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SPARE MULE ONLINE                    April 1, 2009  

   
    SPARE MULE ONLINE
is a publication of Missouri
    State Poetry Society, which is a federation of local
    chapters of poets as well as some poet members-at-
    large who join the state organization directly. The state
    society is, in turn, part of the National Federation of
    Poetry Societies. The purposes of the group are to
    stimulate the appreciation of poets and poetry, to
    provide opportunities for the study of and practice
    in writing and reading poetry, and to unite poets in
    bonds of fellowship and understanding.

 
 

WELCOME TO THESE NEW MEMBERS OF MISSOURI STATE POETRY SOCIETY:

Ed Becker (Write Place), Anne Mallinson (Write Place), Annette Rey (On the Edge), Edwin Rice (Write Place), and Tom Snyder (Write Place).   All of these poets are renewing their memberships.  We are happy to have them back.


GRIST 2009 IS OUR NEXT STATE ACTIVITY:

Every member of MSPS has a page in the state anthology to showcase his or her poetry.  E-mail or send by US postal service a poem of no more than 37 lines that has not appeared in a previous GRIST.  Send your poem to Dawn Harmon at myshoesaretootight@hotmail.com  or if you don't have e-mail, send it to Dawn Harmon at 403 Magnolia Street, Cuba, MO 65453May 1 is the deadline for submitting a poem, but please send them earlier so the project can be completed comfortably.   To purchase a copy of GRIST, send a check made payable to MSPS for $8.75 to Bill Lower 21010 S. Highway 245, Fair Play, MO 65649.

FROM YOUR PRESIDENT:

I apologize to all our members for the lateness of the January hard copy issue of Spare Mule. We did have it ready on time but always hold the copies until we receive Strophes from National. We then mail the two issues together, saving a considerable amount in postage costs. Unfortunately, Strophes was received quite late, which made the mailing late, which meant that you received your issues after the deadlines for contests included in the issues. Maybe you can use “frustration” as the theme for a new poem! We are going to address this problem at our board meeting in May. If you have suggestions on this topic, or any others, please let your Chapter representative know, or contact me.

Remember that April is National Poetry Month. What is your chapter doing to promote and publicize poetry? I can brag that Lebanon Poets’ Society, along with Ozark Penmasters Guild, will host our 11th annual Nightingale Poetry Reading at the library on April 16. In conjunction with the reading, we will also honor the winners of our 3rd annual poetry contest for 7th graders. Get them involved when they’re young!

The Lucidity Retreat is March 31 to April 2 in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. If you haven’t attended this, think about going next year. It is a great opportunity to stretch your creativity in workshops, and network with other poets.

The deadline to submit poems for Grist, our annual anthology, is May 1. All members are encouraged to participate, and you are not required to purchase a copy to have your poem included.

The deadline for our summer contest is September 1. Be sure to submit entries. I recently won first place in the free verse category of a contest (bragging again!) This was my first first and I can’t tell you how exciting that was for me. You can’t win if you don’t enter!

Our 11th Annual State Convention will be September 25-26 in Kansas City. We are honored to have Ted Kooser, 2004-2006 US Poet Laureate, read his poetry on Friday evening, and Walter Bargen, Missouri Poet Laureate, will do a workshop on Saturday morning and read that afternoon. Add read-arounds by those attending and we have an outstanding convention planned! You won’t want to miss it.

Reminder to the Board members and Chapter representatives, we will have our meeting in Rolla on May 9. Please plan to attend.

Remember that we are looking for a state publicity chair. If you are interested in the position, please contact me.  Thank you for the privilege of serving as your president. Never hesitate to contact me with ideas or suggestions for our state society,
velpoet@yahoo.com, 417-532-4847. --- Velvet Fackeldey

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OTHER STATE ACTIVITIES:
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2009 MSPS CONVENTION UPDATE:  September 25-26

Here is some information about this year's convention. We are still in the planning phases, so this is all we really know right now. I will send you more information as it is planned.  This year's convention will take place at the Plaza Branch of the Kansas City Public Library. The address is 4801 Main Street Kansas City, MO 64112. There is free covered parking and multiple hotels in the area. More hotel information will be provided. --Missi Rasmussen, president of KC Metropolitan Verse

APRIL IS NATIONAL POETRY MONTH

The Poets and Friends chapter of Springfield invites everyone to join them in celebrating national poetry month at the poetry in the park meeting on April 26 from 1-5 pm.  Call David Thomas at 417-883-3884 for more information.

WINNERS' LIST FOR OUR WINTER CONTEST 2009

Category #1 Rhymed or Blank Verse--Judge: Tom Padgett, Bolivar, MO--48 Entries

1st  “Youth Lost”
2nd “Morning Sparrows”
3rd “Winter--Without/Within”
1HM “Also Ran”
2HM “But . . .”
3HM "Baja Sonnet Assignment"

Robert T. Chrisman
Kolette Montague
Joan Barber
Jim Barton
Robert T. Chrisman
Theda Bassett

Kansas City, MO
Centerville, UT
Fayetteville, AR
Huttig, AR
Kansas City, MO
Salt Lake City, UT

Member-at-Large
Non-Member
Non-Member
Non-Member
Member-at-Large
Non-Member

Category #2 Free Verse—Judge: Mark Tappmeyer, Bolivar, MO --74 Entries

1st “Wyeth's 'Groundhog Day'”
2nd “One Venetian Blind”
3rd “No Refuge”
1HM “Chinese New Year”
2HM “Metaphor”
3HM “True Love Trilogy”

Kolette Montague
Carol Carpenter
Robert T. Chrisman
Jim Barton

Jerri Hardesty      
Sharon S. Gibson

Centerville, UT
Livonia, MI
Kansas City, MO
Huttig, AR
Brierfield, AL
Kansas City, MO

Non-Member
Non-Member
Member-at-Large
Non-Member
Non-Member
Non-Member

Category #3 Humorous Verse—Judge: James Patrick Wissman, Bolivar, MO—42 Entries

1st  “Phan-tom-cat”
2nd “It Needles 'em”
3rd “Fat Black Cat”
1HM “Mister All”
2HM“Always Thrifty--Almost”
3HM “Full Moon Court”

Helen Goeneveld
Kolette Montague
Jerri Hardesty
Faye Adams
Annetta Beauchamp
Jim Barton

Marshalltown, IA
Centerville, UT
Brierfield, AL
De Soto, MO   
Helena, AR
Huttig, AR

Non-Member
Non-Member
Non-Member
On the Edge, 37 Cents
Non-Member
Non-Member

Category #4 Winter Verse—Judge: Dan Adkison, Bolivar,  MO--41 Entries

1st “White-Out”
2nd "Ice Storm Icons”
3rd “No Refuge”
1HM “Under His Skis”
2HM “Moon of Hard Times”
3HM “Standing on My Back Porch”

Faye Adams
Joan Barber
Robert T. Chrisman
Pat King
Stephen Manning
Michael Bourgo

De Soto, MO
Fayetteville, AR
Kansas City, MO
Albia, IA
Hot Springs, AR
Cedar Rapids, IA
 

On the Edge, 37 Cents
Non-Member
Member-at-Large
Non-Member
Non-Member
Non-Member

Category #5 Poet’s Choice Verse—Judge: Curtis Goss, Bolivar, MO—55 Entries

1st  “To a Fallen Sparrow”
2nd  “Yesterday”
3rd   “Lady's Man”
1HM “Engaging”
2HM “Abandoned Outhouse”
3HM “Calliope Conscious”

Robert T. Chrisman
Faye Williams Jones
Carol Carpenter
Nancy M.  LaChance
Von S. Bourland
Theda Bassett

Kansas City, MO
N. Little Rock, AR
Livonia, MI
Lebanon, MO
Happy, TX
Salt Lake City, UT

Member-at-Large
Member-at-Large
Non-Member
Lebanon Poets
Member-at-Large
Non-Member

 YOUTH DIVISION OF MSPS WINTER CONTEST:

  
   GRADE 9-12 DIVISION WINNERS' LIST:

   1st: Playtime with Madeline by Melissa Wilkinson
   Grade 9  Ladue Horton Watkins High School
   St. Louis, MO      Teacher: Kim Gutchewsky

   2nd: All the World by Sami Gross 
   Grade 12   Cape Central High School
   Cape Girardeau, MO    Teacher: Abigail Beckwith

   3rd: Unfree by Bethany Olson
   G
rade 12  Cape Central High School
   Cape Girardeau, MO    Teacher: Abigail Beckwith

   Honorable Mentions are listed in alphabetical order       
   by poets' last names:

   All through the Changes
 by Rachel Berry 
   Grade 12  Cape Central High School
   Cape Girardeau, MO    Teacher: Abigail Beckwith

   The Wayfarer by Bradly Brackenbury 
   Grade 10  Fort Osage High School
   Independence, MO    Teacher: Mr. Stockwell

   A Starry Night by Molly Broughton 
   Grade 12  Cape Central High School
   Cape Girardeau, MO     Teacher: Abigail Beckwith

   Cycle of Falling by Ariel Fredrickson 
   Grade 12  Adrian R-III High School
   Adrian, MO       Teacher: Matt Sears

   Dare by Chelsea Griffin 
   Grade 9  Centralia High School 
   Centralia, MO     Teacher: Linda Schafer

   Let Us Arise by Brittany Moreland, 
   Grade 12   Cape Central High School
   Cape Girardeau, MO    Teacher: Abigail Beckwith

   Into a Target by Paige Shipley
   Grade 11   Adrian R-III High School
   Adrian, MO    Teacher: Matt Sears     

 

 
GRADE 6-8 DIVISION WINNERS' LIST:

 1st: Books by Dominic Bergfield 
 Grade 6  Macon R-I Middle School
 Macon, MO    Teacher: Marcie Johnson

 2nd: Africa by Meg Britton-Mehlisch
 Grade 7  Summit Lakes Middle School
 Lees Summit, MO    Teacher: Dawn Struttmann

 3rd: What is English? by Atreyo Ghosh 
 Grade 8   Jefferson Junior High School
 Columbia,  MO    Teacher: Mrs. Donoho

 Honorable Mentions are listed in alphabetical order
 by poets' last names:

 Youth by Matthew Alvey 
 Grade 6  South Valley Middle School    
 Liberty, MO      Teacher: Debra Slaughter

 Snowflakes by Hannah Crook
 Grade 6   Study Middle School
 Springfield, MO       Teacher: Janet Gagnon

 As Sad as I Can Make It  by Samantha Ding 
 Grade 7  Smithton Middle School
 Columbia, MO     Teacher: Lesley McCarty

 Winter by Riley Dunn 
 Grade 8  Our Lady of the Presentation School
 Lees Summit, MO      Teacher: Mrs. Fletcher

 Spring is Coming By Taylor Richmond 
 Grade 7 Our Lady of Presentation School
 Lees Summit, MO    Teacher: Mrs. Fletcher

 Believe by Dayne Shrum 
 Grade 6   Macon R-I Middle School
 Macon, MO   Teacher: Marcie Johnson

 A Light of Hope by Alli Strain
 Grade 7   Reed Middle School
 Springfield, MO     Teacher: Dana Powers
 

COMMENT ON WINNERS' LIST:

We encourage all of our MSPS members to enter the summer contest.  You can find the guidelines listed below.  Meanwhile, congratulations to these winter contest winners, who include a member-at-large, Robert T. Chrisman, who broke our record for the most poems out of our 30 winners with 5 winning entries. 

Also we are thankful for yhe work of Bill Lower, director of the adult division, and Judy Young, director of the youth division, of the winter contest.  Judges for the adult contest were members of the Second Tuesday chapter.  Thank you, judges. Billy Adams of the On the Edge chapter will direct the summer contest again this year.
 

TIME TO PAY DUES FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T ALREADY PAID!

Chapter Treasurers: please send payment and list of members, including $7 and mailing address for each, to State Treasurer Bill Lower, 21010 S. Hwy 245, Fair Play, MO 65649.

Members-at-Large, those not a member of a local chapter, pay $13 per year and payment should be sent directly to Bill Lower at the above address.

Please make all checks payable to MSPS.

Remember that, as a member of MSPS, you are also a member of the national federation, and receive a quarterly newsletter from both: Spare Mule from MSPS and Strophes from NFSPS.

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HELP NEEDED ON E-MAIL ADDRESSES We are updating our e-mail mailing list. Several members have never sent us their e-mail addresses, and others also have recently changed addresses. Please help us by sending your e-mail address. Send to tpadgett1@windstream.net. Thanks.

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 A FOND FAREWELL TO  WANDA SUE PARROTT

WANDA SUE PARROTT, a long time member of Poets and Friends and MSPS, and the force behind Angels with Wings, Senior Poet Laureate, the Amy Kitchener Foundation, and other creative organizations is leaving the Ozarks and returning to her old stomping grounds and friends in Southern California.  Wanda has indicated that she will be leaving within the next two months but does not know the exact date yet.  She will be greatly missed, but no doubt, she will be taking a good part of the Ozarks with her.


MSPS SUMMER 2009 CONTEST:


Here are the guidelines for the MSPS Summer 2009 Contest:

 Deadline: Postmarked September 1, 2009

 Format: Submit two copies of each entry, category number and name in upper left-hand corner of both copies, poet's name and address in upper right-hand corner of one copy.   If you are a member, put "Missouri State Poetry Society" below your address.  Put "Non-Member" if you are not.

 Limits: Poems may be 40 or fewer lines.  They may be unpublished or previously published if the poet retains the rights to the poem.  Poets may enter each category as many times as they wish.  No poems will be returned. 

Categories:

 1. Rhymed verse or blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter) any subject, serious or humorous
 
 2. Free verse, any subject, serious or humorous

 3. Humorous verse, any subject

 4. Any form, summer subject, serious or humorous

 5. Poet's choice: any form (including open-field, shaped, or concrete poetry), any subject, serious or humorous

Fees:

  • Non-members pay $1.00 per entry.  Members pay $1.00 for two entries.  Make money order or check payable to MSPS and mail to Billy Adams, 12600 McKinstry Road, DeSoto, MO 63020.  Include an SASE or your e-mail address on a 3x5 index card if you want a list of the winners.

Prizes:

  • $25, $15, $10, and three honorable mentions in each category. 

Membership

  •  If you do not belong to one of our local chapters but wish to join Missouri State Poetry Society, pay the $13 annual member-at-large fee and enter the contests by paying a member's reduced contest fees. See Membership Application on the menu on our webpage at www.nfsps.com/mo


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POEMS BY MSPS MEMBERS

2009 HAS A BLUE MOON
[THE ALMANAC SAYS SO]
Tania Gray
Thirty-Seven Cents

Each full moon has its own assigned name;
some make sense, others are quaint or lame.
Old Farmers knows what I now proclaim:
December--full moons two!
They’re “Cold” and “Long Nights.” There’s a nickname--
second full moons are “Blue.”
 

ENZYME SLEEP
Harding Stedler
Thirty-Seven Cents

The roasted turkey
must have known I needed sleep.

So, after I had gnawed
convincingly on his leg,
he unleashed his enzymes,

and I could no longer stay awake.
I nearly sleepwalked,
could barely keep
my eyelids open.
Too tired to resist the sleep,
I crashed sideways on the bed
and in an instant
I was out.

Nearly two hours
of enzyme sleep
returned me to the waking world,
invigorated and alert
and forever grateful for a turkey.

MAGNOLIA TREES STILL BLOOM
Freeda Baker Nichols
Thirty-Seven Cents

The graying skies are dull as blotted ink,
The cellars dank and filled with spider webs
In Dixieland.  The peach trees bloom pale pink
Where Coats of Blue defeated Johnny Rebs.
When soldiers died in war’s red-spattered night,
Reluctant Rebels laid their weapons down.
Magnolia trees still bloom sweet-scented white
And Southern Belles still wed in satin gown.
The story Mitchell penned—the war its theme—
Gone with the Wind depicted spoiled coquette,
Who selfishly destroyed her treasured dream
And pouted then without her darling Rhett.
   The South, like Scarlett, never really died
   But kept its inner strength with stubborn pride.

 


HARBINGER
Bobbie Craig
On the Edge

March
winds stir
clouds, create
jigsaw puzzle
pieces, rearrange
tomorrow's weathercast.
Snowflake confetti shimmers
in the tentative sun, glistens
on delicate white crocuses next
to vivid daffodils announcing spring.


RIDING WITH GRANDPA
Joel Randall
Poets & Friends

"Grandpa, I want to go faster,”
I said when I was three.
Grandpa speeds up.  Later . . .
"Grandpa I want to go faster."
Grandpa sez: "We're going 60 mph.
How fast do you want to go?"
"Grandpa, how fast is a bat out of hell?"

 

BURIED TREASURE
Dewell H. Byrd
Thirty-Seven Cents

Sea shells in a rusty can
buried where my carrots grow.
Whose hole, whose secret cache
in the path of my straight row?

He slips away at end of day
lifts his prize to moonless sky,
polished pewter at slack tide,
swears in silence, swears to die,

never tell a single soul.
He draws a map with edges torn,
creased, burned, coffee stained,
salt sprayed, sweaty and worn.

Childhood dreams lift my spirit,
Carrot boy of long ago.
Now, where did I hide that map?
Crooked carrots in a crooked row.
 

TIDAL TABLES
Bill Lower

Second Tuesday


We were wined and dined
by Change, however vaguely defined.
To each his own, a hopeful vision
seen none too clearly through a rosy prism.
Expect big things, on a sea-change scale.
Lance that symbolic great white whale!
Sea for yourself, tides in and out.
Promises and waves slosh about.
Fluids, both, willing to conform
to any particular day's norm.
Hope's rough edges tossed and rolled
to mostly the same old same old.
 

A LION ON MAIN STREET
Tom Padgett
Second Tuesday

One time when I went to City Hall
to pay my water bill, I heard a voice
on short-wave radio report some trouble
with a dog awakened from its nap.

As savage as a lion, the dog that lay
in shade beneath a car refused to grant
the rightful owner, finished with her shopping,
admittance to the car to drive it home.

Then from the back room the city manager
advised the radio dispatcher:
"Call Becky at the bank.  That's old Sparky.
Her dog.  She'll go take care of him."

I paid my bill and walked out educated.
I'd learned a definition of small town.


NEBRASKA  COAL
Joel Randall
Poets & Friends


When my dad was a boy it was hard times and there were a lot of hobos riding the trains.  The trains would stop for water and be going real slow north of their house.  My dad and his brothers would go down and throw rocks at the hobos riding in the coal cars.  The hobos would throw coal back at them.  After the train was out of sight they would pick up the coal, take it home and put it in the stove to keep warm. One time they threw rocks at this great big black guy riding in the coal car and he picked up about a 100 lb. chunk of coal and just dropped it over the side, then stood there with a great big grin.  My dad and his brothers started picking up the coal right away instead of waiting till the train was out of sight.

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ANYONE INTERESTED in further information about MISSOURI STATE POETRY SOCIETY may contact PRESIDENT VELVET FACKELDEY AT 417-532-4847 OR velpoet@yahoo.com.
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EXTRA ITEMS:

SEARCH IS ON FOR 2009 SENIOR POET LAUREATE

Entries are now being received in the 17th annual National Senior Poets Laureate Poetry Competition for American poets age 50 and older.  State and regional senior poets laureate will be selected; laureate poems will advance to finals from which the National Senior Poet Laureate will be named.  This year's award is $500. Deadline is 6/30/09. Wanda Sue Parrott, SPL Contest co-founder, invites you to download rules from www.amykitchenerfdn.org or send your request with a #10 SASE to: Yvonne Nunn, SPL 2009, 9221 South State Highway 208, Hermleigh, TX 79526


2009 SOUTHERN ILLINOIS WRITERS GUILD CONTEST.

 Three categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry.  Prizes: $100 - 1st, $50 - 2nd, $25 - 3rd, in each category.  Entry fee: $5.  Deadline: May 1, 2009

 Complete info: <http://www.jalc.edu/activities/siwg/contest.html>.  Direct inquiries to Roger <Poppendrrock2k@yahoo.com>


AUTHOR DAY & BOOK FAIR  IN LEBANON JULY 10, 2009  12-5 PM


Authors are invited to bring their own books to autograph, show, and sell.  No charge, but reservations are required. Call 417-532-4212 or send email to Cathy Dame, Library Director, at cdame@lebanon-laclede.lib.mo.us by July 1st, 2009.  Indicate your genre: picture book, chapter book, YA, adult fiction (as appropriate for a public library), non-fiction, Christian theme, etc., the publisher, year of publication, and your personal contact information.

This book fair precedes the annual conference of the Southwest Missouri Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators; however, it is a library-sponsored event and not part of the SCBWI.  Bring your own change box, please, and receipt book.

The library is on Jefferson Street/Hwy 64, just off I-44.  For more information about the area, go to www.LebanonMissouri.com.  Just west of Lebanon is Bennett Spring State Park.  There are many fine restaurants, motels, a B&B, art galleries, and antique shops for those who come a day or two early, or stay a day or two after the author day/book fair event.  The library building also houses a Route 66 Museum and Maria’s Café.  ~ from Joyce Ragland, member: Ozark Pen Master's Guild.
    

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NATIONAL ITEMS:


2009 NFSPS CONVENTION TO BE IN DULUTH, MINNESOTA, JUNE 11-15.  SEE CURRENT STROPHES OR STROPHES ONLINE FOR DETAILS.
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EDITOR'S NOTE: Spare Mule is edited by Don DePriest and David Thomas, both of Springfield's Poets & Friends chapter.  Don is copy editor.  When emailing copy to him at mopoetry@mchsi.com, please place “For Spare Mule“on the subject line.  When using US Postal Service, address him at 1241 W. Vancouver Drive, Springfield, MO 65803.  Tom Padgett is the MSPS webmaster who posts the copy to this web site.

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Home | History | Bulletin Board | Articles of Incorporation | Members | Local Chapters | Members-at-LargeWinter Contest
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