Poem for the March for Science South Carolina

survivor
for the SC March for Science, 22 April 2017

suburban deer pause in the empty lot next
door ears up bodies rigid in the light someone
leaves corn out for them they follow
the scent the creek to the river clatter
across asphalt streets at night eat the day-
lilies the kale the limelight hydrangeas one
day we find a fawn curled in the long grass
leaning not yet a lien the county will levy
against an absentee owner somewhere
glaciers calving caving carving themselves
off Antarctica where have you been where
would you go the calves drifting north a fawn
loping down Elm Abode’s not yet busy daylit

streets we will not know it will not notice
will not know that it is not the catastrophe we
expected though no less catastrophic hardly
hardy orchids budded at winter’s end not
ended white blooms the cold browns we
discover an armadillo burrowed beneath
the roses my mom says she’s never seen
them this far north before the gold spiders
gilding the air between the oaks mosquitoes
not killed not cold enough the cherry weeping

too early somewhere it’s Survivor another
season another immunity challenge somewhere
steam rising off pools of pale blue water
laced with boron and spent fuel rods resting
at the bottom a great desert ditch bristles
with warning cobalt blue yuccas modified
to blue like test tubes of blue blood bled
from horseshoe crabs Limulus polyphemus or
the one-eyed monster that sees the world
askew collected and bled for medicine and
released back to the sea most survive only
a third die the yuccas are modified to mark
the ridge the ditch the hot spot for millennia
to come

Visiones

As poet laureate, I gathered 6 “river poems” by local poets that appeared on film screens between films during the 2016 Indie Grits film festival last year, Watermarked. April is also National Poetry Month! I wanted to do this again this year for the 2017 Indie Grits festival, Visiones, a multidisciplinary film and arts festival focused on the Latinx community and Latin American artists. So, if you attended this year, you may have seen one of the following poems ahead of film screenings.

Dream/Sueña – Vera Gómez
Believe me – Juan David Cruz
State of Nation – Loli Molina
La salida – Santiago Garcia-Castanon
Visions – Manuel J. Torres-Angel, aka TManning
Las Semilitas (Tiny Seeds) – Lissette Landa Treanor
Contigo y sin ti – Gloria Bayne
Thanks to the Nickelodeon Theatre, Indie Grits, the wonderful contributing poets, and the City of Columbia. Happy National Poetry Month!

Did you get a parking ticket??

A big happy National Poetry Month to you! …..And, happy April Fools!

Maybe you walked out to your car today and found a “parking ticket” under your windshield wiper. Were you shocked? Were you upset? But then you were met with the realization that a poet had pranked you while giving you a lovely little poem to take on your way. Be sure to share your experience on social media by using the hashtags #columbiapoet and #parkingpoems! Here’s a gallery of all six poems, provided by South Carolina poets Brian Slusher, Vera Gomez, Dale Bailes, Kathleen Nalley, Barbara Hagerty and Tim Conroy.

This project, coordinated as part of the activities of Columbia’s Poet Laureate, was the kick off to a celebration here in Columbia of National Poetry Month. You’ll see a few more activities around the city that are being coordinated including an updated set of poems on the COMET, poems on screen during this year’s Indie Grits festival and maybe some surprises you’ll only see when it rains (more details to come).

Celebrate poetry. And, I hope you enjoyed the fun joke.