Two Poems by Salvatore Marici

Hope everyone is having a a great weekend.  Today we have two poems from Salvatore Marici of Port Byron, IL:



Continuous River Towns



Boats no longer stop
in the towns without stoplights
along the Great River Route
in the upper Mississippi River Valley.
Planners seek investors
who will renovate and erect
strive for a quaint ambience
to inject into the passersby
hope they become
money-spending tourists
or tax-paying residents
and to convince
the inhabitants to stay.


 
 
 
Port Byron IL and the Dead



White paint peels
on a wooden three story house
with a wrap around porch. In the corner
of the basement a negro man sits in dirt.
He waits for the station manager
to tell him tonight he hides under canvas in a wagon
while a conductor drives16 miles to the next depot,
one trip closer to the US / Canadian border.
Outside of the dwelling
on the stagecoach route
he hears the revs of combustion engines.


A quarter mile away on North Main Street
one-hundred plus years of
ice expansions, melted water contractions,
cracked mud and muck
pried stone foundations and brick-masonry.


Crews finalize the deterioration
and construct a strip mall.
Each unit has a front and back window wall
bicyclists look through see
recreational boats speed
and tugs push barges transporting coal or grain.


At suite 201,
customers open and close the door
of the pub and eatery, It’s on the River.
However, the electric car dealership
who parked their one car outside
and an investment company vacated.
In most cells wires dangle,
floors do not have cement
and ghost squatters coexist
with the passersby
and the commuting inhabitants.

 
 
BIO: Salvatore Marici poems have appeared in several magazines including Zygote in My Coffee, Slow Trains, Buffalo Carp, Oyster and Chocolate, and Off Channel. He placed in various poetry contests and has work forthcoming in the anthology More Sweet Lemons. He lives on the edge of urban sprawl in Rock Island County with his three cats, Moe, Curly, and Ruby Tuesday.

Poem by Mike Bayles: “Cloud-swept Skies”

Hello everyone!

Today we have a poem by Mike Bayles of Davenport, IA:

Cloud-swept Skies

Ragged clouds impose themselves
on skies overlooking the cities
nestled on the river's north bank,
lying under the edge of a weather front.

The span of an aging bridge
takes me higher
and into a spattering of rain,
while on my way home.

I wonder why rain would fall
on one city and pass another.
I wonder about hidden currents
inciting Midwest weather.

A cool breeze stirs skies
well past the peak of summer,
the hint of fortunes
for one and all along the river.


BIO:
Mike Bayles is a Midwest resident, who has written for most of his life. he became serious about writing after his father, Robert Bayles, died in 1993, to move on with his life. In writing, Mike celebrates some wonderful aspects of living. As a person who's faced losses, he uses writing to reclaim parts of his life to overcome the sense of loss and feel whole. He is excited about the creative process, and feels creation is life taken to its highest level.
His poetry and short stories are published in a number of literary magazines and anthologies. WVIK Public radio has also featured his writing.

Deadline Extended & COMPLICATED WETAHER

Greetings! Just a qucik note: the deadline for the Visible Cities Poetry Project has been extended to Sunday, October 18, 2009. There is a prompt, which you can find here, or if you just want to write something relating to place & identity, that's great as well, but please follow the submission guidelines. In other news, my first chapbook, COMPLICATED WEATHER, has just come out from Rocktown Press. You can purchase directly from this site (see the PayPal button on the right?) or you can get in touch with me & I can sell you a copy. They will be more widely available very soon, but wanted to make it available here at least. Most news about that very soon. Stayed tuned! New poems from area poets up this week. Thanks... RC

Poem by Connie Wilson

For the first poem to be posted on this blog, we have an excellent contribution (with photo) from award-winning local author Connie Wilson, "Please Do Not Feed the Waterfowl":

Please Do Not Feed the Waterfowl

Eight of them silhouetted against the paddlewheel steamboat...four boys, four girls.

They slouch there, ill-at-ease in their unaccustomed Prom finery.

The I-74 Bridge looms behind them in the distance.

One girl, chilled by the spring breeze, wears her date's jacket slung casually around her shoulders. She stares at the ground. Is she thinking about the night ahead? Is she thinking about the future, as she shivers, clutching her evening bag?

"Are we grown? Are we ready?"

The blond athletic-looking boy in the white Saturday Night Fever suit and white shoes wears a turquoise tie and matching handkerchief. He coordinates with his date's turquoise strapless formal.

Will they always be this in tune with each other, this harmonious? Are they a couple only for now, only for tonight, only at this moment in time?

He squints, staring at the camera.

"Are we grown? Are we ready? Are we having fun yet?"

What lies across that bridge....across the Mississippi River...across time?

What does the future hold when Prom night ends?

"Are we grown? Are we ready?"

In youth, the future stretches out forever, spins on like an endless ribbon, an eternity of time, an infinite river of days and nights and dances and dates. But this is Prom night, and the end of high school is near.

"Are we grown? Are we ready?"

The sign reads: "Please do not feed the waterfowl."

If only there were other signs. Signs to instruct. Signs to warn about the future...

For now, it is just: "Please do not feed the waterfowl."

Connie Wilson has written for many newspapers, including the Quad City Times and the Moline Dispatch, and has taught at many QC area colleges and universities. She has won several awards for her writing including 2008 Content Producer of the Year in January 2009 for her contributions to Associated Content. Her latest book, Ghostly Tales of Route 66, Volume II (Quixote Press) will be released September 24. She will be appearing at Barnes & Noble in Northpark Mall, Davenport, IA Oct. 17 or Oct. 24 (details forthcoming). You can visit her on the web here or here.

UPDATES

Call for Submissions Expanded!

So I have continued to get submissions here & there, but I am really hoping that we can generate lots of poems down the stretch for this project—as it is YOUR project, people of the QC—so I've decided to open up the submissions a bit more widely. There is a prompt, as I am sure you have seen (check older posts if not), but if you find the prompt confusing, confining or just lame, forget it. Just write SOMETHING! 3 poems or less, having something to do with place & identity (or not, I suppose), send them along. I'm hoping we can get this conversation rolling as we get deeper into the fall, which I find to be one of the best times to be living in this area: the smells, the colors, the shrinking days. Picking up an extra hour of sleep. Magical. Seriously though folks, I hope you'll all contribute something, even if writing &/or writing poems is not something you do regularly.

If you are worried about what a poem is, well, that's a long conversation. My best & most brief suggestion is to say that it has something to do with words & instinct. I suggest thinking about how place & identity are related, how they are related to you & to express your thoughts in words. They certainly need not rhyme, or be in a poetic form of some kind. It most certainly does not have to sound "poetic". It should, perhaps, feel true when you read it: true to an idea, an image, something less tangible perhaps.

What I would do is, well, what I did for the new material coming out in my chapbook: I thought about the place where I'm from, thought about my memories of specific places & specific people. I free associated from sort of general ideas or memories or images I got from reflecting back on who I am & where I'm from. I listened to where the words had the most appealing music to my ear, followed the images in a way I felt to be true to what I was trying to represent. Did I get it right? That's entirely up to you as readers, but I feel like I got close & I trust that feeling. Maybe that isn't as helpful as I want it to be, but I would end by saying that if you start writing & it doesn't sound like you &/or what you think a poem should like, you are probably on the right track.

One last thing: if you want to submit, want to get some feedback from me & do not want to be considered for publication, no worries. I am more than happy to read your work & will give it the same amount of attention regardless of your intentions for it. Okay? Now write something & send away!

Chapbook Update

Just a quick note to let everyone know that my chapbook, COMPLICATED WEATHER, will be available one week from today, Sept. 18. Some free copies will be available through the Davenport Public Library, who will be distributing a limited number of copies to the public for the book discussion I will be doing at the DPL Fairmount Branch on Thursday, Oct. 22 at 4 p.m. More info on when & where you can get your free copies WHILE SUPPLIES LAST! If you can't get a free one, fret not: copies will be available through my person & this website, at a very affordable price, very soon.

Visible Cities Shout-Out

The first piece of correspondence I have received about this project came from a Quad City native based in Seattle, artist Nancy Kiefer. I very much would like to include an excerpt from the very kind & supportive email she sent me regarding the project, I will wait until I have her permission. Suffice to say for the moment I am very moved by her remembrances of Rock Island (where she is form) & the QC in general, especially considering where she is living now. She & I have both appeared in the pages of the literary magazine Cranky, also based out of Seattle & she is extremely talented. Take a minute & check out some of her work here.

Thanks everyone! Write something— it does a body (& soul) good. More soon true believers…

Love & best,

RRC

September 3, 2009

Greetings to everyone! First off, I want to thank everyone who has submitted to the poetry project. You have until Oct. 1 to submit— & it's free, so please get on board! Check out the prompt below, get your poem on & send it my way!

Also, for those of you on Facebook, there's a Visible Cities Poetry Project group you can join, that will have updates and info on the residency. Here's the link. Join up! Bring friends! All are welcome…

So my chapbook, Complicated Weather, will be out very soon on Rocktown Press. Soon like within the next 7-10 days. Lots more info coming on that (including where to get free copies!). But before that gets out & before I start posting some of the work that's been submitted to me, I thought I would get the ball rolling by posting a "b-side" from my chapbook.

The following "letter" was written this summer & was intended to be in the chapbook; but on the last round of editing, I pulled it out. Partly because I wanted to post it here. So I hope you enjoy. Any questions or responses, positive or negative, are very much welcome & hey! Why not write your own "letter" to a place that means something to you & send it in for the poetry project? Just an idea…

One more thing: I've heard that finding Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, the book that is the big inspiration behind this entire project, is sadly hard to find around the Quad Cities. So, I have taken the liberty to include to a few links related to that book below. I cannot encourage you strongly enough to track down a copy of Invisible Cities & read it for yourself. It is truly a work of genius.

In any case, hope the info is helpful. Hope you enjoy the poem. Hope you are well. See you soon…

Love & best,

RC

 

INVISIBLE CITIES LINKS

-Invisible Cities at Wikipedia
-Invisible Cities at Amazon
-Invisible Cities at Google Books
-Invisible Cities Vladmaster set
-Invisible Cities post on MetaFilter with links
-Invisible Cities on Medha's Notes

 

 

Dear Quad Cities—

 

            So long I've been contemplating both of your best sides

& struggle to see my reflection in either. Now more than ever. Really,

it's the classic charms that keep me spinning my proverbial plates around

the corners of your four cities & two states. Just like the song "In a Mist"

sometimes the things closet to us are obscured, too distant to be touched.

You weaken the magnets holding me down with your sideways channel,

losing its chill as it pours southward w/ hearts & minds bought off. Suckers

for a melancholy song.

 

    Please bring back the Thunder,

 

                    Your Secret Admirer

The Visible Cities Poetry Project: Call for Submissions

Welcome to The Visible Cities!

This blog will be "homepage" of sorts for a poetry project/residency that will be happening in & around the Quad Cities throughout the fall of 2009. This project is meant to encourage people to look more closely at their surroundings, the places in their lives, and to consider how those places impact their personality, and vice versa, through the lens of poetry.

In addition to moderating this site & participating in the public events October 19-22, 2009, I am inviting people to submit their own work to be considered for publication on this site and to read at a public reading on Thursday evening, Oct. 22 (location TBD). The prompt & all the details for submitting are listed below. Please contact me with any questions. Thanks everyone! I'm looking forward to reading your work…

The Visible Cities Poetry Project: Call for Submissions

THE VISIBLE CITIES is a poetry project developed by Ryan Collins to coincide with a poetry residency he will have in the Quad City area October 19-22, 2009. The theme for this residency is: Looking at Place and Identity through Poetry: how do we shape the places around us, and how do those places shape us?

As part of this residency, Mr. Collins will be moderating a blog, called THE VISIBLE CITIES (www.visibleqc.blogspot.com), where he will post his own original content, links to poetry resources and information about local/regional arts and culture. Additionally, he will be posting poems submitted by local poets that best engage the theme as articulated in the submission guidelines.

Everyone who submits to THE VISIBLE CITES will receive a brief response to their work from Mr. Collins. The poets who most successfully engage the prompt will have their work posted on the blog. These poets will also have a biographical note posted with their poem(s), and will be invited to read their work at a public reading hosted by Mr. Collins on Thursday evening, October 22 at (location TBD).

Please read the prompt and follow the guidelines below to submit your work and be considered to read at THE VISIBLE CITIES community-wide poetry event:

PROMPT:

The idea for THE VISIBLE CITIES is a take on the book Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, in which the many cities of the Tartar Empire are described to emperor Kublai Khan by the explorer Marco Polo in the most spectacular detail. The chapters are arranged by the different modes by which these cities are described: Cities & Memory; Cities & Desire; Cities & Signs; Thin Cities; Trading Cities; Cities & Eyes; Cities & Names; Cities & the Dead; Cities & the Sky; Continuous Cities; Hidden Cities. For this project, please select one of these ways of looking at (or thinking of) the Quad Cities and its surrounding areas, your hometown or any other place that you feel has made an impact on your identity, and write a poem (or poems) from that perspective.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

-There is NO FEE for submitting to THE VISIBLE CITIES

-Please submit up to 3 original, unpublished poems (no more than 3 pages, please)

-Poets must reside in the following counties in Illinois and Iowa: Henry, Mercer and Rock Island (in IL) and Clinton, Muscatine and Scott (in IA)

-Submission period: August 1, 2009 to October 1, 2009; submissions received outside the submission period will be deleted without being opened

-There will be two categories of submissions: Youth (18 & under) and Adult (18 & over)

-Electronic submissions ONLY

-Email poems as either a single .doc or .rtf attachments

-In the subject line of the email, please include first and last name, date and the word "Submission" (ex. "John Smith, August 1, Submission")

-In the body of the email, please include the following information: Name, Address, Phone #, Email Address, Age, County of Residence and a brief note on your submission and how it relates to the prompt; you may also include a biographical note

-Responses to submitted poems will be sent via email; those poets whose work is selected to be published on the website will be notified on a rolling basis by email or phone throughout the submission period

-All selections for THE VISIBLE CITIES will be made by Ryan Collins

* Please e mail your submissions by October 1, 2009 to rcollins@midwestwritingcenter.org

The Visible Cities: Looking at Place & Identity through Poetry

The Visible Cities: Looking at Place & Identity through Poetry is community-wide poetry project happening during the fall 2009, featuring a residency by poet & Quad City-native Ryan Collins October 19-22.

Theme/Description

The great American poet Elizabeth Bishop in her poem "Questions of Travel" once asked, "Should we have stayed at home and thought of here?" While this is an important question of any journey taken, it begs us to ask others, such as:

-How well do I know the place I call "home"? -How does this place help define who I am? -How do I look at this place differently after I traveled or lived other places? -How have other places I've traveled or lived help to shape who I am and how I see the world?

The Visible Cities will be an exploration of questions such as these. It encourages everyone to examine the place where we are, places we have been and how place informs who we are, how we behave and how we live. It has been said that it's not the destination, but the journey that matters; but without destinations there are no journeys, and while it is great to be mindful when we move from place to place, it is equally, if not more, important to be mindful how we move within or around a place, and how that place and its contents move around us. Edgar Lee Masters once said, "…places do have an essence, everything has a noumena back of its appearance." The Visible Cities will encourage area residents to engage that "essence" in new ways.

By examining this place we call "home" (the Quad Cities & surrounding areas), its topography, history, structures and people, we not only come to know more about this place, but also about ourselves: what impact we have on this place and what impact it has on us. From a better understanding of place comes a greater appreciation of where, and who, we are, and the potential that comes out of our shared history.

Through poetry, Ryan Collins will engage the Quad Cities in a variety of events that will inspire people to more deeply consider the places around them, what those places mean to them and what they mean to those places. Through his own work and work by well-known poets and writers, he will help people to re-discover the place we call "home" in a new light, inform participants about these places we share and help people to express all the things home can mean to us all.