This month at Coffee With the Poets in Hayesville, NC at Phillips and Lloyd bookstore, we had a good turnout of poets and friends of poets. Featured was Netwest member, Clarence Newton. Clarence is one of the most loved members by our local writers.
Mary Mike Keller introduced Clarence who was warmly and enthusiastically welcomed. Mary Mike schedules the readers each month. Maren Mitchell brought a friend, John Knight, whom she met because they both had poems published in the Journal Of Kentucky Studies. John lives in Louisana now, but he attended Young Harris College, in Young Harris Georgia.
Another guest today was Anthony Roberts, a former construction worker, now Christian poet. Which proves again that poetry speaks to all of us in certain ways. Anthony said he didn't know many construction workers who wrote poetry.
The poets welcomed back Estelle Rice who is working on her second chapbook. Nancy Simpson, the editor of the new anthology, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, Stories, Essays and Poems by writers living in and inspired by the Southern Appalachian Mountains, was present today and was congratulated on the acceptance of her full length collection of poems, Living Above the Frostline to be published by Carolina Wren Press.
We have all been extremely pleased at the way Coffee with the Poets has progressed over the years since 2007 when we first began. CWP meets each month on the second Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. Although sponsored by NCWN West, all poets in the community are invited to bring something to read at open mic.
The friendliness of the group makes newcomers feel right at home and at ease as they share their work. Many times poets come to read for the first time before a group. They comment on how comfortable they feel because they are made welcome.
We hope to see Netwest sponsored readings for poetry and prose throughout the region where our eighty plus members reside.
I hope to get to one of these this year! They are wonderful!
ReplyDelete