2012 Schedule Flyer

An exciting season in store for us.  Double click the image to see it full-size.  Print and post or save it and post it online.  Thanks.

February 14, 2012 Poetry Hickory Flyer

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January 2012 Poetry Hickory Flier

December 13 Poetry Hickory Flier

November 8 Poetry Hickory Flyer

October 11 Poetry Hickory Flyer

Flier for Hickory’s 100 Thousand Poets for Change Event

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Review of The Best of Poetry Hickory

Review

by Pris Campbell

 

The Best of Poetry Hickory Anthology

 

From my distant perch in Florida, I’ve long been convinced that something in the Carolina water breeds especially good poets. This anthology, packed with well-written, spell-binding poems, more than confirms my suspicions. These poems speak in an engaging voice to the reader rather than announcing ‘look at how good I am” by way of contrived metaphors or other poetic devices inserted simply for the sake of having them there. These poems are good. It’s not necessary for them to preen or crow to let us know it.

 

I like to read poems I can relate to, poems that move me, poems that give me a way of seeing the familiar in a new light. This book did all of that in spades.

 

I could easily quote lines from every poem but space allows only a few. Those chosen were a difficult call but they give an idea of the range of themes covered in the anthology.

 

Robert Abbate asks in “Ecce Homo”:

 

What would Jesus do

once he could be lured

to the place of the fractured

pistol-whipped skull

and once, in the freezing air

he could be lashed to a barbed

wire fence outside Laramie

 

Maureen Sherbondy continues the theme in a different way in “Praying at Coffee Shops in the South”:

 

What are those public interludes with God?

Two men at Starbucks holding hands

bent over in prayer leaning into the invisible

 

Tony Ricciardell brings us back home as he speaks to his now helpless father in “Sins of My Father”:

 

If I spoke to your mother the way you speak to your wife you would have crippled me, wouldn’t you? If I called your mother bitch or whore, if I curled curses at her the way you hurled curses at my mother, you would have kicked me down the stairs, wouldn’t you?

 

 

Malaika King Albrecht’s poem, “The Riddle Song” brings tears as she writes of her father singing “I gave my love a cherry’ as he massages her mother’s useless limbs, hoping her mother is able to hear him, hoping she is looking at him as he sings.

 

Ted Pope views family from the other direction in “Bright Child” as he watches his daughter move swiftly from infant to adulthood:

 

….bright child holy child child of all my hope and reverence I

saw her coming down 4^th St again today and today would not

be like any other day oh no today I’m going to follow her to

see where she goes to get that glowing external primal essence…

 

And Joseph Bathanti offers a bawdier view of the South in “Peaches”:

 

On a roadhouse bathroom wall

in the peach town of Gaffney, South Carolina

a woman’s body laminates itself

across the face of a condom machine

 

These poems are jewels. If I could I would string them around my neck so I could reach up and feel their glow whenever I liked. Needless to say, I highly recommend this book.

 

 

The Best of Poetry Hickory is available at Taste Full Beans Coffee House or from Scott Owens (asowens1@yahoo.com) for just $5 — All proceeds to Taste Full Beans in gratitude for hosting Poetry Hickory for four years.  A reading from the anthology will take place on September 13, 5:30, at Taste Full Beans, and will feature 27 of the poets selected for the anthology.

Updated List for Best of Poetry Hickory Anthology Reading

With the additions of Tony Abbott, Jonathan K. Rice, and Bethea Buchanan, we’re up to 26 readers for Poetry Hickory 9/13, 5:30:

Anthony Abbott

Jeanne Ackley

Hazel Benau

Bethea Buchanan

Jessie Carty

Bud Caywood

Ann Chandonnet

M. Scott Douglass

Bill Griffin

Helen Losse

Dennis Lovelace

Doug MacHargue

Shane Manier

Ron Moran

Scott Owens

Tim Peeler

Julian Phelps

Ted Pope

Nancy Posey

David Poston

Tony Ricciardelli

Jonathan K. Rice

Molly Rice

Donnie Smart

Kermit Turner

Devona Wyant

Slight Change in Format for the Poetry Hickory 4th Anniversary Celebration

The response from poets for the Poetry Hickory 4th Anniversary Celebration has been much greater than I anticipated.  When I first planned on having this double book release party (my new book and The Best of Poetry Hickory anthology), I figured we would get between a half dozen and a dozen poets to come and read their one poem from the anthology, so I thought it would make sense to give the anthology a half hour and I would take an hour for mine.  Then when we went over a dozen, I changed it to where we would split the time evenly.  Now, we have 23 poets who will be there to read their poems from the anthology.  So, I’m still having my book release party, but I’m going to do just a brief (10 minute) reading from “Something Knows the Moment” just as a “warm-up” for the anthology.  We will split those readers in half and take a break in the middle so that people can buy books, get signatures and refresh their drinks.

I look forward to seeing you all at Taste Full Beans Coffeehouse in downtown Hickory on September 13.  The readings will begin at 5:30 and should wrap up around 7:00.  I will have plenty of copies of “Something Knows the Moment,” which retails for $14.95, and the anthology, which sells for just $5.  If you can’t make it, but you want a book, let me know, and I will work out the shipping with you.  And by the way, we will still have Writers’ Night Out at 4:00.

Here is a complete list of the poets currently scheduled to read their poems from what is a truly wonderful collection:

Jeanne Ackley

Hazel Benau

Jessie Carty

Bud Caywood

Ann Chandonnet

M. Scott Douglass

Bill Griffin

Helen Losse

Dennis Lovelace

Doug MacHargue

Shane Manier

Ron Moran

Scott Owens

Tim Peeler

Julian Phelps

Ted Pope

Nancy Posey

David Poston

Tony Ricciardelli

Molly Rice

Donnie Smart

Kermit Turner

Devona Wyant

and maybe more

Should be quite the Poetry Party.  Come for the anthology; come for my book; come for the poetry; come to meet some of these poets; come for the wine; just come for the good time!

I hope to see you there.