at, I insist that everyone in the room loves poetry. Then, I find the most skeptical moan or screwed up face, and ...continued

Following is both an excerpted conversation on poetry and the process of critique, initiated by my stated intent to keep the conversation about poetry going in our community. (MH)

Here is a poem written by me, Brian Kilkelly.


No Worries
If you don ...continued

At the risk of sounding redundant, a wizened friend once remarked that great literature isn’t bound by national boundaries. This comment points to the obvious, that any statement about human nature or human behavior crosses all borders because of our sha ...continued

By the time Le Hinton reads the following comments, it will be too late for him to retract his guest poet column for next week. He knows I’m just kidding, of course, because he has a great sense of humor. However, although he is driven and success-orient ...continued

We continue to have a national conversation about using a wall or a fence along our southern border. We insist it is for protection, but maybe it’s really an insistence on privacy.


Privacy. The state of being free from intrusion or disturbance in ...continued

Land development sometimes supplants farmland. Whether for families or businesses, all is commercial. The price of progress, or the cost of living and sometimes dying? Investing and sacrificing for our collective future. Children choose not to continue far ...continued

Inevitably when I am at the playground with my son, some overly eager Mom/Barbie wanna-be, with perfect hair and nails, will bounce over, and after launching into a full rendition of how hard it is to find a good preschool around here and isn’t it terrib ...continued

Last month’s guest writer, Julia Tilley, marvelously explained why she writes poetry and she speaks for many of us. Although I spend a great deal of my free time writing poetry, I’d like to explain why I read poetry. Almost no day passes without my rea ...continued

Less than a year and a half ago I traveled to Tuscany in Italy for a bit over a week. This indulgent tryst was the result of a generous invitation from my former sister-in-law with her friends and traveling companions. Having spent time in Rome, Firenza (F ...continued

The vibration was upbeat, the energy high, the ideation rapid fire! The Cultural Arts Alliance of York County meeting four weeks ago held at the Eichelberger Performing Arts Center was expressly aimed at local artists to share their thoughts about cultural ...continued

Kate Brady is a local poet wise beyond her years. She is affable, strong-willed, sensible, and kind. She is dedicated to poetry, family, and community. She is the genuine article.

Treat yourself and a friend or loved one to an early Christmas present. ...continued

For the past few years, my friend and a wonderfully powerful poet, Reni Fulton, has conducted a poetry salon at her home in Red Lion, PA. She has dubbed her gathering Brighid’s Forge Salon. I finally took her up on her kind invite to attend the holiday s ...continued