Poetry

This interview airs beginning June 15.
Several books of her poetry received praise and recognition even before Claudia Emerson received a Pulitzer Prize for Late Wife. She is a former Poet Laureate of Virginia and also an inspiring teacher at the University of Mary Washington. Debby Klein visits Claudia to listen to her poems and share her experiences on CRRL Presents, a Central Rappahannock Regional Library production.

Celebrate National Poetry Month by attending our Teen Poetry Night at the Headquarters Library, 1201 Caroline Street, downtown Fredericksburg.

Join us for poetry readings by the winners of our Teen Poetry Contest and by our host and contest judge, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Claudia Emerson.

In addition to winning the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry and being a former Poet Laureate of Virginia, Emerson was recently inducted into the prestigious Fellowship of Southern Writers and awarded the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation fellowship.

We're very lucky she's still willing to find time in her busy schedule to spend with budding local teen poets!

For grades 7 to adult.  Call 372-1144 for more information.

Each year we celebrate National Poetry Month in April with our Teen Poetry Contest.

Teens in grades 7-12 from Fredericksburg, Stafford, Spotsylvania, and Westmoreland, are invited to submit up to three originial poems. Out-of-region library cardholders may also enter.

The winners are chosen (anonymously) by University of Mary Washington professor and Pulitzer Prize winning poet, Claudia Emerson.

Entries were accepted online between April 1 - 12, 2011.
Winners are selected from participants in grades 7-9 and grades 10-12.

Winners are awarded prizes and invited to read work at Teen Poetry Night at Headquarters Library: Tuesday, April 26, 2011, 7:30-9:00

We had over 350 entries this year! Here are the winners ...

The National Academy of American Poets has a simple way for people to celebrate National Poetry month: "Select a poem, pocket it, carry it, and share it with family, friends, and coworkers throughout the day." The 4^th annual "Poem in Your Pocket day," celebrated on April 14, encourages poetry lovers of all ages to read and share a poem in celebration of this fantastic art form.

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

Alicia Suskin Ostriker is one of our country’s finest poets. She lives in Princeton, New Jersey. I thought that today you might like to have us offer you a poem full of blessings.

The Blessing of the Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog

To be blessed
said the old woman
is to live and work
so hard
God’s love
washes right through you
like milk through a cow

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

Equipment. I like to paint and draw, and I own enough art supplies to start my own store. And for every hobby there are lots of supplies that seem essential. In this poem we get a whole tackle box full of equipment from Michael Sowder, who lives and fishes in Utah.

Fishing, His Birthday

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

Whether we like it or not, we live with the awareness that death is always close at hand, and in this poem by Don Thompson, a Californian, a dead blackbird can’t be pushed out of the awareness of the speaker, nor can it escape the ants, who have their own yard work to do.

Yard Work

My leaf blower lifted the blackbird—
wings still spread, weightless,
floating on the loud, electric wind
almost as if it were alive.

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

Barnyard chickens, which are little more than reptiles with feathers, can be counted on to kill those among them who are malformed or diseased, but we humans, advanced animals that we think we are, are far more likely to just turn away from people who bear the scars of misfortune. Here’s a poem by Ned Balbo, who lives and teaches in Maryland.

Fire Victim

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

It is enough for me as a reader that a poem take from life a single moment and hold it up for me to look at. There need not be anything sensational or unusual or peculiar about that moment, but somehow, by directing my attention to it, our attention to it, the poet bathes it in the light of the remarkable. Here is a poem like this by Carolyn Miller, who lives in San Francisco.

The World as It is

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

We are sometimes amazed by how well the visually impaired navigate the world, but like the rest of us, they have found a way to do what interests them. Here Jan Mordenski of Michigan describes her mother, absorbed in crocheting.

Crochet

Even after darkness closed her eyes ?
my mother could crochet. ?
Her hands would walk the rows of wool ?
turning, bending, to a woolen music.