-The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on May 30, 2019. “We’re in it for the long haul,” said Little River Poetry Festival’s Jack Callan about the festival’s upcoming fourth year, June 7-9. Callan, an artist, poet and carpenter, founded the festival with his wife Judith Stevens after years of visiting Floyd for Spoken […]
1. I recently experienced a hot button issue. After reading outside in the sun, in shorts and a bathing suit top, I got up and the metal button on my shorts nearly burned me. 2. There once was a paisley-shaped scar / under the left side of my rib-cage / I imagined it as a […]
________Our World Tuesday / Wordless Wednesday
On June 1st Wanda Combs, the editor/manager of our local weekly newspaper, The Floyd Press, is retiring. I’ve been working as a stringer for the paper under her tutelage for more than a decade and am deeply grateful for her experience, encouragement and guidance over the years. In 2006 she took a chance on me. […]
Today’s poetry was paper trashUnrequited loves that broke my heartTeased out lines written in circlesBig ideas that fell flat So I vowed to quitbut miss it alreadyI put it in writing but scribbled that too Now I’m looking for loopholesto fix what I quit to write today’s honest wordnot tomorrow’s regret __________Colleen Redman / Poets United/ […]
–The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on May 23, 2019 About 40 people were in attendance Sunday May 12th for an afternoon house concert at the Grateful Bread House. Hosted by Grateful Bread’s Barbara Gillespie and musician Brad Collier, the concert featured Cicada Rhythm, a singer/songwriter duo from Athens, Georgia, who have recently […]
1. The weekend was all about the birthday cake, eating cake, trying not to eat cake, taking care of the cake, taking pictures of the cake and sharing the cake. 2. Sign seen on Facebook: Every child had a heartbeat before being shot dead in school. Where’s that righteous Republican pro-life rage? 3. Two sons […]
-The following first appeared in the May 2nd issue of The Floyd Press About 15 people participated in a Mindfulness Flash Mob in conjunction with Give Big NRV Day as a way to raise awareness about Mindfulness. It was organized by Jamie Reygle of InStill Mindfulness SWVA (instillmindfulness.org), a non-profit organization that promotes education and […]
We spent a little time on the mountain dancing to The Kind at the Pine. _____________________________Our World Tuesday
“A scar is what happens when the word is made flesh” – Leonard Cohen The scars around my anklesfrom being burned when I was a babyare almost invisible nowLike the wound of being separatedfrom mother and homefor a four-week hospital stay We called dragonflies “sewing needles”when we were kids at Billington SeaWe were scared they would land […]
-The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on May 9, 2109. It may never have happened before and hasn’t happened since. In 1997 four Salutatorians graduated from Floyd County High School (FCHS). Alongside Class Valedictorian Jeremy Midkiff (center), the four were (left to right) Johanna Neuman, Kelly (Wade) Blackwell, Nicole (Phillips) Connolly and Amber […]
1. My friend posted some flower photos on Facebook this week that caused me to comment “ooh la la,” which reminded me of THIS. 3. Joe calls me “sweet pea.” “If I’m a sweet pea, what’s your flower name?” I asked him. 4. I thought about it for a while and then came up with […]
