LexPoMo Highlights
One of the things I love about LexPoMo is the friendships found in the firehose of poetry, but another is connecting with real life friends through our poetry. The loss of one of those real life friends inspired a poem that felt too self-indulgent to post to LexPoMo but I will share it here because if I can’t be self-indulgent here then where?
Vickie
This is my first summer without you
Today I found the birthday card you gave me last year
Before we even knew you were sick
I think about you often
when I’m in my classroom
at my keyboard
on my deck with an Angry Orchard in my hand
LexPoMo is not the same without you
Summer is not the same without you
Life is not the same without you
Rebel Cartographers:
- Ann Haney: OK, clearly picking favorites is not going to be easy. I love how so much of Ann’s work reflects her life and our journey together. Her poems are her truth Check out: Becoming (although I struggled because I did love Body of Work and Truth be Told.
- Nancy Gourde: Again. A difficult choice because so often Nancy’s humorous poems tickle my fancy and I had several poignant ones selected so instead of a favorite I simply picked three of the faces of Nancy that I love: Mary Oliver’s Poem, In the Darkness, and In Sickness.
- Lisa Martin: I love when I see a dear friend reflected in her poetry and several of Lisa’s poems were so full of truth I cried. Check out Aging although my body and VISIT were strong contenders for my favorite.
- Darlene DeMaria: Trying to pick some favorites from Darlene’s LexPoMo contributions is always a challenge because she generates some serious daily output but I love this prayer Mother Forgive Us For We Know Not What We Are Doing . . . and am touched by now i hope you know . . . and Dry Spell.
- Jess Roat: This list of poems was wide ranging so it took me some time to narrow down to three possibilities but I think Two Hundred Hour Friends is my favorite because I didn’t get enough poems about the LexPoMo experience. However, I also love Fledgling and Feast of Love.
MWP
- Liz Prather: My LexPoMo tenure began through Liz (at a Morehead Writing Project Writing Retreat) and Liz’s writing always touches me to the quick and you can see it so powerfully in Service Department, Dutch’s Ford, Mt. Sterling. We live in the same town. I have sat in that service department. I know those people and yet I always fail to note the details that Liz captures so well. A serious runner-up was All These Other Tellings.
- Eric Morris: First time out and he posted daily and so many bangers it was difficult to pick a favorite but I just had to go with Scarification. I am haunted by both Keystone and Hunting Hydras.
- Alora Jones: Several of Alora’s poems struck me to the quick but ultimately I decided on Multitudes because I know how beautiful this poet is in real life as well as on the page. The runners-up hit on two life experiences I share with Alora (as a human and teacher who struggles): Washing Dirty Dishes and To the worn out 16-year-old with bloodshot eyes working at McDonalds:.
- Austen Reilley: Too many of these poems hit home hard for me but this gem the hardest: Midcentury/ Modern. I also loved Queer Literary Hoedown at the Carnegie Center and Documentation.
MSU
- Patrick Johnson: I connect viscerally with so many of these poems I really struggled to pick three let alone a favorite so I will just leave you with: 17 Year Visit, Imposter, and A Man Works Until He’s Dead, By God.
- Amy Richardson: This poetry (as hers does so often) broke my heart with her truth so again I’m copping out by just picking three because that was as much struggle as I could manage: Happy Landings, When the Hollers Sang, and To Love a Complicated Place.
- Wayne Willis: I feel the need to just sit with Wayne for a while and pat his hand because his poetry is so real and heartbreaking: Losing the Plot, Nature Interrupted, and A Dark Mirror.
Image by Horst Schwalm from Pixabay
