Loose Leaf Notes

Poetry Society of Virginia’s Vice President Angie Dribben heads up a creative writing group at the Jessie Peterman Library in Floyd. Local poets joined with some of the group’s poets and other members of the Poetry Society of Virginia for an Open Mic on Saturday that Dribben’s emceed.

Jack Callan, co-founder of the annual  Little River Poetry Festival (JUN 3 AT 3 PM – JUN 5 AT 3 PM at On the Water Outfitters) opened the reading with a poem from his self-created genre: carpenter love poems.

Fresh off a poetry reading birthday tea, I read two poems, prefacing them with: “I don’t have a religious mythology, but I have Jungian/Quantum Physics one: I imagine my mother’s kitchen / still existing somewhere in time / after the big bang / and near a bright galaxy / that a giant telescope can see

And from The Final Leaving: Become the air for others breathe / A memory that floats like a fragrance. Listen HERE. 

Katherine spoke of the Soulful Aging Reading Tour we are on together, our deepening friendship and convergent writing paths. She gave a shout out to The Little River Poetry Festival before reading her poem about listening.

She followed that with a couple of poems from her new book A Year of Haiku: Saying More with Less: In our culture, it’s / difficult to see beauty / in aging folks. TRY!

I love you, haiku came from local poet Jim Best.

Erika Joyner shared her poem about participating in a poetry reading as a transgender woman (sorry the first few words were cut off).

The quality of poetry was so rich and I was happy to hear Angela share the above poem, written for her husband.

PSOV Dave Patteson was in town from Richmond and read two poems, one about his father called Breakers and another humorous one about emojis.

Marjie Gowdy, who came from Callaway, was another PSOV member. She started her poem, It’s Wrong to Feel Lucky, by saying, “I have a feeling that you, like I am, are thinking about war and needing to write about it.”

Our friend Melody read from our late butterfly mystic A’Court Bason’s book, Tiny Shrines. Eydie Clifton, Edna Whittier and Dale Walker also took to the podium with poems. – More photos can be found HERE.