Sunday, October 30, 2016

Pay Attention: Poems for Oral Interpretation


Pay Attention: Poems for Oral Interpretation, edited by John Pierce, now on sale at Amazon,  contains two of my longer persona pieces: "Her Last Cotillion" about Doc Holliday and his cousin Mattie (whom Melanie Wilkes in Gone With the Wind was modeled after) and "Richard Lionheart's Mummified Heart Examined" a piece in various voices about the recent discovery of King Richard's heart buried beneath a church in Rouen.  The editor's intention is that this collection of poems be used for high school dramatic interpretation competitions.  I thought it was a great idea, especially as he says it is difficult to find good pieces to use for this purpose.  When I was in Forensics in high school, I couldn't find a piece I liked and I ended up writing my own, and after I left it was used by others.   

"Calle del Cristo, Old San Juan" chosen for Arte Latino Now 2017 exhibit



ARTE LATINO NOW 2017 has chosen my poem about Puerto Rico, "Calle del Cristo, Old San Juan" to be read and displayed in next year's exhibit at the
Max L. Jackson Gallery, Watkins Building, Queens University of Charlotte, Jan 17-Feb 17, 2017.

From their site:

"Sponsored by The Center for Latino Studies at Queens University of Charlotte in partnership with artist Edwin Gil, Art Sí and Queens' Departments of Art and World Languages, ARTE LATINO NOW seeks to highlight the exciting cultural and artistic contributions of Latinos in the United States.
 We invite artists who self-define as Latino and live and work in the United States to submit an original creative work in their medium of choice. Winners will be exhibited at Queens University of Charlotte in Spring 2017."

This poem is another offspring of the Key West Literary Seminar Writers' workshop. I received lots of positive feedback about it from the group and altered it slightly before sending it off to the competition.

I hope to visit the exhibit when I go to Charlotte for my Mom's 94th birthday!

The Australia Times Poetry Magazine features "Bahia Honda Beach Conch" on their Facebook page.

The Australia Times Poetry Magazine has published a few of my poems: two in the October issue, "Inspiration" (a sonnet) and "The Last Thing I'll Lose" and now has accepted two more, and featured "Bahia Honda Beach Conch" on their facebook page!  It was accompanied by a beautiful picture of a conch shell. I wrote the poem right after I attended the Key West Literary Seminar Writers' workshop led by poet and FIU professor Campbell McGrath.