Ann Haley

 BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006

American literature is rich with poems about the passage of time, and the inevitability of change, and how these affect us. Here is a poem by Kevin Griffith, who lives in Ohio, in which the years accelerate by their passing.

Spinning

Debby Klein, the voice behind CRRL Presents, the library’s weekly broadcast of interviews with people who shape the arts, history, and culture of the region, has received the prestigious Citizen Salute award from the Friends of the UMW-CSO Orchestra. The award is given to someone in the community who has both supported the orchestra and shown a commitment to Fredericksburg through their volunteerism and dedication to the arts.

CRRL web content librarian, Virginia Johnson, has received the highest award for a nonfiction book in the Virginia Press Women’s 2009 Communications Contest.

Fredericksburg, Virginia, and Fréjus, France, have been sister cities, promoting cultural exchange, since 1980. The Central Rappahannock Regional Library and the Fredericksburg Sister City Association, in the two cities' first exchange between libraries, this week welcome the Fréjus municipal library's Catherine Lecat, director, and Christine Ortuno, manager of the adult reading room and rare books collection, for a week of Libraries, American Style. 

Libraries are all about access to information, so this seems an appropriate place to point you to the Virginia Coalition for Open Government's call for nominations for their Freedom of Information awards.

"Do you know someone who works hard to keep government open and accountable? Have you read an article, seen a television show or heard a radio program that helped you understand the importance of government records and meetings? Has someone in local or state government demonstrated a real commitment to citizen access to government information?"

by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate, 2004-2006

Memories have a way of attaching themselves to objects, to details, to physical tasks, and here, George Bilgere, an Ohio poet, happens upon mixed feelings about his mother while slicing a head of cabbage.

Corned Beef and Cabbage

by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate, 2004-2006

Memories form around details the way a pearl forms around a grain of sand, and in this commemoration of an anniversary, Cecilia Woloch reaches back to grasp a few details that promise to bring a cherished memory forward, and succeeds in doing so. The poet lives and teaches in southern California.

Anniversary