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Spring is BLOOMING!

4/7/2021

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Hello, friends!
This is Alys, your PSI Events & Programs Coordinator and amateur tech guru (as PSI President Deborah Petersen likes to call me!). As the grayed gloom of late Winter is replaced with the colors, scents, and sounds of Spring here in Indiana, we've been busy at PSI getting ready for our annual Spring Fling conference and of course celebrating National Poetry Month!
Part of my service to PSI includes updating the website and our public Facebook page with information about this year's Spring Fling and things like the conversational National Poetry Month Daily Prompts that Deborah's sharing with you. I hope you are enjoying the prompts, and I hope you'll attend our Spring Fling on 24 April via Zoom! It's going to so much fun! In the meantime, I hope you're enjoying the warmer weather as much as I am!
On a personal note, I also hope that President Biden's COVID-19 vaccination [program is going smoothly for you. I'm scheduled to receive my second vaccination shot this Friday, and I can't wait! With my pre-existing health conditions putting me at elevated risk for COVID-19, I've been isolated for over a year and it was really hard waiting for Indiana to open up vaccinations to my age group (Indiana's vaccination plan went by age not at-risk categories, and moved very slowly until just a few weeks ago). Having the full vaccine means that I'll be able to hug my loved ones for the first time in 404 days ~ my "Hug Day" is 24 April, our Spring Fling date! I hope all of you have your own long-awaited "Hug Day" coming soon, too!
As always, if you're not yet a PSI Member, please consider joining our fantastic group of poets! Information about membership can be found here: ​PSI Membership
Take care, keep wearing your mask, and write on!
​~ Alys
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"Joy" (11x24 acrylic on canvas) by Alys Caviness-Gober
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Premier Poet's Corner - Workshop: Writing in Adversity

10/26/2020

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Do hard times inspire us to write more, or dampen our creative spirit? In this workshop delivered at Poetry Society of Indiana's 2020 Online Fall Rendezvous, Premier Poet Sarah E. Morin hosts an honest conversation about how living in trying times impacts us as writers. Whatever our reaction is as artists, that’s perfectly normal! This workshop addresses:

1. Common responses we have as artists to adversity
2. How famous writers have responded to adversity
3. Tips for getting out of a creative slump.

Write on!
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Thoughts for Today (by Alys)

10/24/2020

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Hello, PSI Friends!
This is Alys ~ your newly appointed Events & Opportunities Coordinator and Webmaster!
My thoughts turn to cliches and maxims today: many hands make light work, jump in and get your feet wet, practice makes perfect, patience is a virtue, and tomorrow is another day!
Let me say thank you for allowing me to help out behind-the-scenes in this great organization. I'm excited to work with our newly elected Board ~ check 'em out on the Officers Page.
I hope to start creating some virtual opportunities for us during the pandemic ~ I'll also help behind-the-scenes with any in-person events. This is a good opportunity to divulge to you all that my pre-existing rare lung disease and chronic heart failure mean that I'm under several doctors' orders to not be out in public until I can get a highly effective (tested, proven, etc) vaccine for COVID-19. 
Until that happy day, I'll be focusing, as Events & Opportunities Coordinator, on some virtual events & opportunities, like Round Robin Open Mics via Zoom (perhaps once a month!) and hosting a special PSI interview series on @theroundtable, which is the podcast that Sarah E. and I host for our 501c3 nonprofit arts organization, Community • Education • Arts (CEArts).
As for my role as Webmaster, today's the first time I've logged in to the website to explore it ~ may I say that Sarah E. and Chuck have been doing a GREAT job, and I consider myself their "Assistant" until I can get as savvy with the website as are they!
Back to those cliches ~ many hands do indeed make light work, so please feel free to contact me or any of the Officers if any of you have ideas/want to help with our PSI Events & Opportunities (both in-person and virtual). And, patience is indeed a virtue, so please be patient with me as I learn the PSI ropes!
~ Alys
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Callout for Last Stanza Poetry Journal

8/2/2020

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Passing along a callout from Jenny Kalahar, who has helped lots of PSI poets publish their works:

Hello, poets!

I'm now accepting submissions to Issue #2 of 𝐿𝒶𝓈𝓉 𝒮𝓉𝒶𝓃𝓏𝒶 𝒫𝑜𝑒𝓉𝓇𝓎 𝒥𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓃𝒶𝓁. The theme will be "Side Notes." For each poem submitted (up to five), write at least a few sentences (up to 1,000 words per side note) about what inspired that poem. Your anecdote will be published with the accepted poem(s).

The deadline for Issue #2 is September 15th, 2020. Any theme, any form, any length. If accepted, I'll ask for a bio and author photo.


Submissions are welcome in a Word file or in the body of an email. Again, all proceeds will go toward purchasing copies for libraries.


This is an open call, so do feel free to pass along this invitation to other poets.


Send your writing to:
jennykalahar@att.net

Thank you!

Stay well, stay safe, and write on --
Jenny Kalahar
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Premier Poet's Corner

7/19/2020

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In today's Premier Poet's Corner, we highlight a past Premier Poet, Mary Couch.  Enjoy her beautiful piece. Copyright of the author, used with permission.
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etched within small leaf
living essence of oak tree
life is found in life

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John Hinton to Appear as Guest Poet - with Ebook Giveaway

4/18/2020

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Good news! PSI member John Hinton will be joining us as one of our featured poets at the Social Distancing Social on April 25! He'll be talking about his writing inspiration and newest release, Blackbird Songs, which came out this winter. Join us for a brief interview. (We'll have some prepared questions, and you can ask your own live.) Participants will have the chance to win an ebook - all you need to do is show up and comment! Sign up for the event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1871821312950293/.
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Seeking Your Poems for Round Robin

4/15/2020

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I want YOUR poems for our Robin Round April 25!

We're just 10 days away from the Social Distancing Social for Poets! (Sign up here - https://www.facebook.com/events/1871821312950293/)

I'm preparing materials for Poetry Society of Indiana's traditional Round Robin, but it will be slightly untraditional this year. I encourage any poet (PSI member or not) to send me a brief poem (3-16 lines is best, absolutely no more than 30) by April 22. You are welcome to send an image with it, but if you don't have one - no worries! I will find one for you. (I actually really love pairing your poems with images.) At the Social Distancing Social, I'll post your entries.

If interested, please send your short poem to me via Facebook messenger or email sarahemorin1836@gmail.com.

Side note, we may have Manningham winners attending, so keep your poems appropriate for the occasional middle-schooler.

The poems may be previously published.

You may submit as many poems as you like. If we run out of space I'll feature you in an upcoming Premier Poet's Corner and on the PSI website.

Can't wait to feature YOUR work!
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Collaborative Poem - Unmasked

4/15/2020

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Today we highlight a beautiful collaborative poem spearheaded by Jenny Kalahar. She writes:

"I asked poets far and wide to contribute to a chain poem, and here is the end result from myself and 18 creative friends (not necessarily in order): Alys Caviness-Gober, Mary Couch, Sarah E. Morin-Wilson, Shelly Gambino, Deborah Petersen, David Allen, Nancy Simmonds, Kathy Jo Carter, George Wylie, Dennis White, Tamara Horton Saylor, Harold Taylor, JL Kato, Michael Strosahl, Chuck Kellum, Spike Morin-Wilson, James Green, and Patrick Kalahar. I did a little editing to keep the flow and style, but not much. I hope you love this as much as I do! Thank you to all who participated! I'll be publishing this in the state poetry anthology this autumn."
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Books I’d always meant to read and finally did
Kind words I wanted to say came from my lips
Poems I thought about writing I sat to write at last
A painting I wanted to study, a leaf I wanted to press
Prayers once stuck in my throat were said
Fear pushed aside to find some hope, some peace
A song I used to sing haunts my frozen memory
And in the torrents of rainfall beyond my window
Run the blurred faces of loved ones far away.
I push aside my cobwebbed fears then remember
Cobwebs glisten like diamonds in sunlight after rain.
I see sunshine rise once more through oak trees
Stand on my porch, smell the sweet aftermath of a downpour
Discover daffodils have burst forth from nourished ground
Remember spring from my youth and know grandma’s words of wisdom:
“This too shall pass.”
And yet the passing is stretched out thin,
A membrane of too little patience over too much uncertainty.
My nerves pervious as a face mask
Handsewn from scraps of frayed restraint.
We fear to go outside
To be around the gatherings as we used to
Living essentially for the day.
Hope is strong; may it continue to stay
A serendipity, a grace,
A stepping aside to a new, yet familiar, path,
Allowed to dream, nestling to a body-mind-soul rejuvenation.
This quintessential rest
Prompting a fully hopeful and appreciative
Awakening, long, long overdue.
Emptiness overtakes us sometimes.
We write poems we can’t speak to the gathered crowd
Looking for signs of digging a new beat
Or a sublime inner rhyme.
No appreciative applause feeds our ears
So we pretend.
We step onto the back porch,
This year’s spring break destination.
We play salsa,
Our meetings and morning mass virtual,
Embracing our desire to release our nesting selves,
Crying, “Clean on, I say, clean on!”
The sunny day wears a friable tent of fear.
Pets look for quiet spaces to rest.
From the accelerated inhabitance pressure
We begin to see our home as … a home.
Shelter reimagined surfaces in our consciousness
But the haunting, echoing words of essential and non-essential
Wear thin my once leather-like skin of fragile ego.
I must and I will resist those whispers
And cling to my wavering yet intact hope
While trying to hold the world together—my part at least,
With a few words, a measure of grammar,
And an occasional metaphor that takes root and sprouts.
Words of this time hang as droplets
Between us until hope becomes viral as well.
Sequestered with my dog and cat and spouse,
The truths that I came in with I am sure
Will out pan this pandemic on our house.
The truths self-evident evince truth yet
God is not dead, and He does not forget.
We count the days and I count my blessings
As the counting of death mounts.
Unceasing, uneasing, fear-teasing,
While each of us wonders
Who might be counted next.
One day, perhaps not soon, or perhaps tomorrow
The ice of today’s strained requirements
Will melt away forever, and others’ tears
Will make the only circles in these now-still puddles,
Echoing through the water “I, too, shall pass,”
Ripples expanding into stillness and clear reflection.
Remembered, then forgotten--
Not even the ghost of memory,
Not even the last shiver of iceberg.
But I am being thin.
Breathe in, breathe out. And sing
While I can. Perhaps you will join in?
I’ll admit the darkness swirls my thoughts.
Creeping in with my welcome-home hugs,
Tearing into our homestead bliss.
I miss the good old days
Without counting six feet off,
Searching for smiles behind masks.
I meditate on the distant horizon
And listen for messages on the wind,
Doubting the present hours
And imagining a thousand years:
A hope for rebirth in a new Arcadia,
Earth restored—with the help of Man.
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Curtis L. Crisler to Make Special Appearance at Online Event - Giveaways!

3/28/2020

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I’m thrilled to announce that poet Curtis L. Crisler will make a special guest appearance at PSI’s online Facebook event: Social Distancing Social Media Social for Poets! This event will take place entirely on Facebook, April 25, 1:30-3p. Sign up here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1871821312950293/. Invite your friends!

As some of our PSI members may know, Curtis Crisler was lined up to be our featured speaker at Spring Fling. When we had to cancel our in-person event due to coronavirus concerns, I reached out to him to see if he would be willing to drop by our online event briefly to talk about his latest project. Not only did he say yes, he’s donating a signed copy of Indiana Nocturnes, his brand-new release! We’ll be giving away both a copy of Indiana Nocturnes and “This” Ameri-can-ah during our online event. (PSI members who attended the Spring Fling at Fox Island a few years ago, you will remember Curtis read selections from “This” Ameri-can-ah and was a hit. Thank you, Nancy Simmonds, for the donation of “This” Ameri-can-ah.)

All you have to do to enter the giveaway is show up to our online event on April 25 and participate in the comment section. Any US resident, PSI member or not, is eligible to win. You must be age 13 or older to enter. (Young poets, encourage your guardians to enter and share the book with you if they win!)

About Curtis L. Crisler:

Curtis L. Crisler was born and raised in Gary, Indiana. He received a BA in English, with a minor in Theatre, from Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW), and he received an MFA from Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

He has two poetry books out: Don’t Moan So Much (Stevie): A Poetry Musiquarium (Kattywompus Press) and “This” Ameri-can-ah (Cherry Castle Publishing). His recent poetry chapbook Black Achilles (Accents Publishing) was released in 2015. His previous books are Pulling Scabs (nominated for a Pushcart), Tough Boy Sonatas (YA), and Dreamist: a mixed-genre novel (YA). Other chapbooks are Wonderkind (nominated for a Pushcart), Soundtrack to Latchkey Boy, and Spill (which won the 2008 Keyhole Chapbook Award).

He is the recipient of a residency from the City of Asylum/Pittsburgh (COA/P), the recipient of fellowships from Cave Canem, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA), Soul Mountain, a guest resident at Hamline University, and a guest resident at Words on the Go (Indianapolis). Crisler received a Library Scholars Grant Award, Indiana Arts Commission Grants, Eric Hoffer Awards, the Sterling Plumpp First Voices Poetry Award, and he was nominated for the Eliot Rosewater Award and the Jessie Redmon Fauset Book Award. His poetry has been adapted to theatrical productions in New York and Chicago, and he has been published in a variety of magazines, journals, and anthologies. He edited the nonfiction book, Leaving Me Behind: Writing a new me, on the Summer Bridge experience at IPFW. He’s been a Contributing Poetry Editor for Aquarius Press, and one of the Poetry Editors for Human Equity through Art (HEArt). Crisler is an Associate Professor of English at IPFW.

​Visit him at http://www.poetcrisler.com/.

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Covid 19'll Get You - David Allen

3/27/2020

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COVID 19’ll GET YOU
By David Allen

In today's Premier Poet's Corner, we feature David Allen with an amusing take on the current quarantining. It's good to use a sense of humor to handle these stressful times!
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(With apologies to James Whitcomb Riley)
​

Little David Allen’s in his house to stay
An’ washes the pots and plates up, meditating on days
Of fear and quarantinin’, meanin’ don’t go out for a drink
“Keep a social distance,” is the order, makin’ one think
If the loneliness is worth it, if you can’t get or give a hug
AIl because we’ve been invaded by a new pandemic bug
Aw, livin’ in this new age just makes me want to shout
Covid 19’ll get you
     If you
          Don’t
               Watch
                    Out!

​
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