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.

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 11^th annual Nightingale Poetry Reading at the library on April 16. In conjunction with the reading, we will also honor the winners of our 3^rd annual poetry contest for 7^th 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 11^th 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

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

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

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

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

 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    Grade 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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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.
 

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?"
 

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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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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