Stream
Log awaited rain
feeds plants
brings life
fills stream
to overflowing
Long awaited rain
floods forest
breaks down trees
ends lives.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Sunday, September 18, 2011
UTC Offers Meacham Workshop
For more infor see http://www.meachamwriters.org/index.htm
We would like to once again invite you to the Meacham Writers' Workshop, which will be held October 27-29, 2011, on the campuses of UTC and Chattanooga State, and at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre. The full schedule and bios of the visiting writers are available on the Meacham web site. Just select Schedule.
Also, for those of you unfamiliar with the campuses or the Chattanooga area, there are links to maps on the schedule to help you find locations. Some events have not yet had rooms assigned. This information will be added to the schedule as it becomes available.
If you would like to submit poetry or prose for review, the deadline is October 7th. All of the information regarding submissions is availabe from the Submissions page on the Meacham web site, where you can submit your files electronically, which is our preference. When you submit, you will be asked your preference for either a group workshop seminar or an individual conference. Because of the limited time available to the visiting writers, we will not be able to offer the option of selecting both, as we did in the spring.
When you submit, the system is set up to send you an automatic response indicating your mss. has been received. Unfortunately, many e-mail services tend to block this message as spam. If you do not receive the auto-response and cannot find it in your spam folder, feel free to contact the Meacham webmaster to verify your mss. was received. For your convenience, there is a web form that you can use to contact the webmaster on the Meacham web site. Just click on Contact the Webmaster.
There will also be two open workshops during the Meacham, one on publishing and one on song writing. Participants do not need to register for these events.
Since you are receiving this message, you are already on the Meacham mailing list, so, if you submit a manuscript, answer NO to that question, or you may receive duplicate announcements from us.
Thank you for your interest in the Meacham Writers' Workshop, and we hope to see you in October.
We would like to once again invite you to the Meacham Writers' Workshop, which will be held October 27-29, 2011, on the campuses of UTC and Chattanooga State, and at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre. The full schedule and bios of the visiting writers are available on the Meacham web site. Just select Schedule.
Also, for those of you unfamiliar with the campuses or the Chattanooga area, there are links to maps on the schedule to help you find locations. Some events have not yet had rooms assigned. This information will be added to the schedule as it becomes available.
If you would like to submit poetry or prose for review, the deadline is October 7th. All of the information regarding submissions is availabe from the Submissions page on the Meacham web site, where you can submit your files electronically, which is our preference. When you submit, you will be asked your preference for either a group workshop seminar or an individual conference. Because of the limited time available to the visiting writers, we will not be able to offer the option of selecting both, as we did in the spring.
When you submit, the system is set up to send you an automatic response indicating your mss. has been received. Unfortunately, many e-mail services tend to block this message as spam. If you do not receive the auto-response and cannot find it in your spam folder, feel free to contact the Meacham webmaster to verify your mss. was received. For your convenience, there is a web form that you can use to contact the webmaster on the Meacham web site. Just click on Contact the Webmaster.
There will also be two open workshops during the Meacham, one on publishing and one on song writing. Participants do not need to register for these events.
Since you are receiving this message, you are already on the Meacham mailing list, so, if you submit a manuscript, answer NO to that question, or you may receive duplicate announcements from us.
Thank you for your interest in the Meacham Writers' Workshop, and we hope to see you in October.
Southern Light at Winder Binder
Southern Light Poets Read at Winder Binder, October 2nd
Several contributors to the anthology, Southern Light: Twelve Contemporary Southern Poets, will read at Winder Binder Gallery and Bookstore, 10 Frazier Avenue, Chattanooga on Sunday, October 2nd at 2:00pm. A signing will immediately follow the reading which is part of the One Bridge Art Festival annually sponsored by Winder Binder. Readers include Helga Kidder, Penny Dyer, K.B. Ballentine, Ray Zimmerman, Rebecca Cook, Jenny Sadre-Orafai, E. Smith Gilbert, and Finn Bille.
Several contributors to the anthology, Southern Light: Twelve Contemporary Southern Poets, will read at Winder Binder Gallery and Bookstore, 10 Frazier Avenue, Chattanooga on Sunday, October 2nd at 2:00pm. A signing will immediately follow the reading which is part of the One Bridge Art Festival annually sponsored by Winder Binder. Readers include Helga Kidder, Penny Dyer, K.B. Ballentine, Ray Zimmerman, Rebecca Cook, Jenny Sadre-Orafai, E. Smith Gilbert, and Finn Bille.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Cranes
This was just republished on the blog Miriam's Well. It also appears in Southern Light: Twelve Contemporary Southern Poets, and in my chapbook, Searching for Cranes.
It was first published in The Chattanooga Chat, newsletter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society, Chattanooga Chapter.
Cranes
Their voices
call to my ears,
pull my eyes skyward,
Sandhills from Michigan.
Cranes wing southward,
call my thoughts to fly with them
to Okefenokee
or the Gulf Coast of Florida.
They bring their news of winter,
their voices compared to barking
geese, to the bugling
of wild elks.
These are no geese,
their words no honk,
no barnyard bark for them.
It is a rattling coo,
doves amplified 1000 times.
Arrows shot from a bow,
they neither swoop nor slow,
they rocket southward,
abandon me here
rooted to the ground.
Cranes – According to An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols, 1978, Thames and Hudson, Ltd, London, cranes are symbols of longevity, vigilance, prosperity, protective motherhood, and happiness. Various cultures have regarded them as intermediaries between heaven and earth, heralds of spring and light, and sacred birds inhabiting the isles of the blessed.
It was first published in The Chattanooga Chat, newsletter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society, Chattanooga Chapter.
Cranes
Their voices
call to my ears,
pull my eyes skyward,
Sandhills from Michigan.
Cranes wing southward,
call my thoughts to fly with them
to Okefenokee
or the Gulf Coast of Florida.
They bring their news of winter,
their voices compared to barking
geese, to the bugling
of wild elks.
These are no geese,
their words no honk,
no barnyard bark for them.
It is a rattling coo,
doves amplified 1000 times.
Arrows shot from a bow,
they neither swoop nor slow,
they rocket southward,
abandon me here
rooted to the ground.
Cranes – According to An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols, 1978, Thames and Hudson, Ltd, London, cranes are symbols of longevity, vigilance, prosperity, protective motherhood, and happiness. Various cultures have regarded them as intermediaries between heaven and earth, heralds of spring and light, and sacred birds inhabiting the isles of the blessed.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Southern Light
For Immediate Release
Contact: Ray Zimmerman (423) 315-0721, znaturalist@yahoo.com
Southern Light at Summer Showcase
Southern Light: Twelve Contemporary Southern Poets will be included in Summer Showcase, an exhibition at Poets House, NYC, in July, 2011. At the conclusion of the exhibition, a copy will be archived in the Poets House library and database.
Ford, Falcon and McNeil, publishers, released Southern Light: Twelve Contemporary Southern Poets in April of this year. The book is a diverse collection of works by authors connected to the southern landscape. Each poet speaks, with a unique voice, of a land illuminated by the hot southern sun. Over 180 poems celebrate both regional traditions and life in the New South.
The collection begins with twenty poems reclaimed from out of print works by Robert Morgan and continues with poems by regional writers. Many of the works are published in this volume for the first time while others are well known and award winning.
Southern Light includes poems by: Robert Morgan, Penny Dyer, Bill Brown, Bruce Majors, Jenny Sadre-Orafai, Rebecca Cook, Ray Zimmerman, E. Smith Gilbert, Helga Kidder, K. B. Ballentine, Finn Bille, and Dan Powers. Ray Zimmerman served as Executive Editor, while Bruce Majors and Ed Lindberg also served on the editorial team.
Follow Southern Light on Faceboook at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Southern-Light/159959427392604
Hear Southern Light poets read their work at http://www.archive.org/details/southernLightTwelveContemporarySouthernPoets
ISBN 978-0-9827252-2-1
Contact: Ray Zimmerman (423) 315-0721, znaturalist@yahoo.com
Southern Light at Summer Showcase
Southern Light: Twelve Contemporary Southern Poets will be included in Summer Showcase, an exhibition at Poets House, NYC, in July, 2011. At the conclusion of the exhibition, a copy will be archived in the Poets House library and database.
Ford, Falcon and McNeil, publishers, released Southern Light: Twelve Contemporary Southern Poets in April of this year. The book is a diverse collection of works by authors connected to the southern landscape. Each poet speaks, with a unique voice, of a land illuminated by the hot southern sun. Over 180 poems celebrate both regional traditions and life in the New South.
The collection begins with twenty poems reclaimed from out of print works by Robert Morgan and continues with poems by regional writers. Many of the works are published in this volume for the first time while others are well known and award winning.
Southern Light includes poems by: Robert Morgan, Penny Dyer, Bill Brown, Bruce Majors, Jenny Sadre-Orafai, Rebecca Cook, Ray Zimmerman, E. Smith Gilbert, Helga Kidder, K. B. Ballentine, Finn Bille, and Dan Powers. Ray Zimmerman served as Executive Editor, while Bruce Majors and Ed Lindberg also served on the editorial team.
Follow Southern Light on Faceboook at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Southern-Light/159959427392604
Hear Southern Light poets read their work at http://www.archive.org/details/southernLightTwelveContemporarySouthernPoets
ISBN 978-0-9827252-2-1
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Bio
Ray Zimmerman
Ray Zimmerman is the Executive Editor of Southern Light: Twelve Contemporary Southern Poets, an eclectic anthology that celebrates both regional traditions and life in the New South. He is a former president of the Chattanooga Writers Guild and won Second Place in the 2007 Poetry Contest of the Tennessee Writers Alliance. Ten days after undergoing coronary bypass surgery, he read his winning poem, “Glen Falls Trail,” at the awards ceremony of the Southern Festival of Books at Legislative Plaza, Nashville, Tennessee. Jeff Biggers, Associate Editor of the Bloomsbury Review, favorably reviewed Ray’s Chapbook, Searching for Cranes, in his end of year roundup article. Biggers referred to Ray as a “southern Edward Abbey or Terry Tempest Williams.” Ray was the subject of a feature article in the September, 2008 issue of Blush magazine.
Published Poems
“Sign” appeared in TPQ Online
“Glen Falls Trail” appeared in www.vinestreetpress.com subsequently in Presenting the Beatniks
“Cranes” appeared in the Chattanooga Chat, newsletter of Tennessee Ornithological Society – Chattanooga Chapter
“Reincarnation” appeared in the Earth First! Journal
“No Hair,” Moonscape,” and “Dog Star – Isis” appeared in Presenting the Beatniks
“Moonscape” was part of a collection the Create Here gallery in Chattanooga, Tennessee published on their windows to celebrate local poets
“No Hair” and “Sign” appeared in the DVD The Beatniks are Back, read by the author and accompanied by The Drum Circle. The Contrapasso interpretive dance troop performed a dance during the performance of “Sign”
Photography
Ray's photography has appeared in Tennessee Conservationist and the Photographic Society of America Journal. He has shown his work at the Creative Arts Guild (Dalton, Georgia) and in local galleries and shows in Chattanooga. He is a former Board Member of the Photographic Society of Chattanooga.
Published Prose
“Nature’s Bookshelf” was a column in the Bimonthly publication Hellbender Press, Knoxville, Tennessee. Each installment was a profile of a nature or environmental author.
“March 1: A Walk on the Levee,” and “The Levee Revisited” appeared in Hellbender Press, Knoxville, Tennessee.
“The Owl and I,” “Journey to Springtime,” “The Little River Canyon: A New National Park,” and “Owls of Springtime” appeared the The Art of Living, Chattanooga, Tennessee.
“Moccasin Bend Part I: Key to the Past” and “Moccasin Bend Part II:” Preserving the Resource” appeared in Envirolink magazine, Chattanooga, Tennessee.
“A Tale of Two Landscapes” appeared in The Chattanooga Chat, newsletter of the Chattanooga Chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society.
“Annual Assateague Pony Roundup” appeared in Cappers.
“Tennessee’s Ocoee River,” “The Little River Canyon,” and “Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge” appeared in Photo Traveler, San Francisco.
“Making Friends with and Opossum” and “Owl Aboard” appeared in Franklinia, Southeast region newsletter of the National Association for Interpretation. Franklinia was named for a rare tree discovered by Bartram and named for Benjamin Franklin. The newsletter has since been renamed Southern Exposure.
Several short pieces in Nature Notes, the Newsletter of the Chattanooga Nature Center, since renamed Native Ground.
“Dinosaurs Come to Chattanooga,” and several other feature pieces appeared in Legacy, the Journal of Interpretation, a publication for park rangers and nature interpreters.
Ray Zimmerman is the Executive Editor of Southern Light: Twelve Contemporary Southern Poets, an eclectic anthology that celebrates both regional traditions and life in the New South. He is a former president of the Chattanooga Writers Guild and won Second Place in the 2007 Poetry Contest of the Tennessee Writers Alliance. Ten days after undergoing coronary bypass surgery, he read his winning poem, “Glen Falls Trail,” at the awards ceremony of the Southern Festival of Books at Legislative Plaza, Nashville, Tennessee. Jeff Biggers, Associate Editor of the Bloomsbury Review, favorably reviewed Ray’s Chapbook, Searching for Cranes, in his end of year roundup article. Biggers referred to Ray as a “southern Edward Abbey or Terry Tempest Williams.” Ray was the subject of a feature article in the September, 2008 issue of Blush magazine.
Published Poems
“Sign” appeared in TPQ Online
“Glen Falls Trail” appeared in www.vinestreetpress.com subsequently in Presenting the Beatniks
“Cranes” appeared in the Chattanooga Chat, newsletter of Tennessee Ornithological Society – Chattanooga Chapter
“Reincarnation” appeared in the Earth First! Journal
“No Hair,” Moonscape,” and “Dog Star – Isis” appeared in Presenting the Beatniks
“Moonscape” was part of a collection the Create Here gallery in Chattanooga, Tennessee published on their windows to celebrate local poets
“No Hair” and “Sign” appeared in the DVD The Beatniks are Back, read by the author and accompanied by The Drum Circle. The Contrapasso interpretive dance troop performed a dance during the performance of “Sign”
Photography
Ray's photography has appeared in Tennessee Conservationist and the Photographic Society of America Journal. He has shown his work at the Creative Arts Guild (Dalton, Georgia) and in local galleries and shows in Chattanooga. He is a former Board Member of the Photographic Society of Chattanooga.
Published Prose
“Nature’s Bookshelf” was a column in the Bimonthly publication Hellbender Press, Knoxville, Tennessee. Each installment was a profile of a nature or environmental author.
“March 1: A Walk on the Levee,” and “The Levee Revisited” appeared in Hellbender Press, Knoxville, Tennessee.
“The Owl and I,” “Journey to Springtime,” “The Little River Canyon: A New National Park,” and “Owls of Springtime” appeared the The Art of Living, Chattanooga, Tennessee.
“Moccasin Bend Part I: Key to the Past” and “Moccasin Bend Part II:” Preserving the Resource” appeared in Envirolink magazine, Chattanooga, Tennessee.
“A Tale of Two Landscapes” appeared in The Chattanooga Chat, newsletter of the Chattanooga Chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society.
“Annual Assateague Pony Roundup” appeared in Cappers.
“Tennessee’s Ocoee River,” “The Little River Canyon,” and “Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge” appeared in Photo Traveler, San Francisco.
“Making Friends with and Opossum” and “Owl Aboard” appeared in Franklinia, Southeast region newsletter of the National Association for Interpretation. Franklinia was named for a rare tree discovered by Bartram and named for Benjamin Franklin. The newsletter has since been renamed Southern Exposure.
Several short pieces in Nature Notes, the Newsletter of the Chattanooga Nature Center, since renamed Native Ground.
“Dinosaurs Come to Chattanooga,” and several other feature pieces appeared in Legacy, the Journal of Interpretation, a publication for park rangers and nature interpreters.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Fire Poems
A more recent review
Fire Poems. opens with the author awakened from a pleasant dream to a crashing burning home, from which he and his wife escape through a window. The glass has melted and cracked away to create the portal for their getaway and rebirth. The cleansing fire burns away a dead starling trapped in a window screen. Through the entire book, the beat of Finn's Djembe drum resonates, the goat skin head cracked and burned away, the hollow body shooting flame. Perhaps the most poignant of all images appears in the short poem “Silence of Ashes,” in which a Plum Wood Flute, now gone, was once a blossoming twig, once a source of music and joy. A copy of his previous book, “Rites of the Earth,” escapes with charred pages. From these bits and pieces they reconstruct their lives. Fire Poems is a must read for all who have survived tragedy, and for those yet to do so.
Fire Poems. opens with the author awakened from a pleasant dream to a crashing burning home, from which he and his wife escape through a window. The glass has melted and cracked away to create the portal for their getaway and rebirth. The cleansing fire burns away a dead starling trapped in a window screen. Through the entire book, the beat of Finn's Djembe drum resonates, the goat skin head cracked and burned away, the hollow body shooting flame. Perhaps the most poignant of all images appears in the short poem “Silence of Ashes,” in which a Plum Wood Flute, now gone, was once a blossoming twig, once a source of music and joy. A copy of his previous book, “Rites of the Earth,” escapes with charred pages. From these bits and pieces they reconstruct their lives. Fire Poems is a must read for all who have survived tragedy, and for those yet to do so.
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